Marc Romano runs The Bee Experience at Carmel Valley's Earthbound Farm,
which provides bee suits and "90 minutes of pure buzzing insect fun!"
80 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 0
Photo:
Kelli
Uldall
B
efore he sticks his nose into a bee-
hive with 35,000 prickly residents, Marc
Romano offers them a little smoke.
"We joke it makes them mellow and get the
munchies," he says.
It's not that kind of smoke. With bees, it's all
about survival, so "if they think their house is
burning, they rush in to eat."
Such tidbits fascinate guests of The Bee
Experience at Earthbound Farm in Carmel
Valley. Longtime beekeeper Romano leads
tours through the aviary, with guests donning
bee suits for a closeup peek at many of the
200,000 Western honeybees that slurp nectar
from the farm's organic garden.
Romano is a font of knowledge, revealing a
fascinating hierarchy among the planet's most
important insects (due to their role in pollinat-
ing key plants in the food chain).
Each hive has one queen, and Romano glee-
fully explains her "super powers." Her only job
is to mate with drones (males) and lay eggs. For
every male drone there are 100 female worker
bees—who gather all the nectar, guard the hive
and care for the queen.
Only females have stingers, which comes
in useful each fall when they order all the lazy
males out of the hive.
"It's endlessly fascinating," Romano says.
Earthbound Farm's Farm Stand is located at
7250 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel. For more
information, please call 831/236-6540 or visit
thebeeexperience.com.
Exploring the Buzz
at Ear thbound Farm
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