Exiting facts about bees can be learned at the Apicultural State Institute on the Hohenheim Campus.

The Apicultural State Institute was established as a link between applied research and beekeeping practice on the Hohenheim Campus. For the tasks the State Institute is well equipped with honey and analytical laboratories and round about 300 bee colonies available. The State Institute is involved in a broad network of active cooperation with different departments of the University of Hohenheim

Dr. Peter Rosenkranz, head of the institute, was giving us a practical introduction into bee keeping and showing us different colonies located in the institute’s garden. Later on we visited the institute’s laboratories where the honey quality of the different producers is monitored. We were tasting honey made from different plants such as the mild tasting bright Acacia honey and the more dark and strong tasting Chestnut honey.

The relation of bees to water was also a topic of the visit, since bees are depending on water resources to cool down the hives during hot weather. We discussed the ecological functions of bees and were pleased to hear that bees are very adaptive to their environment and bee keeping either commercially or as a hobby is currently getting more and more popular which could be taken as a good development towards sustainable honey-bee populations in central Europe.