Hotel delle api: the Croatian beekeeper who rents hives in exchange for honey produced to conserve biodiversity

A beekeeper has opened a "hotel for bees", where it is possible to rent a hive from those who would like one but do not have time to take care of it.

A family in Croatia has opened a "bee hotel", which offers productive hives for sale to customers who would like to raise bees but do not have the time or space to care for them.

The beekeeper Domagoj Balja, after decades of experience in beekeeping, explains how his company has managed to respond to the growing interest of its buyers on how to produce honey, especially in such a critical period for this type of honey. agricultural activity, due to a global decline in the bee population. The company, from the town of Garesnica in northeastern Croatia, offers people who wish to have their own homemade honey a three-year contract; each customer rents a hive and receives in return half of the honey produced by his hive.

Balja explained:

Since we go to trade shows with our products, we have received many inquiries as to whether that honey was genuine. We have been asked so often: "Is your honey really homemade?". As experienced beekeepers, we felt a little upset, even offended. Then my wife and I came up with the idea of bringing people closer to beekeeping and giving them the opportunity to learn how it works, giving customers the opportunity to produce their own honey. And that's how we came up with the idea of opening the first Croatian hotel for bees. During the three years, half of the honey production is theirs and half is ours.

Twenty-five customers currently own hives at the farm; most are indigenous, while others come from other countries, such as a driver from Dubai and a football manager from Saudi Arabia.

We will take a maximum of 40 clients. We are pleased that people come here with children, who can see the bees. Many people have approached bees here for the first time.

said the beekeeper, adding that a hive can produce about 30 kilograms of honey in one year.

However, climate change could make beekeeping more difficult for Balja and her customers. Unfortunately this year the hotel lost much of its profits, as snow and frost destroyed the locust tree, a flowering tree necessary for honey production.

In spring we had to intensively feed the bees so that they would not starve, which has never happened to us before

added the entrepreneur.

Bees, vital for fertilizing plants, are threatened by human activity, including the use of pesticides and fertilizers, but also by climate change.

We too, just like the bee hotel, can help these precious creatures, for example by planting flowers they like in our garden or terrace, placing artificial nests for solitary bees or hives and other possibilities that we have reported to you in the following articles: