Beekeeping: for me, it's more than just honey
Everyone thinks beekeeping means making honey, and that’s usually true: 90% of Italian beekeepers make their living primarily from honey production.
For me, it’s not like that, and never has been.
Queens, nucs, and bee packages: a vocation of my company
Honey production is important, but it is not my primary focus. Much of my time and my hives are spent producing queens, nucs, and bee packages.
The choice of nomadism: getting there before the others
For me, nomadism means traveling to areas where I can guarantee organic production, offer many varieties of honey, and also support bee reproduction.
Even in the early 1990s, I realized that if I were to focus on queen production and bee reproduction, I would have to look for a place with a warm climate, even in winter. For this reason, for 25 years I’ve brought a good part of my hives to Sicily in the winter and, since 2014, to southern Sardinia.
In Sardinia, January, February, and March are months of abundant wildflowers, and the entire countryside is green and the bees begin to work.
In Lombardy, if all goes well, I can start producing queens on April 10th. In Villaputzu, I do the first larval graftings in mid-February, I have the first queen cells ready for birth by the end of February, and the first fertile queens by the end of the first week of March. This means offering beekeepers what they need for their business ahead of everyone else.
Also a “Master Beekeeper”: for passion and for association
There’s another activity to which I dedicate a lot of time: association work.
I served as president of Aapi – the Italian Professional Beekeepers Association – and of Apilombardia. I am also a permanent invited member of the board of directors of Unaapi – the National Union of Italian Beekeepers Associations – and I am currently a member of Aissa – the Italian Association for the Selection and Preservation of Apis mellifera.
I participate in many activities to spread beekeeping culture. And within the company, I organize courses for “Sorcerer’s Apprentices”: beekeepers who want to enter the business professionally, from whom I select the most motivated for internships.
Every year, at least three or four beekeepers work with me for the season: it’s incredibly hard work, and in return, they learn all the secrets of the trade from elementary school to university. And if I look around, I can’t even count the number of colleagues who now make a living from beekeeping and who began their experience here.