Bees without Handicap

18 golf holes in the most magnificent valley location. Mountain peaks are grouped all around. Small forests, colourful meadows, farms and fruit orchards grace this scene. The first players are already out. Richard Jany skilfully manoeuvres his caddy past them and cheerfully greets them. He knows every corner, bend and tree here. Past the teeing area on the right, along a narrow gravel path and over a bridge with an idyllically situated pond on the left. Then heading slightly uphill, finally reaching his destination. A green striped beehive stands well protected under a huge lime tree. Richard Jany has not just been the head greenkeeper at Ruhpolding golf course for 25 years, he’s the beekeeper too. He cares for his bees with the same dedication that he tends to the greens. “Only the best for my women,” he winks, parking the caddy just to the side.

He quietly approaches the beehive with calm movements. Fear of contact? Not at all. Richard Jany is well acquainted with his bees. He never wears a protective suit and hat with veil. “They’re really peaceful creatures and only irritated when there’s a thunder storm. And if you’re jittery,” he says. Things are pretty quiet at the entrance hole this morning. Just a few insects swarm out. “Because the hive is south facing and is in the shade now. It’s too cool for the bees. They only fly when it’s about 15 degrees or more and prefer to lie in,” explains Richard Jany.

Meanwhile, the morning gondola is gliding up to the peak on the Rauschberg. The mountain’s contours are crystal clear. It seems close enough to touch. White fluffy clouds decorate the bright blue sky. As soon as the sun is above Ruhpolding’s local mountain Richard’s bees will get cracking in this hive. He has about 40 colonies in total. The insects gather their nectar in a radius of three to five kilometres. They appreciate variety every day and prefer natural unspoilt landscapes. There’s plenty of this in the golf course grounds. These so-called compensation areas are paradise for bees. Primroses, coltsfoot, dandelion, willows, lime blossom and much more grow here. While Richard Jany heads out with his team at 7 a.m. every morning to trim the golf greens down to a millimetre, the natural areas are only mown once a year. Insect pesticides are taboo.

“If a raspberry bush attracts the bees in the morning, they’ll fly to it constantly until the evening. They tell each where the food source is with a round or waggle dance,” says Richard Jany knowledgeably. When everything is sprouting and blooming in early summer, a worker leaves the beehive up to 13 times and day and covers 70 kilometres. A bee has to fly around the Earth twice for just one jar of honey.

A colony has 80,000 insects at the peak of summer, in winter it’s around ten. Every colony has its own queen. Her only task is to lay eggs. That’s roughly 2,000 a day in spring and summer. The queen lives for six years. Worker bees live to just about 50 days old and take on different jobs one after the other in the beehive: they’re promoted from cleaning the hive, to caring for the brood and building honeycomb. Then they’re allowed to be look-outs, foraging bees and finally guard bees that defend the hive. “A perfect organisation where everyone knows what they have to do,” Richard Jany is fascinated.