An interview with a professional beekeeper: Bees can survive without us, we can’t survive without them
A bakery and kitchen full of life
Kateřina, how did you get into beekeeping?
I’ve been interested in nature ever since I was a little girl. I studied biology at Charles University, and when I was thinking about what to do next, I quickly realised that neither a lab nor an office was for me. Entrepreneurship runs in our family, and I’ve always wanted to be my own boss. Later, when I became pregnant, I was looking for a flexible way to earn some extra income, and it occurred to me that we could get some bees. My dad was running an electronics store at the time, but he wasn’t very happy, so I talked him into the idea and we went into business together. We jumped in head-first — the first year we had ten hives, and today we have 350.
So it’s a family business and a full-time job?
Yes, I’m in charge of the honey house and sales, and my dad takes care of the bees. He devotes all his time to them. You know, working in the apiary is more of a man’s job — each hive weighs seventy kilos, and transferring them to the frames is pretty demanding for a woman. When it comes to working with honey, though, I think you need a woman’s touch — my mom and I bottle the honey, come up with new products and pretty packaging, and keep everything clean and organised. At the beginning, we had to define these roles. We do talk about the bees, but we don’t step on each other’s toes.
We’re full-time beekeepers, but it’s not exactly a secure job — you live off what you produce in May and June for the whole year, and if the honey harvest fails, you’re simply out of luck. On the other hand, the advantage is that I’m out in nature and can organise my work so that I have plenty of time left for my family.
What kinds of products do you make?
Our main product is, of course, honey — single-flower, blossom, linden, meadow, or honeycomb. That’s our newest product, which isn’t sold everywhere. Normally, the combs are uncapped and the honey is extracted into jars using a honey extractor. The combs are then stored for the winter and returned to the hive in the spring to save the bees the energy-intensive work of having to rebuild them in empty frames. Honeycomb is actually capped honey that is removed from the comb and sold along with the frame.
When we uncap the combs, we’re left with a lot of honey caps, which contain honey, wax, and propolis, so a friend and I are now trying to make mead from them. We call it “víčkovice.” Mead made from linden or spring honey, produced using the traditional cold-honeying method, is also interesting, and the beeswax candles we make are very nice too. These are made from wax extracted by melting down old honeycombs, which need to be replaced from time to time because they darken and can become a source of infection.
Can everything the bees produce really be used, or are there limits that a beekeeper won’t cross?
A good beekeeper is considerate. Everything we do is in harmony with the bees’ lives and with nature, so we think first and foremost about what the bees need, and only then do we make careful use of what they offer us. Take pollen, for example — it’s a superfood, but it’s also a source of protein for the bees. If you were to take it away from them on a large scale, you’d doom the colony to extinction. And the same goes for honey, which the bees produce to store for the winter. A beekeeper knows full well that the more honey they leave for the bees, the healthier the bees will be, and they’ll repay the favour. We shouldn’t forget that bees can survive without us, but we cannot survive without them.
What is our relationship with bees and beekeeping? Do we realise their importance?
The Czech Republic is among the countries with the highest density of beehives in Europe. We’re able to increase the number of colonies faster than before, and the number of young beekeepers is growing. Last year, I completed a three-year program in Nasavrky—whereas years ago they had an almost empty classroom, now several are filled to capacity. Beekeeping is on the rise, but we must also consider species other than the honeybee.
In Bohemia alone, there are about 600 species of bees. To preserve the ecosystem, we need not only beehives for honey but also solitary bees, bumblebees, and other insects, but unfortunately, their numbers are declining rapidly. Over the past thirty years, global insect biomass has declined by about three-quarters.
On the brighter side, there is now a lot of discussion about how closely agriculture is linked to bees and that without them, our plates would look completely different. Insects serve as food for many animals, but they also act as pollinators. About two-thirds of plants — our food sources — are dependent on insect pollination. In addition, insects also loosen and aerate the soil.
What is currently the greatest threat to bees?
I’d say the same things that harm people — chemical sprays and monocultures, because they limit the bees’ diet. A one-sided “diet” of rapeseed weakens their immune systems, making them more susceptible to disease. Recently, the use of neonicotinoids — pesticides that cause bees to lose their sense of direction after collecting nectar, preventing them from returning to the hive and leading to their death — was finally banned. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of chemicals in the fields. Since the 1980s, bees have also been battling varroa, a disease transmitted by mites that they are unable to combat.
I see a major problem in the large-scale mowing of gardens and fields. We have few hedgerows, ecological corridors, and floodplain forests; machinery mows every corner, and around us, a “green concrete” landscape devoid of life and diversity is emerging. That’s why every step counts — last year we planted a flower meadow, in cities, areas are being left unmowed, and roof gardens are becoming a trend.
What can you do as a beekeeper?
One option is to communicate with farmers, especially conventional ones, because the situation is different with smaller organic and biodynamic farmers. They don’t just follow tables, limits, and quotas. They have a connection to the land, understand the natural interdependence between bees and farming, plant hedgerows, and their fields are teeming with life. It’s even better to turn a conventional farmer into a beekeeper, so they can view all interventions in nature from the other side, not just as a business.
Every year, we meet with an agronomist who specialises in deciding what to plant where, and where to plant nectar- and pollen-producing plants, and I personally visit kindergartens and schools to educate children. We need to show them that they don’t need to be afraid of bees and that it’s not good to isolate ourselves from nature and constantly try to control and manage it.
Bee pollen comes in two forms. The first is husked pollen, which bees carry in baskets on their legs and is difficult for humans to digest. It contains a lot of protein, but this protein is enclosed in a shell, so it passes through our digestive system without being utilised by the body.
For this reason, people began harvesting and selling perga pollen, which is much more valuable to us. Perga is fermented honey — bees store the pollen in the honeycomb and cover it with a thin layer of honey to start the fermentation process. Fermentation breaks down the pollen’s outer shell, releasing the contents of the pollen grain, which then continue to ferment. In this form, perga contains more protein than a kilogram of beef.
Royal jelly is produced by young bees in their pharyngeal glands. In the process, they consume large amounts of pollen and convert it into a paste. It is also called “sister’s milk” because its composition resembles that of human breast milk, which is absolutely unique in the insect kingdom. Worker bees serve royal jelly exclusively to the queen bees.
Propolis is a bee-made sealant with a distinctive scent that bees use to coat the inside of the hive. It has antibacterial properties, which is why it’s used in medicinal ointments and tinctures. It helps with skin conditions and accelerates healing.
What about organic honey production. Is that a realistic idea?
It's feasible, but also complicated. The requirements for certification are so strict that very few beekeepers manage to obtain it. I believe that if you handle honey gently and without chemical additives, it’s always an organic product. Even if bees collect nectar from a chemically treated plant, they don’t store it immediately in the comb. They use an ingenious filtration mechanism — up to thirty bees pass the nectar among themselves using their honey sacs. This process purifies the honey, thickens it, and, in a sense, pre-digests it, enriching it with enzymes that break down complex sugars into fructose and glucose. In winter, this provides the bees with a nutritious and easily digestible source of energy.
Although analyses have not detected the presence of pesticides in honey, and it’s true that the bees’ filtration system is perfect, I can't say that no trace of chemicals would find its way into the honey. That’s because pollen grains naturally enter the honey directly from the bees, and those aren’t filtered out in any way.
Despite all the worries, beekeeping is probably a great source of joy, isn’t it?
After every winter, I look forward to the first inspection of the hives and the first honey extraction. It also means a lot of work, but we invite people over to come take a look and help us uncap and extract the honey. I call it the modern-day version of feather-plucking, which our grandmothers used to do. We could buy an uncapping machine, but that wouldn't be the same. We want to keep doing it by hand so we don’t lose the fun of it.
I don’t know a single beekeeper who’s in it purely for the profit. The bond with the bees tends to be very deep, and the colonies quickly become part of the family. You can’t compare that to honey processors who buy it cheap and sell it for a high price. Bees have brought several very good friends and lots of interesting people into our lives, whether they’re farmers, enthusiasts, or people in the culinary world. Beekeeping is a certain lifestyle; it helps you find peace and start thinking differently about the relationships in the environment where you live.
Did you know that:
- The honeybee is an incredibly hardworking pollinator, visiting up to 3,000 flowers a day. An entire hive can visit as many as 10 million flowers in a single day.
- A forager bee makes 3 to 10 trips a day and brings back 20 to 40 mg of nectar from each one. To produce about half a kilo of honey from one litre of nectar, the bee must fly out of the hive about 40,000 times.
- The type of honey and the plants pollinated depend on what is currently in bloom, but also on the nectar content and the distance to the flowers. A bee’s flight range is 2 to 4 kilometres, but scout bees seek out the nearest flowers from which they can collect nectar and pollen with the least effort.
- Bees are floroconstant, meaning they remain loyal to the flowers of a single plant. When they discover attractive flowers in the morning, they practice landing on a single type and fly to it all day long. This makes their work more efficient and saves energy and time that would otherwise be lost to long flights and adapting to other plants.
- Honey does not spoil, but it crystallises. Some beekeepers choose to mechanically disrupt this natural process by stirring the honey to produce what is known as creamed honey. The quality and composition of the honey remain unchanged, but it stays creamy and does not harden.
- Honey is a mixture of simple, easily digestible sugars that are immediately absorbed into the bloodstream and quickly replenish energy during both physical and mental exertion. Honey has antibacterial properties that disinfect and heal wounds; it also contains peroxidase, which has anticancer effects, and enzymes that heal mucous membranes.
Sources: Demeter Journal, Permakultura magazine, the book *Phenomenal Bees*
