Abeilles Martin - Beekeeping Company

Mart Peters, displays one on his many honey-bee "frames" from his beekeeping operation in Venlo, Netherlands.

The best part of my photography is showing real people, doing real work.

Local Venlo beekeeper Mart Peters, owner of Abeilles Martin, has been beekeeping for years and raises a variety of bees, including the European Black Bees. The Black Bees are heartier and more adaptable to the Netherlands’ colder climate.

“Our way of beekeeping is different from other countries. In northern Europe our production season runs from March to September; whereas, warmer countries can produce all year round,” Peters said. “I have more than 500,000 bees and by mid-July, they’ll increase to well over 1 million”. There’s a queen in every hive and he manages 30 hives, that average 8 frames per hive. “This year I’ll make more than 200 kilos; that’s about 400 jars of honey.”

Peters makes two kinds, regular gold-colored liquid honey and lighter-colored creamed honey, which is more crystalized and has a sweeter taste. He uses a honey refractometer to measure the moisture concentration (below 17% is best) to determine if the honey is ripe, if it’s ready for harvest, and it determines how long the honey can be stored on the shelf.

He says the biggest problem his bees face is they don’t get enough different kinds of pollen. Healthy bees need 17 kinds of pollen and because of pesticides and the lack of flowers, the bees are only getting 10-12 kinds of pollen. He said, “We can all help the bees by planting snowdrops, crocuses, ivy and clover. They really like those.”