How Tenuta Badia’s beekeeping project began — and how it is growing
Riccardo manages apartment buildings for a living. At Tenuta Badia, however, he has chosen to look after a considerably larger community, where everyone has a precise role and, fortunately, residents’ meetings are not on the agenda.
We are talking about bees.
It all began in 2025, with three hives and a desire to understand more about how a bee colony works. Then something happened that many passions probably have in common: the more Riccardo studied, the more he realised how much there was still to discover.
And so that initial curiosity began to take on a different shape.
A remarkably organised society
What intrigued Riccardo most was the social organisation of bees.
A colony is a complex community in which every individual contributes to collective life. Worker bees, for example, change jobs over the course of their lives: they clean the hive, feed the larvae, help defend the colony and gather the resources it needs.
Even the queen, despite her title, does not rule by giving orders.
For someone familiar with the dynamics of apartment buildings, there is certainly plenty to think about.
But Riccardo’s curiosity did not stop at theory. He began studying, took a beekeeping course and, above all, devoted more and more time to his hives.
Because knowing how a colony is organised is one thing; learning to understand its needs is another.
When curiosity becomes an investment
In 2026, seven more hives were added to the original three, partly thanks to a regional grant.
At the same time, there were new investments in honey-processing equipment, including an electric honey extractor, two settling tanks with a capacity of 100 kg each and a worktable, all made exclusively of stainless steel.
This growth tells a story that goes beyond simply increasing production.
Riccardo chose to devote more resources to an activity that had drawn him in ever more deeply through study and hands-on experience.
Of course, a beekeeper’s life also brings complications. And not all of them can be resolved with a handbook.
Colonies are constantly changing. There are signs to interpret, problems to recognise and possible interventions to weigh up. Riccardo has also experienced difficulties and the loss of colonies that, until shortly beforehand, had seemed healthy.
Such experiences are a reminder of how important it is to keep learning, even when you feel you have become familiar with your work.
Another way to experience the estate
Today, bees are part of Tenuta Badia’s farming activities, alongside olive trees and saffron cultivation.
The honey produced also finds its way into the breakfast baskets prepared for guests staying at the agriturismo.
It is the most immediately recognisable result of work that begins long before the harvest.
For Riccardo, beekeeping has become an opportunity to get to know a complex system at close quarters, study how it works and take responsibility for caring for it.
And perhaps that is the most interesting detail in his story: a man whose profession involves managing communities has chosen to spend some of his time understanding one that can organise itself without a manager.
A community that clearly still has plenty to teach him.
Riccardo and the bees, on video
Watch the reel about Tenuta Badia’s beekeeping project on Instagram.
