Beekeeping lesson with Roussos

Beekeeping lesson with Roussos with the Samaria Experience Roussos enjoyed having a beekeeping lesson in June with Kristin K Pedersen. It is a nice experience to share knowledge and love for the bees! Thank you so much for the nice fotos!

The bee colony from above. The location of the beehive is in the old village of Agia Roumeli, calmly situated between the mountains.

The bee colony

Roussos uses the smoker to calm the bees down. The smoke does not work as a sedative. Instead it signals to the bees that thereis fire somewhere so they are preoccupied with finding it instead of attacking.

Roussos can usually tell just from opening the beehive how the bees are doing. If they are healthy, active, how they are performing and if they need support.

Roussos is checking out the first honeycomb.

Bees buisily working along.

The queen bee. You can spot her from the colour on her back but a trained eye can find her from her bigger size and slightly different shape.

Roussos is checking out a new honeycomb.

The bees have started to build their wax hexagons on the new honeycomb.

The calm surrounding of Agia Roumeli.

And ofcourse…goats.

Nectar filled honey comb.

This is a nectar filled honey comb.

You also notice freshly woven shut bee cells.

Twenty one days later new born bees will be breaking out of them.

Recycling the beeswax 2015

Recycling the beeswax 2015 Stavros and Giannis are here seperating the old blackened and ofcourse empty honeycombs from their wooden panels and preparing them to be recycled. The honeycombs will be melted in a steampress and then collected. Roussos will go through this procedure two times in order for the wax to be filtered correctly. This way we will receive clear beeswax. We will then mold the beeswax into fresh wax sheets that will be inserted into the new pannels and serve as teh base or the new honeycombs. In sprin the bees will start building their new cells on top of these wax sheets and then later on fill them with honey.

Recycling the beeswax 2015

Recycling the beeswax 2015
Stavros and Giannis are here seperating the old blackened and ofcourse empty honeycombs from their wooden panels and preparing them to be recycled. The honeycombs will be melted in a steampress and then collected. Roussos will go through this procedure two times in order for the wax to be filtered correctly. This way we will receive clear beeswax. We will then mold the beeswax into fresh wax sheets that will be inserted into the new pannels and serve as the base or the new honeycombs. In sprin the bees will start building their new cells on top of these wax sheets and then later on fill them with honey.

The Programme – 4 days of discovery

 

The Samaria Experience is a very personal endeavour by our family to show you the life and the natural environment of one of the most remote and traditional regions of Crete. Passing through the gorge of Samaria on a day trip may be spectacular but being in a stream of tourists on a sightseeing walk will not give you any opportunity to learn and experience what life in such a place was – and to some extent still can be.

The compact 4 days programme that we offer can give you a taste of our life, an insight into our history and roots as well as an appreciation of the wilderness surrounding us.

If you are a keen photographer you will also have plenty of great opportunities to take photos.

Day 1

Morning – We will visit the old village of Agia Roumeli as well as a few local chapels. Then a walk up to the Turkish castle which sits on a ridge above Agia Roumeli will help give you a good idea of the settings of the place and why people have lived here for so long. It is also an occasion to explore the history of the place and maybe do a litle bit of herbs gathering

Afternoon – Traditional bread and paximadi baking in our wood oven. We will do this in time to be able to sample it with our dinner.

Day 2

Whole day – Your private visit of the gorge of Samaria is probably the highlight of this programme. We will leave very early in the morning and slowly make our way up through the narrow canyon-like section of the gorge up to the village of Samaria. It is unlikely that we will meet anyone on our way because the day trip walkers come from the top and even the fast ones won’t get as far down so quickly. It will also be a good time to show you some of the herbs (and in the spring time the flowers) that grow in the gorge.

Once we arrive in the village we will show you our ancestral home, the olive factory and will of course be able to tell you many stories about how life was for the people who lived here – one of the remotest places in Europe – until 50 years ago.

By that time the village will start to get a little busy with walkers who come here for a break before proceeding down to Agia Roumeli so we’ll find a nice quiet place a little away from the village to take a long lunch break, maybe take a little nap, keep an eye out for the shyCretan wild goat, do a little bit of bird watching, or simply enjoy being in wild nature. Eventually, by around 15.00 almost all the walkers will have passed through and we can return back to Agia Roumeli, again enjoying the peace of the place and the cool shade because the sun will now be hiding behing the tall cliffs of the gorge. We get back to Agia Roumeli in the evening, in time for a short refreshing swim in the sea before dinner.

Day 3

Morning – Cooking a local dish or two – an informal introduction to local cooking, the ways of cooking and the ingredients we use.

Afternoon – Roussos Viglis is also a beekeeper. This is something that he learned from his father and grandfather. Besides being work that provides an income it is also a passion and his bees, his ‘girls’ as he says, are very much part of his family. 
In the later part of the afternoon we will go and visit a few beehives for an introduction to Cretan beekeeping, an activity that is probably over 4000 years old on this island. The more questions you ask him about his bees the happier he will be.

Day 4

Morning – We will take a walk towards the East to visit the lower part of the little known gorge of Elygias which runs parallel to the gorge of Samaria. Here again you will find beautiful trees and undisturbed nature. It will also be a good occasion to collect some more wild herbs. This can be a short walk (a couple of hours) or quite a long one depending on your mood.

Afternoon – The afternoon will be free until the evening where we gather again for a barbecue on a local beach. We’ll look for a place that is a little away from any village lights so that we can have a good look at the fantastic night sky that can generally be seen from Agia Roumeli.