A place in Lithuania where the smells of honey and rain are rare guests: generally besieged by tourists, now empty

Risen to a new life

We speak to Ovid outside, on a cozy terrace, he is serving tea and next to it there is also a pond where the frogs roar loudly.

“I had 150 hives all the time, but I knew that when we came to Europe, we needed to have at least 300 to earn a living,” he says of the bees, despite the fact that today there is a camp in the valley.

In this area, according to him, it used to be the most royal mansion in Kliučikas, from the Russian word Kliuč, the key, and later, when it was abandoned, the area became the largest garbage dump.

Admittedly, the old trash may no longer be so reminiscent here today. Here, both a farm and a pond, tourist cabins, a beautifully organized environment.

“When I managed to find a tractor radiator here, there was a Stalin, a big bulldozer, and the radiator was copper, it weighed over 200kg, so I sold it, and the whole garbage disposal was worth it,” laughs Ovid. , remembering the treasure found in the trash.

From where we are, word is quickly spreading about the plants that flourish here, whose nectar is especially important to bees.

“There are many acacias left here, the mansion was planted with them, and when they bloom, everything smells of honey. I have come before to see if the bees carry honey from here,” he says. a matter of a week or two, Ovid warns.

He mentions that he originally wanted to build an apiary in this area, but decided the place was too beautiful for that, making it more suitable for tourism.

“I thought I would make a rural tourism farm and build the first building. Then came a German, the head of the tourism department, and I was consulted.

He suggested that I camp because 100 percent here. camping site. I didn’t think it could be, so first I did some camping showers and toilets and it turned out that camping was worth more to me than rural tourism or even beekeeping. After that, the camp has grown, now I am building houses ”, he points out the last buildings that sprouted from the hands of the man, but regrets that last year he had clients since April 15 and now it is empty.

A place that never rains

While drinking tea, Ovid says his business is included in German special publications for traveling around Europe, and the idea itself has been described in the foreign press, so it makes no secret that about half of the guests arriving are German. , and the rest comes from around the world.

Having been involved in beekeeping for many years, he insinuates that bees and honey are no longer his main business today, but now he manages around 50-60 hives, of which honey is generally sufficient only for those they visit.

True, but that the place here is special cannot be disputed.

“Spring always comes 2 weeks before. It was only less at night, and during the day it can be 20 degrees hot, because we are on the northern slope of the Nemunas, we have the southern sun, so even in summer we are 5-10 degrees hotter all the time.

Last year, for example, we only had two raincoats throughout the summer. I can even name it exactly, on June 26, the other, on August 12, and there was another rain only in November, ”Ovidius praises and laughs because it is good for tourists here, because they always know that” Honey Valley “never rains.

Admittedly, when we visited, the unusual weather in mid-May also made a joke, the ground was covered in snow.

“It happens that it is raining on the other side of the Nemunas, but not with us. Why is that? It is said that everything here is due to the Nemunas, the rain stops,” explains the man.

It is true that tourists who come here can not only spend the night, but listen to stories about honey, its species, beekeeping work.

“We teach you how to choose good honey, but we cannot keep the hives here because there is tourism, there are many children, people with allergies,” he adds, saying that one of their apiaries is a little further from the farm and from the others. still somewhere else to make honey as diverse as possible, depending on the surrounding vegetation.

Advised on how to choose a good honey

We also asked the man how to choose a good honey. Assure the best that it is thick.

“I have about 10-15 types of honey a year.

I would say that the best is spring honey, but the thing is that a person needs all kinds of honey little by little, because if he buys one, he eats, he eats, he can even start drinking.

It means there will be too much of a herbal kit type. Honey is a medicine. It’s ten times better than sugar, ”he says, spooning it into the cabin with maple syrup and flipping it around showing that good honey should be thick.

“It means he is mature,” the man taught.

Ovidio says that this season alone it has been bitten by bees 20 times, but at the same time it has had around 500 stings.

“Someone bothered them, I went to the hive, I always go without clothes, but I didn’t get to it and in about 150 meters before it attacked me, I screamed.

Someone was bothering them, I don’t know why that happened. So my head is even dizzy from the poison, ”he recalls and says that the bees also talk to each other, so it is said that they are not trapped, but are dying.