Honey Bees and German Honey
What honey bees can achieve
For 1 kg of honey, approx. 150,000 “flight kilometers” of the bees are necessary (= 3 ½ times around the earth)
For 1 kg of honey, the bees have to collect approx. 2 – 3 kg of blossom nectar or honeydew.
For 1 kg of honey, approx. 150,000 trips out of the hive are necessary.
Honey has a water content of approx. 17 – 20% and consists mainly of sugars (fructose and glucose), enzymes and minerals. Honey also contains pollen and small traces of wax particles.
Approximately 80% of all flowering plants are pollinated by bees. Around 15 – 20 kg of honey per year can be harvested from a bee colony. The honey harvested by the beekeeper amounts to only about 1/3 of the actual quantity of honey produced by the bees. Most of the honey is consumed by the bees themselves, mainly as “aviation fuel”. A bee flies at a speed of approx. 25 – 30 km/h.
Bees vote “democratically” on the best feeding place to fly to.
A bee makes about 10 trips per day and flies up to 6 km on one trip.
A bee weighs 500 mg and can carry about 45 mg of nectar in flight; with 100 flights this fills a small thimble. This strains the forager bee so much that in summer it only lives 4 to 6 weeks.
Queens live up to 5 years. In the summer months, a queen lays an average of about 2,000 eggs per day, which corresponds to twice her body weight every day.
In winter, a bee colony consists of approx. 10,000 to 15,000 individuals, in summer of approx. 50,000 individuals.
Beekeeping in Germany: For an intact nature
Beekeeping for a rich harvest
Honey bees are flower-faithful. Once the bees have identified a plant species as a good source, they will visit it until it is exhausted. 
Without this activity, the yield of fruit crops would fall to a quarter
For some apple varieties, the proportion of pollination by honey bees is over ninety percent.
From an overall economic perspective, the pollination performance of the honey bee exceeds the economic value of its honey production tenfold.
For human well-being
Honey is much more than just a sweet spread
More than 180 ingredients make honey a valuable helper for the human organism
With its numerous minerals and trace elements, honey supports the human organism in coping with its daily tasks
The natural product is of central importance
Only when honey is treated as gently as possible does it unfold its full effect
The fructose and glucose are immediately converted into energy and promote performance
In this way, honey makes an important contribution to general well-being
Honey is a valuable source of strength and supports people’s general well-being.
German beekeeping at a glance
Around 90,000 female and male beekeepers in Germany look after nearly 800,000 bee colonies
With at least 30 – 40,000 bees per colony, this means that many billions of bees are active every day during the growing season
About 80 percent of all native flowering plants are pollinated by honey bees
To collect the nectar for one pound of honey, the honey bee covers a distance equivalent to three times the circumference of the earth
Domestic bees cover only 20 – 25 percent of the total honey demand in Germany, as every German consumes an average of around 1.4 kilograms of honey per year
We all benefit from the industrious activity of honey bees – either directly by enjoying Genuine German Honey, or indirectly by delighting in the beauty and diversity of nature
A gentle bee is absolutely necessary given today’s dense development in Germany. With our Carniolan or Buckfast bee, we have had this gentle bee for many years.
Beekeeping is important for the natural balance in the federal states of Germany.
• We can import honey to Germany, but not the pollination performance of our bees!
Information and theses of the German Beekeepers’ Association, State Association of Rhineland:
