In Saône-et-Loire, beekeepers practice transhumance of hives to live off their honey

This year, it’s a disaster! Like many beekeepers, Sylvie Gendre and her husband Thierry have been hit hard by the bad weather conditions of spring 2024. Rain, storms, temperatures too low… The population of their hives has plummeted. The couple, who produce between 10 and 20 tons of honey each year, remain calm despite everything.

He still has some stock from the 2023 harvest, “a very good year”.

With only three hives at the start, the duo considered honey production too risky to earn an income from it. Caring for the bees, the vagaries of the weather: “I always told my husband that we would never make a career out of it,” remembers Sylvie. Fifteen years later, passion and life’s accidents overcame her reluctance. She, who had previously looked after her children, gradually became a professional beekeeper following a serious illness that forced her husband to give up his job as a lumberjack. “He taught me everything,” she smiles. The main technical challenge: producing queens, the bees that are the origin of every hive. The couple cross-breeds them to obtain the best possible foragers and then sell them to other beekeepers. “It’s one of the aspects of the job that most surprises visitors,” confides the producer, when they visit the farm during open days. People are surprised by the amount of work involved. We explain to them that the hives are monitored throughout the winter and that we have to help them make honey from March onwards.”

The beekeeper tries to receive visitors at least one day a month, during the summer months. “I like to share, to show people my job, and not just to sell my honey,” she insists. When work allows, she also organizes demonstrations for children from local leisure centers: “It’s incredible, how much they already know!”

Customer loyalty and proximity

All production is distributed through short circuits, on two nearby markets and in a producer shop. “We only sell to wholesalers in case of surplus,” emphasizes the producer. The main advantage of proximity: customers remain loyal – some have trusted them for more than ten years. These relationships allow for better sales of new products, such as this lavender honey made using hives sent to the South so that their Buckfast bees can forage there.

While half of Sylvie and Thierry Gendre’s livestock remains permanently in La Chapelle-au-Mans (Saône-et-Loire), the other half migrates in the spring to the Drôme, Ardèche, Jura or along the Loire, to take advantage of specific flowering periods. In addition to lavender, they offer fir and chestnut honeys that sell better than all-flower honeys. “It’s also a form of insurance, especially in poor years: we can hope to make up for poor production here by moving elsewhere,” explains Sylvie. In 2024, for example, the couple was unable to produce a single pot of fir honey. The rains washed away the aphids that usually eat the sap on the young shoots, excreting the honeydew that the bees then collect in turn.

A delicate balance for beekeepers

Despite some disappointments, the transhumance remains an opportunity for Sylvie to meet about ten farmers who agree to welcome the bees into their fields and forests. Over time, some have become friends, and do not hesitate to warn her in the event of damage after rain or storms. “They also warn me before treatments,” says the professional. When they spread pesticides on the rapeseed, we wait at least a week before installing the hives.

It took years to build these relationships of trust as well as the economic balance of the farm. “Beekeeping is a profession with too uncertain results. It is better to start small, with a few hives and few loans, without buying big equipment right away,” advises Sylvie. She regrets that around her, some young beekeepers have not been as careful. The poor harvest that is coming could force them to close their doors.