Explained by Quentin our beekeeper

“The bees woke up ahead of usual this year. With the warm days at the end of winter the queen had laid her eggs early. The year’s first young bees are born as worker bees that help the queen to raise the larvae. These are born at the beginning of April, and their predecessors turn to producing wax and gathering pollen. In spite of the cold spell that led us to protect the vines with our anti-frost candles, I decided to install honey supers (collectors) quite early – which was a risky challenge…

I don’t regret having done this, however, as a check on their work on 12 April showed that the first frames were already full of honey…they only needed another 15 days or so to complete the transformation of nectar into honey, evaporate the surplus humidity, and seal the cells.

I will wait a week after the rape flowers in the fields have faded and then monitor progress to harvest this spring honey before it crystallises. It is a honey rich in glucose that sets in only a few days so, just like for the harvesting of our grapes, time is of the essence!”