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Bad honey year

2021-09-17T04:39:36.267Z


The rainy summer also has a significant impact on the honey harvest, report the beekeepers in the district.


The rainy summer also has a significant impact on the honey harvest, report the beekeepers in the district.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

- “If you want to see God's miracle, you have to go to the bees.” This is an old saying.

But this year the busy bees had a hard time.

The honey yield is correspondingly low.

"This year was definitely a bad honey year," says Michael Rest, director of the Bad Tölz Beekeeping Association.

The weather is the main reason for the poor honey harvest.

“The year started well, spring started early.

But unfortunately it was too cold when the flowering started, so that the early flowering failed completely, ”explains the beekeeper.

The next few months brought similarly bad weather conditions.

“As a result, the rainy weather was partly responsible for the fact that the forest costume that was used in some cases was abruptly ended.” According to the rest, the ideal “honey weather” would be warm spring weather with a little rain.

“Because water is also needed to produce nectar,” the beekeeper knows.

Appeal: Make home gardens bee-friendly too

Frank Meinert, the chairman of the Geretsried beekeeping association, also blames the weather for the poor honey harvest. In addition, there are not consistently good foraging conditions in agriculture and therefore bees do not always find enough food. "Each region should be self-sufficient with its food supply for insects," says Meinert. “It would be nice if there was something besides corn and rapeseed. Areas that are not used intensively could be designed with a higher quality. "The beekeeper knows:" Ideally, bees need feed until October, that is not guaranteed in the region. "All in all, the flowers and trees" did not really bloom "this year, says Meinert.

The bees often find more food in the gardens than in the wild - but not always. “Some garden owners have petrified their gardens in an effort-oriented manner,” says the beekeeper, referring to gardens in which there are no more gravel but no green areas. Those who prefer flowers, however, have to consider a few things: “Not every flower that blooms and looks beautiful is automatically a source of food,” says Michael Rest. In general, however, every garden owner can do something for the bees “by paying attention to it to leave or cultivate a small area with flowering plants in his garden ”.

The whole year was marked by a lack of feed.

“I had to feed my bees well into May,” says Meinert.

“That is very atypical.” The rest of us also observe this.

“Because there was no costume available, a lot of food was needed.

Those who did not feed here in time simply had colonies that were a little behind in terms of development. "

Feed costs increase honey costs

All of this means that the honey harvest will be small this year. Meinert had “definitely less” this year than usual. “I had about a third of the usual amount,” he says. “In this form, like this year, I have never seen the bees store so little.” Older beekeeping colleagues who have many years of experience would also confirm this. The rest of the harvest was also unsuccessful. "There are quite a few fluctuations at my locations," says Rest. "Overall, the yield was between 90 and 60 percent less than the usual average."

Meinert can well imagine that honey will become more expensive after the disappointing summer.

“We beekeepers also need work materials, and bee feed has also become more expensive.” Even if beekeeping is just a hobby for most, it should still be possible to cover costs.

“After all, a lot of effort goes into harvesting honey,” says Meinert.

"But especially with my regular customers, I have reservations about raising the honey price."

By the way: All developments and results from the upcoming federal election from your region as well as all other important stories from the Bad Tölz region are now also available in our regular Bad Tölz newsletter.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-09-17

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