More beekeepers, greater professionalism – salzburg.ORF.at
Agriculture
More and more young women are interested in taking care of bee colonies as beekeepers. The interest in courses for young people is high, says the state beekeeping cooperative. They will also professionalize beekeeping more over the next few years.
A Salzburg beekeeper currently looks after an average of eight to ten bee colonies. And the interest of boys is there, says Thomas Renner from the state beekeeping cooperative: “What is very, very positive: Many young women are now moving up. At the most recent newcomer seminar, the average age was 28 years and 60 percent of the participants were female. They simply have a different perspective, a different understanding” – namely to question things that have always been done that way.
And Rener has another goal: “We are trying to go in the direction of professionalization – really in the direction of a sideline, not just hobby beekeeping.” Throughout Salzburg, 2,600 members of the state beekeeping and beekeeping association look after almost 30,000 colonies.
Past years difficult for bee colonies
However: Basically, the past three years have been very difficult for Salzburg’s bee colonies and beekeepers – with small amounts of honey and sometimes even with total failures. In Tennengau and Pongau there was practically no honey in 2021, emphasizes Renner: “That has to do with spring and the course of the season. It was just too cold for flowers to bloom. And then it was too dry for the forest costume. There are two types of honey: What we commonly call forest honey does not come from the nectar of the flowers, but from the honeydew producers. Of course, they need the soil to be moist so that the tree can then bring the moisture up the trunk to the crown – that’s where the honeydew producers are located. It was just too dry there, it just didn’t fit.”
In the Lungau and Pinzgau there was mountain honey – albeit in smaller quantities than before. There was forest hnonig in the Flachgau, but there the hail hit the forests, meadows, flowers and blossoms. The Varroa mite is also still a problem.