As we drove through the village on the day of our arrival, now 12 days ago, we noticed large photographs of bees in the village. Yesterday, we found out that there is currently an exposition about bees and bee keeping here in the village. It’s an initiative of several partners, Véto-pharma amongst them, to educate the public. In order to engage people, there are 20 photo’s, taken by amateurs, printed large and spread all over the village. The public is asked to vote for their favourite.

We had a look at most of the pictures yesterday. It was so hot in the village that we nearly melted, so we had to find shelter from the sun before we had seen all the pictures. This morning, we visited the exposition, which has very limited opening hours. After all, this is a small village…

The exposition

First, we watch the movie, which is about 20 minutes. It’s very well done with lots of close ups of bees, and very informative. Then, we take a look at the indoor hive. We even locate the queen (who has a red dot on her back) and observe several bees performing the “waggle dance“. They do this to communicate to their sisters where there is a good source of nectar.

The two people present join us, and we ask them lots of questions. After some time, the woman has to leave, because she’s in charge of the museum at the other side of the road as well. The man stays with us, and we continue talking with him for another hour.

He’s had bees for two years now, but he is very well informed and passionate about it. It’s a pleasure talking to him. We both had a latent wish to one day keep bees, and decide there and then that we will, at some point in the future, learn how to keep bees and have some of our own.

As we leave the exposition two hours after entering it, our heads are literally buzzing with all the new information. The exposition is here until the 29th of September. So if you are interested, do pay it a visit. It is located across the road from the museum in Chaillac 36310.