From brushes to bees

An buzzing interview with Anouchka, The Dylan’s beekeeping painter.

Hi Anouchka, could you tell us a bit more about yourself and your role at The Dylan?

Certainly! I joined The Dylan nearly five years ago as a temporary painter when the hotel sought assistance during renovations. To my delight, the hotel was very happy with my work and offered me a position once the renovation was complete. Now, I’m happy to be a fulltime ”family member” of The Dylan.

We’ve heard that you’re taking on a new function as well. Could you share more about that?

Absolutely! I’m currently pursuing a true passion, beekeeping! This has always intrigued me, as it’s been a longstanding dream of mine, it’s a craft on its own really. So one day I felt brave, and decided to take the first step: I enrolled in some beekeeping classes, to get familiar with the principle. It took around two years of theory and a year of shadowing my beekeeping instructor, but I can now proudly say that I’m a certified beekeeper!

And how did your bees land at The Dylan?

It’s quite a funny story actually. I had a conversation with our general manager, René Bornmann, and I shared my ideas about beekeeping. He was fascinated about the idea of having bees at The Dylan, especially the idea of serving our guests our very own honey. His enthusiastic response encouraged us to create a bee-friendly environment on one of our roofs, complete with plants and flowers.

Our aim is to eventually have honey exclusively from our own Dylan bees in the hotel. Picture a fresh honeycomb on the breakfast buffet in OCCO, or using our own honey in one of our cocktails! There are so many great options to delight and surprise our guests.

We currently have two bee colonies and I recently harvested our very first harvest, which was almost 6 kg of honey. I anticipate harvesting another 8 kg at the end of July, so we are definitely on the right track!

So besides their delicious honey, what else motivates you to keep bees at The Dylan?

Bees play a vital role in nature, particularly in pollinating flowers. Without bees, certain plants, fruits, and flowers would cease to exist. Creating a small bee-friendly environment is not only good for our guests’ appetite, but it also contributes to the overall sustainability of Amsterdam’s ecosystem. Unfortunately, many bee populations face significant declines due to various reasons, so through this initiative we hope to contribute and positively impact the environment.