The consequences of the severe storm at the end of July created problems for the beekeepers in the affected communities and their bees.
A dilemma is not just that heavy weather events deprive them of their food sources.
Beekeeper Georg Nagl complains that the Oberland has long ceased to be a land of bees.
Tauting
- The apiary has got into trouble. Since the storm at the end of July, the bee stand, which normally houses 20 beehives from Georg Nagl's organic beekeeping, has tilted dangerously to the right. The beekeeper took his bees away from Tauting, “for the summer vacation”, he jokes. Nagl doesn't actually feel like joking. After the super cell swept across the district with full force, there wasn't much left of the flowering plants in the gardens and on the meadows.
Nagl is a part-time beekeeper. After retiring at Telekom, the 64-year-old trained as a beekeeping specialist. He has been a beekeeper since childhood. He has been selling large parts of the honey to regional customers for 14 years. To do this, however, he has to move his bees away from the Oberland. “We hardly ever harvest honey out here,” he says. That's why he drives a lot of beehives to Munich. "There is more blooming in parks and allotments than in our meadows."
Mild winters that lure the bees out of hibernation too early. Too few flowering plants in the meadows. And weather events that destroy the remaining flowers and pollen. “The weather situation is difficult. The last four years have been very bad. ”Nagl reports of beekeepers who suffer great losses because their bees are starving. And they complain that they could not or hardly harvest honey.
“The bee year 2021 was not a particularly good honey year,” says Christoph Mayr. The chairman of the Beekeeping Association blames the cold spring for the failures. “The prolonged cold has not only inhibited plant growth, but also the development of the bee colonies.” Currently, however, the bees have reached “a beautiful colony size”. But for many beekeepers that comes too late, says Nagl. “It doesn't help the beekeeper if he doesn't have strong colonies until August. The main harvest time is in May and June.
In 2022 colonies, the 268 beekeepers organized in the association in the Altlandkreis Weilheim are in their care, with Mayr emphasizing that the number of beekeepers has tripled in recent years to 64.
In the Altlandkreis Schongau, 209 beekeepers look after 1,379 colonies.
Then there are the beekeepers who are not organized in the association.
It's not just the weather that bother the bees, says Georg Nagl.
He sees intensive agriculture as one of the reasons why the bees in the region have an increasingly difficult life.
“It's not just about the bees for me.
The situation of all insects is dramatic. ”They are particularly endangered by the frequent mowing and spreading of liquid manure.
“Many farmers mow during the day when the largest insect flight occurs, instead of driving in the morning or evening.
The insects have absolutely no chance of getting out of there. "
Christoph Mayr confirms that the association is also dealing with the issue. “We discussed this years ago and commissioned a project,” he says. The mowing losses were observed for several years. “However, a significant loss of honeybees through the mowing could not be proven.” For many farmers it is still common practice that they do not mow the green areas during the main flight time.
Organic beekeeper Georg Nagl does not want to boggle the farmers. But he is convinced “that agriculture must be cut back. That is only possible if the farmers get enough for their work. They have to be able to make a living from it, ”says the 64-year-old. It is noticeable, however, that Upper Bavaria in particular has had the worst honey yields nationwide for years. Nagl travels a lot when it comes to bees, speaks to farmers and the church, which owns large agricultural areas. In the past, he says, the peasants were a power. Today they are driven by price pressure, the farmers' association and the industry. “If the farmers can simply work, it will also help the insects.” Then storms cannot affect them as much either.