Because of the cold and wet weather, the bees were able to produce less honey this year.
Two types of honey in particular are particularly affected.
District
- "In April and May you immediately noticed that it was too cold," says Franz Emmerig, a little dejected.
"The spring honey has almost failed".
For the board of directors of the beekeeping association Glonn, Baiern and the surrounding area, it is already the second year in which the honey harvest is bad.
Last year it was too hot, in 2021 too cold.
For most of his bee colonies, it was not worth extracting the miserable amounts of honey.
After all, every swarm also needs reserves to get through the winter.
Lean honey harvest: The cold was particularly hard on the blossoms of fruit trees
In spring, according to Emmerig, the honey comes mainly from dandelion plants and fruit trees: "I saw on my apple tree that the flowers were too cold and they hardly honeyed," says the hobby beekeeper from Moosach.
So the flowers hardly gave off any nectar.
Beekeeper Franz Hundschell was particularly troubled by the cold spring time.
“Bees only fly from around 15 degrees, for them it was just too cold in April and May,” says the Forstinninger.
And that although the soil moisture for the rapeseed fields around Forstinning would have been ideal for "honeying".
With him, too, the first costume turned out to be small.
Lean honey harvest: Very light and very dark types of honey are particularly affected
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The honey harvest from hobby beekeeper Franz Hundschell in Forstinning was very small this year.
© J. Dziemballa
Overall, Hundschell's honey harvest was around 40 percent lower than usual: "Normally a colony produces between 30 and 40 kilos of honey on average, this year it was a maximum of 20," he explains.
According to Emmerig, fluctuations by a factor of six must always be expected in the honey harvest: "Sometimes it's 60 kilos, sometimes 360," he explains the extreme values in his total harvest.
Especially friends of the creamy, light honey will have to be patient this year because of the cold spring temperatures.
But the very dark forest honey also suffered from the rainy weather: “Lice live under the pine needles and excrete the sugar syrup,” Hundschell explains.
"But they were washed down by the heavy rains."
Despite a meager honey harvest, customers don't have to worry about rising prices
The prospects for the medium to dark types of honey, on the other hand, looked sweeter again at the beginning of summer: “When it got warmer in June, the picture changed immediately,” recalls Emmerig. As industrious as his bees, he hurled harvest after harvest. At least the summer honey was secured thanks to the rising temperatures and the bees were able to take care of themselves for the winter - and for the annual battle with the problem pest Varroa mite.
However, honey lovers do not have to expect higher costs for the scarce, sticky mass for the time being: "That does not matter to me, because I am a small beekeeper and mainly sell at the front door," says Hundschell.
His honey price will therefore remain the same for the time being.
In the large honey industry, on the other hand, the EU ensures that the price does not skyrocket through compensatory payments, explains Hundschell.
But for him too, honey extraction is more about the love of the hobby than about making a profit.
Help for the bees: Beekeepers advise people to mow their lawn less often
And the fun of beekeeping never stops.
Both clubs were able to welcome several new members this year.
But even without their own bee colonies, anyone can do something good for the bees, explains Emmerig: namely, less lawn mowing.
"Even if some people find it unattractive, flowers are much more valuable to bees than a mowed lawn".
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