Beekeeping on campus
There’s a lot going on in the bee house on the Vaihingen campus. The bee colonies have been busy there since July 2016. Here, students can learn the craft of beekeeping (and of course teach it to new fellow students) and manage the bee colonies. And the honey? It’s delicious, we already know that…
…would you like to try it? Then write to us and join in!
Beekeeping as meditation, hobby and species protection
Working with bees is a peaceful thing. This is true because the bees would sting the stressed beekeeper. But in fact this hardly ever happens here, so that some people have been able to overcome their fear of bees here. Honeycomb by honeycomb, you can lose yourself completely in your concentration.
It is also fun to stand in front of a hive with others and watch your first bee hatch. You can proudly observe how the honeycombs take up more and more space, because the bees are the ones who work the hardest.
Beekeeping is important anyway. Through repeated cross-breeding and re-breeding of the world’s bee species, they have now all inherited susceptibility to a parasite – the varroa mite. Unfortunately, however, they lack the resilience of those bees that shaped their evolution under attack from the mite. Now, a wild hive is at risk of dying at any time, and with the bees, a good part of the rest of their life. Treatment against the parasite is therefore also essential in the AK campus bees!
Phoenix from the ashes
As quickly as the AK Campus Bees was once founded, it disappeared. The bees went wild or froze to death. What exactly went wrong is unknown. But one thing was certain: it has to be better!
Thanks to a new team, the apiary has been buzzing again since spring 2017! The colonies are strong and healthy, and in 2018 they grew by another colony. The well-being of the bees and their care also pays off in the harvest: In the summer of 2019, almost 65 kg of honey were collected. That’s enough for a few loaves of bread!
In the winter semester 2019/20, the AK had its first successful mead brewing trials and held numerous new events. For example, for the first time there was an event on organic beekeeping, a general introductory event to the bee year for new members, introductions to the art of brewing, and joint evenings on wax processing, honey bottling and harvesting.