Info
Rome, bees and honey
My urban apiary is located in a garden in Garbatella. Unfortunately, Apis mellifera is heavily attacked by the hornet Vespa orientalis. This year, in August 2024, I have lost many bee colonies. The future is uncertain.
I am a trained landscape gardener and passionate beekeeper. I like the very "old" just as much as I am fascinated by the "contemporary".
In 2007 I founded my beekeeping project Stadtbienenhonig. It was important to me to put the beehives on unused roofs (not in gardens) in the center of Berlin, in reference to the conquest of inner-city space in Berlin in the 1990s, with the extension of letting bees fly in public spaces. It was an experiment, because back then the old beekeepers did not tell their neighbors that they had bees in their garden. Bees flew in secret and nobody knew about it, except those who bought honey.
My second roof was located at the Aquacarre close to Moritzplatz in Kreuzberg. Many friends came to visit. We were so close to the sky, watching the bees’ flight going out and their return to the hive and talking about the role of bees and the connection between their lives and ours.
I moved to Rome. For the past three years I worked in the park of the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo and initiated a transformation process that includes a Contemporary Care Concept for the maintenance of the more than 100-year-old park towards a more ecological and sustainable site. The process has started. Among keeping bees and other things, many young trees were planted, which will serve as a source of nectar for all bees in the neighborhood in the near future.
I love honey and I love observing bees. Some beefamilies live forever, others only for a short time. Less intervention in what-is-happening requires more attention. This means that the situation becomes more complex and requires a higher level of observation and understanding. Bees are always artistically active - in producing honey, as well as in building honeycombs and of course in finding survival strategies. As a beekeeper I act as a mediator in this nature-culture relationship.
Studying the best moments of harvesting honey
Honey is a natural product. It is a carrier substance, exclusively produced by honeybees. The bees search for food within a radius of max. 3 km. In doing so, they collect water, nectar and pollen (from the outside). They also produce enzymes (from the inside). The production of honey is a complex process within the hive. It is a combination of external circumstances such as weather and beekeeping activities and naturally available plant diversity and internal circumstances such as the character of the beehive, individual ability and availability of enzymes. Every detail leaves a tracee in the honey. Honey retains that memory. I have carried out many studies with my (then 20) beehives in Berlin and am continuing these studies. Each honey tells its own story.
The Mediterranean flora and the subtropical climate in Rome are opposite conditions to Northern Europe. I am still in the experimental phase. The new rhythm of the beehives and the incredibly diverse bee flora for good honey are still a mystery to me.
For example: there is a second spring that can turn into early summer, like in October 2022. Is this a sign of change or just a deviation? I managed to harvest honey at the beginning of November. It was more than surprising: the color, the taste and above all the time of year, everything was exceptional. Eriobotrya japonica turned out to be the main source of nectar. This is an introduced tree species originally from Asia, which reproduces easily and blooms in October. The white flowers smell like marzipan, and so does the honey...
Honey, when it ripens in white honeycombs, has a light glance. This originates from sunlight. White honeycomb is above all permeable. After ripening, the honey retains its glooming. When honey flows into the jar, a band forms. Honey does not run like water. Honey folds.
Some aspects of honey study
Summer honey includes: Robinia, Ailanthus, Ligustrum, Myrtle, Mallow, Thyme and Honeydew.
Spring honey contains winter-flowering and early-flowering plants: almond, peach and citrus fruits, rosemary, echium, lavandula, viola - amber-colored.
Honey is never like any other honey. Honey is unique, but never stands alone. It is not singular. A whole world is reflected in it. Can it then be called planetary? The many factors that influence the composition and quality, such as weather, nectar and pollen supply within the flight circle, health and ability of the bee colony, its housing, the location in general and of course the care of the bees... Everything has a greater or lesser influence.
In Berlin there were five main tree nectar sources. This was the basis for a good nectar and pollen supply for the bees and for a good honey harvest.
Honey Harvest Rome, first impressions
In Rome, the main nectar sources that bring out a special flavor are Robinia, Eucalyptus, Ailanthus and there is a relatively high amount of honeydew. Many of the streettrees do not produce nectar for bees.
My honey is characterized by the taste of the main tree species and by a relatively low water content (between 14.5% and 17%). In this state, fresh honey is rather viscous, while ripe honey has already crystallized in autumn. I stir the honey very little to maintain the internal tension. When stirring, I therefore give it little momentum. Then it can happen that the honey forms honey blossoms in winter. This is forgivable. The taste moves from floral to woody to minty to malty.
The first honey is harvested in May, or as early as the end of April. In Rome there are many winter-flowering plants. There are also many citrus plants in the gardens. Wisteria is a magnet for bees. Rosemary hanging over the walls, fragrant violets in the meadows, fruit trees and citrus trees and perhaps the first lavender - that is spring. Reddish shimmer.
In June the ailanthus is already blooming, floral notes, the occasional linden tree, minty notes. There is already honeydew, which makes it spicy.
In July it mixes and becomes miele millefiore. In the city a lot of (boring) Ligustrum, in the country it gets darker because of the chestnuts (very bitter).
In August it becomes more woody, more honeydew, nothing has been blooming for a while. more malty, more herbal.
Usually I harvest several times at the apiaries, but always only a few combs. I pay attention to ripe honey. My honey is centrifuged by hand and carefully treated in every step. Honey is a carrier and it has a memory. Real honey is healthy and stimulates our mind. In my beekeeping there is a game with many unknowns and so the honey tastes different every year.
Honey Analyzes, Berlin
The quality of my honey is above all characterized by a low water content (below 17.5 %) (pdf 701 water content) and high invertase activity. (https://www.honig-verband.de/waermeschaedenwas-uns-das-enzym-invertase-ueber-honig-verraet)
This is a value that shows the enzyme activity of sugar conversion in honey and it is considered as a sign of nature’s own. If honey is heated or if honey is old, the value and consequently also the activity decreases. On the global honey market a minimum value of 64 is required. In the analyses my peak value was above 400.
Some ingredients, such as inhibins (substances that inhibit bacteria), are sensitive to heat and light. Therefore, it is important not to heat the honey for consumption. It also likes to be stored in a dry, cool and dark place, i.e. in the cupboard.
I prefer to harvest pure flower honeys. This is shown in the annual honey analyses by the electrical conductivity value of less than 0.5 mS/cm.
The pollen analyses also show, among other things, how great the plant diversity in Berlin is! More than 500 pollen samples were analyzed for each analysis.
These can be attributed to 25 different plants and plant genera. A dream!
About Me
I am fascinated by many aspects in human-nature relationships. Keeping bees is my medium to discover more about this. I live in urban areas. Since I've been living in Rome, I often go hiking. I go to Abruzzo and explore the Central Italian Apennines. My focus in beekeeping has shifted: I am less concerned with the social conditions that urban beekeeping brings out (like in Berlin) and more focused on the organism of bees itself: the sense of survival and its strategies on the one hand, the composition of hive knowledge on the other hand, and in terms of craftsmanship, I devote myself to beeswax. I collect it, clean it and cast candles from it. The candles are part of a collection. As far as honey is concerned, it is highly appreciated and there is always too little of it. It is and remains the most precious thing I deal with in the world.