The surveyor with a passion for bees who opened a 24-hour honey distributor

A teenager passionate about bees, studies in the environmental sector, then the meeting with Francesca Fumagalli and a trip to Slovenia are the decisive moments in the realization of the dream of James Agazzi: produce honey and create a “kingdom” for its bees and its products. In his San Giovanni farm Bergamo, Giacomo, 32 years old, deals with bees at 360 degrees: he creates hives with fir wood, takes care of bees, sells honey in his shop in the center and has had a vending machine with his jars for a few months. Even the hexagonal shapes for display in the shop are created by him. It’s like entering a parallel universe, that of bees.

“I am a surveyor – explains Giacomo Agazzi – with a specialization in the environmental field. At the age of thirteen I work alongside a retired beekeeper: his work becomes my hobby. He gave me advice on how to face the first difficulties and how to overcome them thanks to his experience. My fiancée Francesca is an agronomist and works at the university. Together we became passionate about the world of bees. We decided to invest in ourselves and in this dream by following courses organized by some associations”.

The trip to Slovenia with Francesca is a dive into the world of bees. “In Bled castle – continues Giacomo – we see a shop made in the shape of a beehive, with hexagons, all on a human scale. In this country the bee is revered”. There Giacomo has the idea of ​​creating a shop that evokes thebee habitat. “I designed and built the hives for my bees – adds Giacomo – and the hexagons in the shop, with fir wood. I’ve always had the dream of producing organic food. Fir is a solid wood that does not damage the hive also because I don’t use glue and I only use organic wax”.

Giacomo opens his farm in 2018. “We started – specifies Giacomo – with eight hives, now we have 75. Production is linked to the climate: I always say that we are under the roof of the sky. Our hives are among Bergamo and Brescia: it is strictly a zero km product. Bergamo has many microclimates, blooms and many types of honey are born from these territories. There is not only Trentino. Bergamo has many woods, mountains and uncultivated places. Between 2019 and 2021 we participated in regional competitions and obtained excellent marks on our honeys. Our product is pure, with a clean, organic wax. This is the secret to making a quality organic honey. We presented a very rare raspberry honey. We also produce acacia, chestnut, wildflower linden, rhododendron, dandelion, high mountain wildflower and honeydew. They are all Lombard honeys”.

Giacomo’s journey has not been easy. “Among the greatest difficulties – underlines Giacomo – for those who undertake this path the varroa is in first place: it hits the bee’s abdomen, takes the sap and the bees are less and less. This is definitely the problem for beekeepers in this century. Then there’s the return of the cold: freezes the buds and prevents them from producing nectar. Drought is also a problem: if there is no water, the flowers will not germinate. We can move our hives according to the blooms. Before, beekeeping was sedentary: now we live where there is more well-being”.

The novelty comes last year: a 24-hour honey vending machine. “It is positioned – concludes Giacomo – outside our shop. The goal is to provide a quality product at any time of day. Our new project will instead be inaugurated on Saturday 15 April in the shopping center of Cuneo: it is a new honey dispenser, this time shaped like a hive. It will be next to the children’s area: making people understand what’s inside a beehive, letting them enter an agricultural reality is already a conquest for us. We show what shape a hive has even if it is a distributor and not a true bee. We create honey from producer to consumer and we are proud of it. For the future we would like to take the path of cosmetics. Many think of the beehive and automatically honey to eat. From the organic wax also come the face cream, shampoo, conditioner and candies. The world of bees seems small but by opening more doors it transforms into a vast universe. We certainly don’t want to lose our green connotation. We need to support our bees. Respecting and protecting our environmental sentinels is crucial for our future.”