beekeeping in Italy


Since it's bee week I thought I'd tell you alittle about bee keeping in Italy.While we were at the Villa picking olives my manly man asked if they knew anyone who kept bees in the area. Low and behold there was a bee keeper right across the way. So, after dinner one night we walked  a mile or so to visit a local beekeeper.
Our welcome, were numerous, barking, growling, scary dogs. Mr. beekeeper came out and called them off and continued to show us his bee yard. I loved all his bright colorful hives.(manly man on the left, Mr. beekeeper, and Italian host from the Villa) They  talked along time and since I don't know Italian was totally left in the lurch. Manly Man is fluent in Italian so he was happy.
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Their hives are very different from ours but , we all agreed we like their openings better than ours.So, in Italy you have to register every single hive with the local ?  gov. officials? anyway someone. And then they provide a place where you can go and use their facilities to extract your honey. I thought that'd be nice instead of using my pantry! Mr. beekeeper told us they'd had a horrible drought the year before and he'd lost alot of his bees.
All in all it was very interesting and made manly man very happy.

Comments

  1. Very interesting! I bet you guys loved doing that.

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  2. The Italian hives look rather like our French ones. When the chestnuts are in flower (we are in an important chestnut producing area) the hives are brought in. Usually there are about a dozen or so within 200 yards of the house. Last year the bees came to drink at the small fish pond by our pool; there were THOUSANDS of them. Lady Magnon was rather worried on behalf of our small grandsons, but it all turned out OK. No-one stung! Chestnut honey is not to everyones taste; personally I rather like it.

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  3. Oh, I am so jealous! Whether of Linda or Cro Magnon I'm not sure. Hanging out with beekeepers in Italy sounds awesome. But if I was hanging out with beekeepers in France, I might have a nice pate as well! Fine, European tour it is!

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  4. Very neat! It's always interesting to see how people do things in other countries, especially things that you are intimately familiar with...

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