A gardener who manages more than 150 hives has been named Austria’s Organic Beekeeper of the Year.
Harald Fuchssteiner from the small town of Oberhub, Lower Austria, said he was overwhelmed by the prize at the Wieselburg Fair.
More than 1,000 samples from apiaries all over the country had been handed in to be evaluated in different categories at the Golden Honeycomb award ceremony.
Harald, who co-manages his 160-hive honey farm with his wife Heidi, told the Kurier newspaper: “It’s been 30 years since we set up our first hives. We feel profoundly honoured by this acknowledgement.”
Harald and Heidi run a shop where their honey and beeswax candles are available and also educate interested individuals and schoolchildren about beekeeping.
The Fuchssteiner family focuses on Carniolan honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica), a subspecies of the domesticated western honeybee (Apis mellifera). The pollinator is popular among apiarists for being gentle and physically robust.
In 2021, there were more than 33,300 beekeepers in Austria. Only a small number of them are full-time professionals.
Apiculture is most popular in Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Styria.
Lower Austria, where the award-winning Fuchssteiner family lives, is home to 5,000 apiarists. They are currently in charge of approximately 40,000 colonies.
