The Croix-Rousse educational farm located on the grounds of the Favre boarding school was awarded the gold medal for best Rhône honey in the Plaine-Claire category. An initiative from the Rhône beekeepers’ union…
L’beekeeper who installed two hives on the Croix-Rousse plateau, it is Alain Chevalier. He has good reason to show a broad smile, because, in addition, the harvest is abundant. 90 kg for two hives. over a season. But he also expresses serious concerns due to attacks by Asian hornet colonies.
We met Alain Chevalier near the apiary of the Red Cross. Listen to the podcast
Best Rhône honey
“At Croix-Rousse, we have a floral diversity incredible, fruit treeswe have acaciaswe have peanutsof the sofas japonica… This gives a very complex, very interesting honey…” explains thebeekeeper.
28 honeys in competition
The Rhône beekeeping union has been organizing for several years a concours each year in different categories. THE best Rhône honey. « A the Red Crosswe were in the light plains category. 28 honeys were presented in this category. And so, indeed, we were lucky to have a gold medal. This is the second year. So we are very happy Croix-Rousse farm. »
In terms of quantities, 90 kilos of Honey could be collected. “It’s quite exceptional. All the beekeepers would love to have that. Personally, I have ruchers who are not here and I have not produced as much honey at the hive. So here at the Red Crossin the middle of the city, it’s a paradox. In the countryside, we have a lot of difficulty doing Honey because there are still some problems linked to products used for agriculture. And in the city today, we don’t have that problem. But we have Asian hornets who arrive. This year, as soon as the harvest was done, in mid-July, I took the ruches in the Jura. Where I have a few fewer hornets. In any case less pressure than here…”
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Identify Asian hornet nests to destroy them
THE Asian hornets are a little smaller than the European hornet, a little less yellow, a little more orange. With a very black thorax, black head and yellow legs. They exercise a predation very important because they come to put themselves in hover in front of the hives. “They take the bees when they enter or leave the hive. And they then leave to feed their offspring with the proteins taken from the bee.”
Asian hornets
The means for fight the Asian hornet are multiple but are not always effective. “We are testing lots of means: the trappingalso the destruction of nests. The problem is to identify where the hornet’s nests ” explain Alain Chevalier.
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” THE beekeepers also chat a lot with hikers. Instead of walking with their eyes on the ground, if they look up in the air, they can sometimes spot a hornet’s nest and report it to us…So we have it destroyed. For the professional beekeepersthis is an important problem. There are beekeepersincluding in the Rhône, in the Loire, which have ceased their activity. At Rhône beekeeping unionwe have 80 people who come to train each year. We see that there is a significant turnover. There are 850 members. But every year, it’s about a hundredbeekeepers who stop and a hundred beekeepers who start again.”
The best Rhône honey is sold in 250 gram pots, 6 euros, at the Croix-Rousse farm, 51 rue Philippe de la Salle.
Also listen: Beekeepers worried but proud of their profession
Alain Chevalier
Pioneer of free radio, radio enthusiast, journalist and manager of eco-responsible media.
