AGRANA bees at the Leopoldsdorf site
For the Leopoldsdorf site, beekeeper Manfred Michlits conscientiously looks after our AGRANA bees. He introduces himself in his own words:
My name is Manfred Michlits, I have been a beekeeper since 2016 and I am delighted to be able to look after the AGRANA bees at the Leopoldsdorf site.
How did I get to the beekeeping? Yeah, that's a story I had planned very differently. The media coverage of bee deaths drew my attention to the issue. I wanted to know what was really behind those reports. So I took a basic beekeeping course and helped a beekeeper with her work in order to get to know the practice more closely. Keeping bees myself was not necessarily my goal at that time.
My beekeeper's patroness then began – due to age – to reduce her colonies and to stop beekeeping, of which 1.5 colonies remained in the end, which I then took over. So I started to write my own little beekeeping story.
By now I have 38 bee colonies, I have continued my training and just completed the master course. I am beekeeper according to organic guidelines – out of conviction.
What I particularly like about beekeeping is the amount of time you spend in nature. This is a great balance to the “normal” working life, it gives me peace and allows me to relax – I would call the work as a beekeeper almost meditative, because the bees don’t need the hustle and bustle at all.
I see myself as a “companion and supporting control organ” of the bees, because bees already know what to do themselves. I support the bees and make sure that they do not harm their health. The most fun is the fact is that the bees have a mind of their own. No matter what and how you plan it, they often impose their own mind and this creates new challenges or tasks for the beekeeper that have to be mastered. When everything works, the bees are fine and honey can be harvested. This is a real reason to be happy and you have a great product of nature in your hands.