Beekeeping - needed city trend

The idea of urban beekeeping assaults roofs in Europe. No matter whether we call it a new ecological fashion or a legitimate conservation action - there will be a large number of supporters in the cities. Contrary to popular belief, the honey from the city is fully valuable and healthy. Bees in the city enjoy the rich vegetation of the parks. There are so many green areas in Berlin that there is no risk that they will run out of food. Unlike monoculture crops such as rape in the villages, city honey is produced on the basis of very diverse ingredients, so its taste is unique. Those who have access to honey will admit that it tastes different in different seasons of the year, depending on what trees are blooming at the moment. The latest popular trend is “Neukoellner Linden Honey” which is collected from the trees growing in the place where I live – Neukoelln.

Bees are an important link in many natural life communities. During their flight from flower to flower, they also take over the pollution. For example, they provide a rich crop for wild and useful crops and thus also ensure the livelihood of wild animals. The apiculture (beekeeping) has existed since the people are sedentary. For thousands of years honey and wax production was the main focus but modern apiculture tries to use the multiplication and the production of honey in accordance with the life rhythm of the bees.

I have never been particularly interested in bees and the process by which bees are involved. In my hometown the beehives were very popular in the villages and gardens, so I treated it as something natural. Until I went to Berlin and started exploring the topic of beekeeping. I linked the facts and realized that beekeeping was popular but it's not anymore and the apiary was getting less and less. In addition, monoculture that are cost-effective for farmers are a threat to the bee. Few months ago my organization has started new project called "Learning active citizenship through urban beekeeping - learn deep and flavorful democracy from bees". I had the opportunity to learn more about local beekeepers and apiaries in Berlin, try honey and see the beehive from inside. I hope my adventure with bees has just started as I feel very motivated !

Here are some interesting facts for beginners from “the inside” of the hive:

- to a bees gang in one hive belong: one queen, several hundred drones and 30,000 to 50,000 workers;
- the workers live about 40 days and take over various tasks in the hive;
- honey bees communicate with a dance language and show themselves among each other, where there are abundant feeding places;
- working bees can carry nectar or pollen in their flight up to ⅓ their body weight;
- for 500 g honey flies a bees about three times around the earth (about 120,000 km);
- a workbench carries 25 to 35 mg of nectar or 2.3 million pollen grains from a collection flight;
- with 180 to 250 beats per second, bees reach a flight speed of up to 30 km / h.
- the weight of up to 2,000 eggs that a queen bee can lay per day corresponds approximately to their own body weight.