Beekeeping courses in Besançon, despite a gloomy season for honey harvests, due to rain

In the premises of the Doubs Beekeeping Union, around ten students buzz around Michel Mesnier, president of the Union and a beekeeper for many years. Objective of today’s practical lesson: learn how to extract honey, which is enclosed in the thousands of cells located in these frameswhich beekeepers collect inside their hives.You carefully remove the film of wax that the bees have deposited above the cells and like this, it will allow the honey to come out.“, explains Michel Mesnier.

It could not be easier : you must use a knife specially made for this purpose and gently peel off this film. “It’s fun to do and with practice, it gets easier and easier.“, smiles Eric. This retiree from Bison has long dreamed of being trained in beekeeping: “I have had two hives at home for about a month and a half and I wanted to train myself to make sure I handle my bees properly! We have the impression of feeling close to nature, there is this notion of sharing too, it’s very nice!“

From the hive to the pot

Once the cells are freed, the frames are placed in a special machine, a “centrifuge” explains Eric, who extracts the honey. The latter flows gently into a large bucket. It will then be necessary put it in jars and wait about ten days before being able to taste it. “These courses are really interesting, we learn a lot of things, also in terms of general knowledge.rejoices Pauline, for example on the role of bees, which are pollen-producing insects. Without them, we would not have fruits, vegetables, etc.!“

A bad season for beekeepers

But despite a very good start to the season for the region’s beekeepers, The rain of the last few months has greatly reduced the honey harvest in our region, because when it rains, the bees are forced to stay in the hives. and cannot go and gather nectar from the flowers, which are often flooded.We had hives where the bees had hardly made any honey for themselves and so we had to feed them by putting syrup in their hives.“, explains Michel Mesnier.

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The honey harvesting season only lasts a few months, usually from April to the end of June, so everything happens in a short space of time. The consequences are all the more important for professional beekeepers, who are worried about this low harvest. A recolt “divided by two for many honeys, or even by five or six for acacia honeydews“, analyzes David Dordor, beekeeper in the Dole sector (Jura) and president of the ADA BFC, the Association for the development of beekeeping in Burgundy-Franche-Comté. “For me, it will be fine, because I have been settled for fifteen years., but the big danger is for young beekeepers who have not been established for long and who have not had time to build up reserves. Some will not be able to keep up the pace, unfortunately.”

Hence the importance, for the beekeepers to whom Michel Mesnier teaches the discipline, of monitor the hives carefully at this time and check that the bees do not need to be fed. “We can see it clearly, with climate change, rains, storms but also droughts that are increasing, this is making our bees suffer. So we try to protect them as much as possible, because our ecosystem needs them, and we make sure that they can produce more next year.“