Bee sponsorship

Honey Landscapes – Four international awards!
We are delighted to be entering our fourth year as bee sponsors and are continuing our successful partnership with the Bioland apiary. A special reason to celebrate: in 2024, their honeys won no fewer than four awards at the international organic honey competition BiolMiel – two gold medals for the spring blossom and dandelion honeys, and two silver medals for the forest & blossom and forest honeys – the only award-winning honeys from anywhere in Germany!

The annual report looks back on an eventful third year of sponsorship:
A strong start to the winter – Both colonies came through the winter of 2024/25 well, but one remained weaker throughout the year.
New queen – To strengthen the weaker colony, it was given a new queen and additional support in August/September.
Honey harvest – Plenty of spring blossom honey, no forest honey, but aromatic summer blossom honey instead.
A quiet year – Following the ‘cement honey’ year of 2024, 2025 passed without any major problems.

In the 2024/25 season, too, we would like to do our bit to ensure that the bees remain healthy and that beekeepers can continue to produce honey of the highest quality

We’re celebrating our third year as a bee sponsor!
We look back with pride on a successful partnership with the Bioland beekeeping business Honiglandschaften and look forward to continuing to play an active part in supporting the bees’ wellbeing in the coming year.

In our 2023/24 Annual Report, we offer fascinating insights into the second year of our hard-working bees. Find out what ‘cement honey’ is all about, what Varroa mites are, and why 2024 was a ‘crazy’ year.

Our sponsored colonies have come through the winter well and in good health, and were already stronger than average by March. Both colonies are healthy and lively! Thanks to the very mild winter, our bee colonies began breeding very early, meaning that by the time of the first inspection on 14 March, they were already much stronger than in previous years.

As everything has started to flower at the same time, the bees are currently finding an abundance of flowers – and therefore plenty of nectar and pollen. This means that the bees are well provided for and have already built up a good supply of honey!

Proud to present: We’re now in our second year as bee sponsors!
We’re proud to be part of the Bioland beekeeping business Honiglandschaften. And we’re looking forward to another year full of buzzing activity as bee sponsors.

In our 2022/23 Annual Report, you’ll learn lots of new things about these hard-working creatures: what a winter ball or a pollen panty is, and why the drones have to die in July.

Late summer is another critical period for bee colonies, as building up sufficient food reserves is just one of the many tasks they have to carry out in preparation for winter.

As early as July, after the summer solstice, the queen begins to lay fewer eggs, causing the number of worker bees in the colony to gradually decrease. From this point onwards, alongside the short-lived summer bees, an increasing number of long-lived winter bees are produced.

At the same time, the drones are now driven out of the hive. The worker bees harass the much larger drones by nipping, pinching and tugging at them to such an extent that the drones flee the hive in exasperation. Yet this spells certain doom for them, as drones do not gather food themselves and are dependent on being fed by the worker bees. Once they have left the hive, they are usually no longer allowed back through the flight hole and eventually starve to death. This may sound a little cruel, but it is vital for the survival of the colony, as the drones would consume too much valuable food during the winter.

In addition, in late summer, the worker bees collect not only nectar and pollen but also large quantities of propolis, which they use to seal and waterproof their hive, thereby preparing it for winter.

For all these tasks, it is important that the bee colony is strong and healthy in summer. This is because it is primarily the (still numerous) summer bees that carry out all these tasks; the winter bees, on the other hand, should be spared so that they can survive the winter well-nourished and in good health.

11/2022

Before the Varroa mite, which originates from Asia, was introduced to Europe, beekeepers did not have much left to do after the honey harvest – apart, of course, from ensuring that their bee colonies had enough food stores for the winter. But those days are long gone. Left untreated, bee colonies would not survive the winter – or, at the very latest, the following winter.

So why is the Varroa mite so dangerous to bee colonies?

Varroa mites primarily infest and damage bee brood, with the result that adult bees are already weakened and often unwell upon hatching and therefore die prematurely. Varroa mites reproduce at a rate of 1.1 to 1.3. Since the coronavirus pandemic, we have all learnt what an ‘r-value’ above 1 means: exponential growth! What’s more, absolutely every colony is infested!

However, bee colonies must not be treated for the Varroa mite before or during the honey harvest, as this could result in residues finding their way into the honey. The Varroa mite can therefore multiply unchecked in the bee colonies until summer. By July, at the time of the final honey harvest, the number of Varroa mites in the colony has already reached a critical level that could jeopardise the colony’s continued survival.

Without proper treatment by responsible beekeepers, bee colonies in Europe and around the world would not survive the Varroa mite and would die.

Unfortunately, to this day there is neither a vaccine against the Varroa mite (unlike the coronavirus) nor a Varroa-resistant honey bee. That is why our work as organic beekeepers in the height of summer consists primarily of effectively reducing the number of Varroa mites in the bee colonies to a safe level through a combination of natural measures and the application of organic acids. This is particularly important so that – as described above – healthy and long-lived winter bees can develop.

11/2022