News from the HA bee garden
Several bee colonies have been living on the site of the HA administration in Düsseldorf since 2023. Their stacked hives, named after our german HA locations Baddeckenstedt, Braunschweig, Delligsen, Düsseldorf and Hanover, have been busy producing honey ever since. On May 24th, our beekeeping team was able to harvest around 44 kg of spring honey.
Honey extraction in our own manufactory
Everything was prepared for a professional honey harvest in the basement of the head office. The 40 honeycombs were first "uncapped" and checked for their water content. If this is over 20 percent, there is a risk that the honey will ferment in the jar.
Despite the unstable weather in recent months, our hard-working bees produced a spring honey with a water content of 18 percent - and 44 kg of it!
Start of summer production
Production never stands still: a resolution that our bees are also familiar with. While they were still spinning in the cellar, the busy bees are already busy collecting the summer honey. The many linden trees on the green area in Düsseldorf are a particular favourite. If the weather is good, the bees will be able to harvest again in about 5-6 weeks.
We are expanding: New offshoots on the advance
Our beekeeping team has also succeeded in forming five offshoots from the commercial colonies. As always, the names for the young daughter colonies are creative and this time come from the national companies: HA International, HA Italia, HA France, HA Polska and brand new: HA Korea. Of course, there is still plenty of room for further candidates.
Promoting sustainability in everyday life
As the third most important farm animal in Germany, bees make an indispensable contribution to the harvest by pollinating plants. However, the sealing of surfaces, the use of pesticides and monocultures in fields have contributed to increased bee mortality in recent years. For this reason, more and more bee colonies are being kept on roofs and private property in city centres. All the better that, in addition to our sustainability strategy, we can also make a small contribution to protecting our environment with this commitment!
