Geretsried: Beekeeping Association is expanding its apiary and is hoping for further donations

The Geretsried Beekeeping Association is expanding its apiary.

So far, the members have put around 500 hours of work into the extension.

Geretsried - The protection of (wild) bees and beekeeping are trendy.

The Geretsried beekeeping association is feeling this.

The number of members is growing steadily, and the interest of kindergartens, schools and other groups in guided tours is huge.

That is why the association is currently expanding its apiary with a training room in Buchberg.

The association has 215 members

"We are currently training around 50 young beekeepers from the district," says the club's chairman Frank Meinert at a meeting with our newspaper on the premises directly on the B11. The offspring are men and women, young and older people. The age group between 40 and 55 is particularly well represented. At the moment, the training and further education as well as the monthly meetings for the 215 members from the district and the neighboring districts are largely taking place virtually due to the corona, says Meinert. But after the pandemic, the beekeepers would like to get started live again in their new building.

Beekeeping is not a hobby for which you just buy a beehive and a colony and then “let nature do it”, emphasizes the beekeeper's district chairman, Erich Holzer, who also came to the meeting, and who gave advice to the Geretsrieder and support with the new building. There is a lot to consider when purchasing the hives, as the beehives are called in technical terms, and with the rest of the equipment. Everyone has a great responsibility for their animals in terms of animal welfare, hygiene, diseases and honey harvesting. You can only become a good beekeeper through many lectures and training courses as well as years of experience. And that is what the Geretsried Beekeeping Association, founded in 1953, is committed to. “Participants from Passau and Regensburg come to our courses,” says Frank Meinert.They should all find the optimal framework conditions in the future.

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A lot of personal contribution: So far, the members have put around 500 hours of work into the extension.

© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

The apiary built in 1986 has meanwhile become too small and no longer equipped in keeping with the times.

That is why the members are doing a lot of their own work - up to now around 500 hours of work - to build an extension that connects to the existing clubhouse in an L-shape.

This has been completely renovated.

A small kitchen and the sanitary facilities are located there.

The new building with a large wall area for projecting images and texts is six by twelve meters and made entirely of wood.

Attention is paid to ecological construction

It goes without saying that environmentalists also pay attention to ecological construction when it comes to insulation, interior fittings and outdoor facilities. They also took the accessibility into account. The five bee colonies on the property were relocated for the time of the construction work. The noise and the many people would have bothered them. For the time being, nothing will be changed in the outbuilding with storage room, which includes a honey extractor for all club members without their own machine.

The new building will cost the bee friends around 70,000 euros, as Meinert reports.

They were able to pay 16,000 euros from the club's credit.

A crowdfunding campaign at the Raiffeisenbank Isar-Loisachtal brought in 6350 euros.

Further donations were received from members, sponsors and supporters as well as the municipalities of Geretsried, Wolfratshausen and Königsdorf, but the beekeepers still need more money.

The new apiary should be ready in autumn.

Frank Meinert hopes that the pandemic will be under control by then and that the association can hold a nice opening ceremony.

Donation account

If you want to support the beekeepers, you can donate to the account of Sparkasse Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen IBAN: DE 20 700 543 06 00 11 24 96 04 or to the account of Raiffeisenbank Isar Loisachtal IBAN: DE 70 701 695 43 00 02 61 18 72.

Tanja Lühr

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