Eugene and His Bees

One of the ingredients in our caramels is honey from Gentle Breeze Honey, small family owned company owned by Eugene and Donna Woller. Dhruba and I visited Eugene and his apiary last Monday, 9/3 to pick up more honey and meet the bees. The 1st time we bought 60 lbs of honey from Eugene at Dane County Farmer's market in Madison, WI (a great venue for anyone who wants to support local farmers and get delicious produce at decent prices). This time we decided to actually go and meet "worker bees" (literally) and chat with Eugene about his business.

First of all: Mt Horeb, WI is a gorgeous hidden Elven land, very Tolkien: hidden and green, just off the highway about 12 miles away from Madison, WI. Bees were the 1st to meet us by the barn next to Eugene's house, where the honey is extracted and processed. Then, Eugene came and gave us a small welcome gift: little watermelon (yum- yum!) from his garden. It was very clear right away that Eugene found his calling in beekeeping: as he had said " I would be happy to die one day right here by the bees". I liked him right away: his passion for his craft was truly contagious.

Eugene had told us about bees and their collective behavior; seems that one could model

organization behavior on the life of bees. Queen Bee is the CEO and the president of each comb or the colony. They lay eggs or supply the colony with new workers. Each queen bee lives about 3 years (compared with measly 3o days for a worker bee). The other kind of bee that can be found in the colony is a drone: his lone responsibility is to come and sort of " have sex" with the Queen Bee. Drones are blind have hairy legs. Once the drone ejaculates he either dies or is not allowed in the colony anymore and wonders around until he dies. Poor bastards.

Queen Bee lives the life of luxury and constant pampering: she gets all the bling and everyone is there to serve her, groom her. In return she lays eggs and that's about it. Once the eggs are laid, the whole army of "babysitters" make sure that the embryos develop and get nutrition they require. The turn semi-developed embryos on daily basis. Gene had pictures of this process, which reminded me a little bit of the Orc hatchery in the Lord of the Rings movie.

If one of the embryos is not developing properly, it is kicked out of the nursery immediately: the real estate there is precious and only the fittest ones are allowed to survive. How very Darwinian, I thought. Here are the pictures of colonies. Each little "drawer" is a colony and at the center of it is a little pampered miss Queen Bee

Early each morning a small party of bees goes on "reconnaissance mission" to find nectar. Then the rest follow and all day bees collect nectar and bring it back to the colony. The season typically starts around May and ends in October. During the winter, bees hibernate and are busy keeping Queen Bee happy and warm. Even in the dead of winter, the temperature inside the colony near the center is perfect 72F!
Eugene collects honey all season and depending on the month it has a different taste. The honey we bought tasted like the end of summer: rich, decadent and buttery. It works perfectly in our caramels and gives them brightness and extra melty texture.
Eugene and Donna (below) were the most gracious hosts and were feel honored to have met the bees and their keepers!

Gene, Donna and Das Caramelini!