BayWa harvests its first city honey in organic quality

six apiaries BayWa

07.09.2018

About two months ago, BayWa AG set up six apiaries with 300,000 bees on the premises of the company headquarters in order to support the commitment of the company "Dany Bienenwohl" to resettle more honey bees in the Munich city area. Now the first organic certified BayWa honey has been harvested. The expected annual yield is around 300 kilograms of honey. The nectar comes from a radius of around three kilometres, i.e. from the gardens of the neighbouring residential areas and the nearby parks, such as the English Garden. Thanks to its geographical location, Munich is considered a "hot spot" for biodiversity and offers optimal conditions for the honey bee.

 

"Bees are invaluable for the fruit yield of many fruit, vegetable and arable crops," says Jessica Paffen, Head of Sustainability at BayWa. "With the beehives on our company premises we can make a direct contribution to keeping the ecosystem in our surroundings in balance.

 

The honey bee (apis mellifera) located at the BayWa headquarters is native to this country and is considered to be very gentle. Unlike the wasp, the bee has no interest in the human habitat and only flies to nectar sources. Thus bees can be kept well in densely populated regions. "Bees have been living in symbiosis with humans in urban areas for decades," says city beekeeper Nikolaus Dengler, who looks after the animals on site. "Also the traffic has no influence on the honey quality: In order to protect their brood, bees filter possibly existing heavy metals from the honey. Thus city honey is free of exhaust gases and in bio quality.

 

The bee is considered after cattle and pig as the third most important domestic animal in agriculture. Its most dangerous enemy is the Varroa mite, a parasite that has severely decimated bee colonies in recent years. The company Dany Bienenwohl produces a drug against the Varroa mite and is committed to increasing the settlement of bee colonies in the city. Currently, 90 bee colonies are spread over eleven locations in Munich and the surrounding area. The honey is marketed in retail outlets and delicatessens.

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