Beekeepers throughout the Netherlands this weekend offered a look in the kitchen of the honey bee during the national beekeeping days. The Beekeeper Association Zuidlaren also participated and they have an important reason for that.
“We call the farmland a green desert for bees,” says beekeeper Ton Kolkman of the beekeeper association in Zuidlaren. With 120 members, the association is one of the largest in the Netherlands. “The majority of the countryside of the Netherlands has been sown with, for example, potatoes, corn or grass. In the past there were also flowers next to it, but that is no longer the case,” explains Kolkman. “The meadows are all very green, but there is nothing to get for insects. You no longer see a meadow with flowering clover or buttercups.”
He looks at the hive next to him where thousands of honey bees are busy. “We take good care of these honey bees, but we have around 350 bees in the Netherlands. For them and other insects it is much more difficult to survive.”
During the beekeeping days, the association tries to make visitors aware of the vulnerable position of bees and the challenges of this time. “The temperature rises, there are diseases such as a parasitic mite that attacks the honey bee and of course the Asian hornet, we as beekeepers have to do something with that,” says Kolkman. Despite the challenges, he remains faithful to his craft. “The world of bees is something magical.”