Chatterjee Apiaries

Chatterjee Apiaries is at 1/3, South Mount Road. It’s in Tirunelveli Town. We work with bees. It’s a sticky job. Our place is full of wooden frames and jars. You have to be careful not to get stung, though most of us are used to it by now. The road outside is a bit hilly. We get a lot of breeze coming off the mountains. It’s a good place for the bees because of the trees around. We don't have a big storefront. It’s more of a workspace. We spend the mornings checking the hives. The afternoons are for bottling. It’s a slow process. You can’t rush the bees. We don't have any big marketing plans. People just know where we are. Sometimes the honey is dark and sometimes it’s light, depending on the season. We don't filter it too much because we like it natural. The jars are heavy when they’re full. We stack them on the floor because we ran out of shelf space. It’s a bit messy, but that’s how it is when you’re dealing with honey. The floor is always a little bit tacky under your shoes. We try to keep things clean but the bees have their own ideas. It’s a quiet life in Tirunelveli, and we’re happy enough with it. We just sell what the bees give us.