Sponsorship Jisk

Dear Jisk

We are looking back on an exciting bee season. With your sponsorship you are supporting a colony of bees from our KALEO siebengold apiary in the beautiful Siebengebirge. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and give you an insight into the bee year 2024. Enjoy reading!

It was still very frosty and cool in January and the bees stayed in their hive. Here they cuddle up to keep the temperature between 20 and 30 degrees in a cluster of bees. It is particularly warm inside the cluster, where the queen sits and is supplied with food by the workers. It gets cooler on the outside. The bees keep changing their places so that they don't get too cold.

Here is an insight into January from the sponsorships at the Märchensee in Oberkassel, Bonn and the bee colonies in the cold Westerwald:

Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Imkerei KALEO siebengold (@imkerei_kaleosiebengold)

January was followed by a wet, mild February. When it was over 10 degrees and dry, the workers were able to collect the first pollen for their colony. At this time of year, the hazelnut bush and alder are in bloom.

In March it was drier and also very mild. Our colonies took advantage of this to make their first major forays!

We had quite a bit of rain again in April. The bees are not keen to fly outside in this weather. On the other mild days, however, they were able to collect the first cherry nectar and and the queen began to breed new bees to strengthen the colony. The first new queens also hatched in April!

@kaleo.siebengold Viele neue Königinnen sind geschlüpft! #imkerin #imkerei #honig #bienen #siebengebirge ♬ Originalton - Imkerei KALEO siebengold

May and June were also very wet. Nevertheless, the bees enjoyed a full and nutritious bloom. They also collected a lot of colorful pollen. The pollen is also stored in the honeycombs. It has a different color depending on the flower. Here you can see a colorful pollen board:

We have again caught some swarming bee colonies. Bees swarm when they become too strong for their hive and split up. We catch them and give them a new home. Sometimes that's not so easy, as they like to look for a place high up in the trees!

A few colonies were allowed to move into a new location in the Siebengebirge forest. Tall pine trees grow here, it smells of moss and the sun shimmers through the treetops. A particularly beautiful and peaceful place.

Unfortunately, the lime tree blossomed this year at a time when the weather was not suitable for collecting. The bees were therefore only able to collect a little of the delicious lime tree honey. So this year's honey is something very special! The honey from Löwenburg Castle tastes unmistakably lemony, spicy from Märchensee and sweet and buttery from Kloster Heisterbach.

There was also a lot going on in our apiary. We took a display colony to a daycare center festival, celebrated children's birthdays, held bee and honey workshops and helped out some beekeepers with bees and queens. Our beekeeping club also extracted their own honey and took excellent care of the school colony.