At 80, he sells the production of his black bees on the largest market in Orne

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Georges Clarys is tall, elegant, alert. You could take him for one of those American comedians from the 1960s, a sort of James Stewart or Gary Cooper.

A man with a certain allure and great stature, a form of class and nonchalance.

For about ten years he has been coming to the market to sell his products in L'Aigle (Orne).

Now installed in the street René-Vivien next to his friend's stand, surrounded by clothes and bags, he has on a small stall selling honey.

“I was afraid of it as a child”

“I make two kinds of honey, spring honey and May honey,” explains the amateur beekeeper. He met bees when he was little, always.

“My parents owned beehives, a good fifty, oh yes, almost 70 I think.”

But bees don't attract him at all, because they… sting!

I was afraid of it as a child. I didn't go near it. I don't know what my parents did with honey, I wasn't interested, they probably sold it, I don't remember

Milk and cereals

His parents raised dairy cows, sheep, pigs Also. It's a real farm and Georges loves that. As an adult he became a farmer, he made milk and cereals, partly to feed his animals, partly to sell them.

The bees live their lives and he his. They don't meet.

One fine day, a good ten years ago, he had to dislodge a swarm that had just settled in a roost.

“I had to get it back, I had no choice.” He borrows a beekeeper's suit and a hive from a neighbor to hive up the clusters.

A swarm falling from the sky

He doesn't know it yet, but a new life is beginning. Soon he took pride in beekeeping.

It starts with this swarm falling from the sky and he multiplies his hives.

Like his parents, like many amateurs, he has black bees, local bees.

“They say they are more aggressive than others, those that professionals use and that come from abroad, but in fact, it depends, I'm not sure. It all depends on how you go about it and at what time of year and day” defends Mr. Apis mellifera mellifera.

The black pearl

The black bee, this black pearl, more rustic, robust and resistant than the Apis mellifera like the Buckfast bee for example, ensures more constant, more regular and varied pollination.

It benefits from a long lifespan and requires less maintenance than the bee designed by breeders in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France and elsewhere.

It resists diseases well and adapts to its biotope.

It is part of the Normandy landscape

But it produces less honey than the Buckfast, often called the bee of beekeepers, in other words professionals. Because to be a professional beekeeper, you must have at least 200 ruches.

And Georges only takes care of around fifteen.

In any case, he only sees through the black bee, the local bee, the one which must be protected and which has been a full part of the Normandy landscape for a very long time. His apiary does not move.

I can see my bees from home

Like everyone else, he fears thefts which are increasing, so knowing they are under his protection and control obviously reassures him.

“I can only collect two honeys”

Georges does not transhume his hives. He doesn't want to make exceptional honeys, just real, good honey from home, from the surrounding area.

You know, a bee flies and collects honey flowers 3km from her home, so at home, I can only collect two kinds of honey

The first, honey rapeseed, dandelion and apple treevery white and creamy as can be.

And the second, honey wildflowers, meadows, blackberries, chestnut, clover and a little bit d'acaciaa darker honey with always different shades each year depending on the flowers collected.

Six to seven artificial swarms

In any case, he exercises this hobby-work-passion for pleasure.

Every year, “I create six to seven artificial swarms to renew my livestock in case there are losses.

Of course, he makes sure feeding of his bees as soon as they are hungry.

He says he knows how to do it because he has always seen it done, without paying attention, but he adopted the familiar gestures without even noticing it.

The poppies and cornflowers are over

Even though he admits that “it is much more difficult now than in the past. Before there was nothing to do. But today we need to be much more involved and caring. The fields are no longer full of poppies and cornflowers like before”

In the past things went well, there were permanent meadows. Now bees are flying over wheat fields with nothing to eat in them, not a single wild flower

The citizen of Beaufai (Orne) is an active and courageous man, like his bees.

“In life, you have to keep busy and not sit around doing nothing.”

So at 80 years old, Georges Clarys still has a future and promises of spring and honey.

Not to mention that the market allows him to see the world, already from one. I live alone and isolated so bees are now my only animals.”

The market offers him the opportunity to offer vacationers and regular customers the benefits and flavors of real honey, 100% produced by bees.

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