Beekeepers in northeastern Austria say they “got away with a black eye” after this year’s honey harvest was poor but not as bad as expected.
Apiarists in Lower Austria feared that the cold and rainy conditions this spring mean they would be able to produce just 20 per cent of the recent years’ average.
Now it turns out that the beekeepers in Lower Austria – which is the largest of Austria’s nine states and situated in the northeast of the country – will end up with around half of the usual volume.
Josef Niklas – who heads the provincial association of beekeepers – told broadcaster ORF: “We got away with a black eye. Our losses range around 50 per cent.”
The 2023 figures benefit from a solid performance by colonies situated in and around woodlands to produce the popular forest honey blend, Josef added.
Beekeeping is most popular in the Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Styria.
Austria’s 33,000 apiarists managed 456,000 honeybee colonies and produced 4,100 tonnes of honey in the 2020/2021 business year, according to the federal ministry for agriculture.
Lower Austria’s 5,000 beekeepers currently own 40,000 colonies.
One colony of domesticated western honeybees consists of 20,000 to 50,000 animals.
