This House is FULL of Honeybees - Travelling Europe in a Van

This is a bee house, home to 24 colonies of honey bees and in this video I'm going to meet up with a Swiss beekeeper who is going to show me the ways of beekeeping in Switzerland. I'm now 15 days into my European adventure where I've been living out the back of my little van. So far I've had some fun adventures and met up with some great people and the past couple of days I've been camping in Switzerland. I stayed in my van just out from the city of Bern and I also found a nice lake so I could finally take a shower. I found the best thing in the world the other day. This is Wilderness Wash, multi-purpose outdoor wash. You can use it for body wash, shampoo, dishwasher deterrent and clothes deterrent. Ten in one mixture of liquid and it's biodegradable so it's good for using if you're jumping in places like this. Lots of people ask me where are you going to wash if you haven't got a shower in your van. Well that is exactly what I'm going to have to do for the next few months. It's all right at the moment, the water isn't too cold. I spent the evening editing a video in the back of my van which allowed me to test out the electrical system which seems to be working very well. There's a storm going on out there, so cozy in here. I love the sound of the rain. How's that for some breakfast? Plums from a tree that I parked next to. The plums on that tree are so tasty so I couldn't help but stock up for the next few days. After packing up the van I needed to find some wi-fi to upload my YouTube video. First I went to McDonald's but they only let me use their wi-fi for one hour so then I had to drive to Burger King where I got some onion rings and there I used their unlimited wi-fi to upload the rest of my video. I then drove out of Bern to Hertzville which is a little village where I met up with the beekeeper. I think I've arrived. Oh gosh that's a beautiful house. Ah that is who I'm going to meet, Jonas Hoffman. Hello, good to meet you. It's Jonas right? Yes, nice to meet you. I've been a beekeeper for the last year and I keep two hives in my parents garden in England. They are Langstroth hives which are boxes that hold a number of movable frames that can be lifted up and out of the box to inspect. Jonas was about to show me a very different way of beekeeping where the bees are I'm Jonas Hoffman. I live in Hertzville. I'm 30 years old and I work as a farmer and policeman and beekeeping is my hobby. How many colonies of bees do you keep? Here in this house there are 24 and then I have another house two kilometers far away. I have eight. You might be wondering why bees are kept in these houses and Jonas explained to me that it's partly tradition here in Switzerland to keep bees in houses but also because winters can be very harsh and the houses give a little more warmth throughout the winter. Normally beekeeping can't be done in the rain but in a bee house the bees can be checked up on anytime. I guess it's super handy having all of your beekeeping stuff. Yes that's great because you have all that you need you have inside you have not to bring something with you you can keep your stuff like here and you're already ready for beekeeping. So let's have a look. So you use the smoke from your cigarette? Yes to calm them a little bit down it's easier. I have a smoker like like normal beekeepers. I don't smoke usually but in the bee house it's just to to calm down the bees so well I've never seen this sort of beekeeping before. I'm used to them being in the box and lifting them up. They look well. Watch if you spot the queen. There she is. You see her? There she is with a yellow point. Queen of this year. Are you used the same years as us in England? Is it? It's international. It's international yes. There is the queen. So that's the last one. I'm so surprised that there aren't just bees everywhere. You mentioned it's because the the guard bees are on the other side and you're actually opening them from the back. Yes. Because normally yes. Yes normally yes. It also depends on the genetic of the bees. Wow. So you've done your harvesting for this year? Yes yes. And now you're ready for the winter. End of July is the second. Normally the second harvest. Yeah I can see how it's maybe a bit more time consuming because you can't just lift them up and then back down. I don't know anyone with a bee house in England. Wow that's how you do an inspection on a bee house hive. Who built this house? The carpenter of the village. Okay. Or the neighbor. He built this. I helped the hives I bought like that. And this one I did on my own. This four small I did also on my own. Wow they look good. I did my first bit of like carpentry DIY project. Trying to build my van. And I realized it's really tricky to make things accurate and neat. So I can imagine with a beehive which you need to be perfect size. You need it to be the right spacings and everything. Inside you have to have the right space. From the outside the bee house also looks beautiful with multi-colored entrances to each of the beehives. I asked Jonas whether this was for a practical reason but he explained to me that it was just for nice looks. Some people do beekeeping for profit others like Jonas do it purely for the joy of watching and learning about bees. And this is why he designed and created such a nice looking house to keep his bees in. Whilst I was admiring the house I saw Jonas wandering around his field looking at the ground. So you're not just a bee keeper. You're a mushroom forager. Whoa. So that's gonna be your dinner tonight. Yes. There's loads more here as well. Field mushrooms. Jonas then showed me his honey extraction room where he allowed me to taste some of this year's honey. That is a really big honey extractor. How many frames can you put in there? 24. Are those the labels that you're talking about? Yes. Quality control. Yes. So is that necessary if you're going to sell honey in Switzerland? No it's not necessary. It's just an official label from the Swiss Beekeeping Association. It's full of valtonic forest honey. Oh wow. Like the dark one. That's from the aphids. Yes. That is what's in here. Yes. And then what is this? That's my special edition. It's like a spring honey and the spring honey becomes very hard. Yeah. With the time. And so I let them. Oh. I let them become hard. Not much but some jars. And I reopened the jar and later in July I filled the fresh the fresh forest honey in and so it looks like this. Wow. Do you have any of this honey you said I can buy? This really you can have. Really? That's for you. Yes. Wow. That is very kind. Look at this. We've got some Swiss honey. Rather a lot of it as well. This dark stuff here is like from aphids. Like aphid honey. And then this is spring honey which has been creamed which gives it this really nice texture. That is a big dog. Whoa. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. That was so interesting. I love bee houses. They just look amazing. It's so nice being inside the bee house where you can inspect the bees out away from the wind and the rain. And yeah it was just super interesting learning about the Swiss way of beekeeping. So thanks Jonas for your time and for your honey. Jonas gave me some of his Swiss honey. I gave him some of my English honey so we did a little trade. And now I'm about to drive to my next stop which is the country of Slovenia. And I am going to have a break from camping in my van for a few days because I've got an Airbnb booked in the mountains. It's this beautiful off-grid wooden hut where I'm going to be living for the next five or six days. So I'll see you there. Look at that. I'm so far away from people. I've got this place to myself. Wow.