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Talking about Honey
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

After our visit to the bee colony, we returned to the area around the beekeepers’ office to hear Madame Bonnet talk about honey.

In the photo above, Madame Bonnet is explaining how honey is extracted from the honeycombs. First the wax caps are cut off the comb to expose the honey (photo to the left of her hand). Then the combs are placed in a centrifuge (photo to which she is pointing). After the honey is extracted, the wax combs can be recuperated.

In general, bees forage within a radius of about 3 km from their hive. The bees from the Saint-Ouen apiary find the following flowers within their foraging range:

dahlia
cosmos
daisy
clover
lime
chestnut
wild rose
blackberry
rose
raspberry
gooseberry
squash
and other flowers…

When they land on a flower, bees use their proboscis to suck up the nectar. They carry it back to the hive and transfer it to other bees. This second group of bees deposits the nectar into the cells of the honeycomb. While the nectar is in their stomachs, proteins and enzymes convert it to honey. After the honey has been deposited in the cells, the bees fan it to evaporate the water, then cap the cells with wax. In short, the honey that we eat is flower nectar that honey bees have collected, regurgitated, and dehydrated.

Rucher de Saint-Ouen – Miel de Fleurs
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

I purchased a 500-gram jar of honey and took it back to our apartment to taste. It is quite fragrant and has a mild, distinctive flavor. Spread on toasted country bread or stirred into yoghurt, it adds a delicious, sweet dimension to our breakfast.

Special thanks go out to the Saint-Ouen tourist office for researching the names of the flowers in the vicinity of the apiary.

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Tom with Bee Hat
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

After Madame Bonnet’s presentation of the construction of an unoccupied bee hive, she took us over to the colony to see the bees at work. To prepare us, her assistants passed out bee bonnets to protect our faces. Madame Bonnet told us that bees are attracted to the breath as well as to perfume. I was glad that I hadn’t splashed on my morning after-shave.

Some of the visitors declined to don bonnets. Brave souls were they!

Observing the Hive
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

Madame Bonnet gave lots of fascinating information about bees. She talked about caste hierarchy in the hive. The queen bee spends her day laying eggs in the hexagonal cells of the combs that the worker bees have built. Worker bees—all female—buzz within the hive creating a draft that maintains a constant temperature in the brood chamber (around 35°C – 37°C). This permits the eggs to develop. The workers perform many other tasks, including gathering nectar and pollen.

Drone bees are male bees that develop from infertile eggs. Their main task is to mate with the queen, and they do little else. While this sounds like the good life for a male, there are two drawbacks. The first is that a successful coupling with the queen leads to the death of the drone. The second is that surviving drones are driven out of the hive and left to die at the end of the mating season. Nature can be cruel…sorry, fellows!

Tending the Hive
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

Madame Bonnet opened up one of the hives so that we could see the bees at work. A sheet of rigid, clear plastic prevented the bees from flying out and allowed us to peer in.

Beekeepers’ Office
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

After Madame Bonnet’s presentation, we walked back to the beekeepers’ office. A tent and a table had been set up nearby so that we could sample honey.

Tomorrow…a taste of honey!

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Displaying the Hive
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

Following her introductory remarks, Annie-Claude Bonnet took us over to an unoccupied bee hive that the association uses to demonstrate the art of beekeeping. The hive consists of one or more wooden boxes stacked on top of one another. Within each box are frames that hold the wax foundations upon which the bees build hexagonal wax cells. These cells eventually contain larvae and stores of honey and pollen.

In the photo above, Madame Bonnet is showing an empty frame that has wires strung across it. These wires support a sheet of beeswax that the beekeeper places there. The sheet has an imprinted hexagonal pattern that provides a foundation upon which honeycomb cells are built.

Sheet of Beeswax with Hexagonal Pattern
Photo by Waugsberg from Wikimedia Commons

When it is time to harvest the honey, the beekeeper withdraws the honey-laden frame from the hive, removes the wax covering that the bees have created to protect the honey-filled cells, and places the frame in a centrifuge. The centrifuge extracts the honey without damaging the comb. It can be reinserted into the hive.

The combs in which the bees store their honey are not the same combs in which they raise their larvae. Only the combs containing honey are removed. The beekeeper leaves the combs that contain larvae intact, thus preserving the life of the colony.

Tuesday…we visit an active bee hive.

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Rucher Audonien Pédagogique
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

On Friday, August 10, I joined a local group visiting an apiary in the nearby town of Saint-Ouen. The visit was organized by the Saint-Ouen tourist office and the Rucher Audonien Pédagogique, an association of bee lovers whose mission is to educate the general public about the world of bees. The apiary is located on an isolated plot of land next to a cemetery—an ideal place to raise bees.

Annie-Claude Bonnet
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

Annie-Claude Bonnet gave our group a presentation about bees and beekeeping. She knows a lot about bees and was happy to share her knowledge with us. She told us that the apiary has twelve bee hives that produced 450 kg of honey last year. She told us another thing about the harvesting of bee products that I had never considered before: the association does not harvest royal jelly or pollen, because that would be detrimental to the bee colony.

I also learned that the association is cognizant of the importance of this insect in the environment. Their maxim is “The bee protects the earth.”

Tomorrow…we take a look inside a bee hive.

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