Slovenia — a very small country with a population of just over two million — is bonkers about bees. There are 5 beekeepers for every 1000 people, and 8 hives per square kilometre. And the age of the average beekeeper is falling as more young people take it up: many turned pro in the last 10 years.
Slovenia enjoys more aesthetically pleasing hives than much of the world. (photo: Jost Gantar)
That is why we are even more pleased to report that on Slovenia’s initiative the United Nations has declared May 20 to be World Bee Day. Bees are amongst the most important creatures to humans on Earth. These amazing insects pollinate a third of everything we eat and play a vital role in sustaining the planet’s ecosystems. So, the main objective of World Bee Day is to raise awareness about the importance of bees and help drive measures to ensure bees’ survival for the benefit of the entire humankind.
May 20 is the birthday of Anton Jansa (1734-1773), the founder of modern beekeeping and a native of Breznica, a small village in northwestern Slovenia. In 1770, Anton Jansa became the first royally appointed teacher of apiculture for all Austrian lands, as Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa appointed him the head of the first beekeeping school in Vienna. Drawing from a hundred-year tradition of beekeeping, he laid the foundations of modern beekeeping.
Slovenia had proposed that World Bee Day is observed in May, because this is the most important month for bees in the Northern Hemisphere – it’s when bees are the most active and start to reproduce, while the need for pollination is also the highest in this period.
Studies conducted by the UN and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature have shown that the population of bees is declining. Various human causes have contributed to this situation, including intensive farming, the widespread use of pesticides, and pollution from waste materials. Bees are exposed to new diseases and pests, while their natural habitat is declining because of population growth. In addition, the survival and development of bee populations is being increasingly threatened by climate change.
The beekepers in Slovenia use several varieties of hives. There are stacked white boxes, huts with colorful “drawers”, and brown barrel-like hives with lids. (photo: Jost Gantar)
A mobile beehive apiary on the back of a vintage truck in Zirovnica, the cradle of beekeeping in Slovenia. Some of the hives are designed to be mobile, loaded on the back of old trucks, so that beekeepers can easily move their bee families from the valley to the mountains and back again. The means a wider variety of honey flavors for individual producers – flavors like chestnut, flower, sage, and honeydew. (photo: Jure Kravanja)
Beekeeping, which is a traditional agricultural activity in Slovenia, was first mentioned in writing in The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, an encyclopaedia written by Johann Weikhard von Valvasor and published in 1689. The encyclopaedia contains the first longer presentation of beekeeping in Carniola, the territory of present-day central part of Slovenia. Valvasor writes that ‘one can see special little houses for bees in this land‘. (photo: Jost Gantar)
In Slovenia honey is produced by more than 10,000 beekeepers. On average, each has 16 beehives. With almost 5 beekeepers per 1,000 population, Slovenia boasts the highest percentage of beekeepers to the general population of any nation in Europe by far and it is one of the highest percentage of beekeeping nations in the world! (photo: Ales Fevzer)
Slovenian beehives are well-known for their bright colors and their artfully painted front slats which are unique to Slovenia. (photo: Domen Grogl)
Slovenia is the only country in the EU that has protected its indigenous bee, the Carniolan bee. The Carniolan honey bee is native to Slovenia and is one of the most common bee species in the world. (photo: Marko Sinkovec)
For each kilogram of honey collected, a bee family must visit over 4 million flowers and fly almost 200,000 kilometres (five times around the world). (photo: Jost Gantar)
Every year, Slovenian beekeepers produce between 1,300 and 2,500 tons of honey. That’s a lot of sticky, sweet goodness for such a small nation. (photo: Nea Culpa)
Most of Slovenia’s 10,000 beekeepers operate small, local farms. Slovenia was one of the first nations to fight the use of harmful chemicals and it keeps some of the strictest standards of ecological beekeeping in the world. (photo: Boris Pretnar)
In recent years over 1.5 million tons of honey has been produced annually around the world. Production has been increasing the most in Asia, while in Europe it has been falling slightly. (photo: Jost Gantar)
The Idrija Municipal Apiary is an exceptional example of a skilfully crafted and executed and painted apiary and is one of the highlights of the 20th century Slovene apiculture. (photo: Marko Sinkovec)
The apiary intended for aromatherapy in the Goriska Brda region. (photo: Jost Gantar)
Slovenia was one of the first nations to fight the use of harmful chemicals and it keeps some of the strictest standards of ecological beekeeping in the world. (photo: Marko Sinkovec)
All the photos above are from the Media library of I Feel Slovenia!
The very unique Govc Beehive in the Robanov Kot valley was built in 1929 in the Vienna Secession style. (photo: Bojan Kolman)
A close-up of brightly colored, square beehives in Slovenia. They are painted green, blue, purple, red, yellow, white and orange. The different colors are so that the bees can identify their hive. (photo: Luka Esenko)