An Austrian apiarist has appealed to customers to stay modest after she and many of her peers had to accept a disappointing honey harvest this spring.
Margit Wurzinger from Pertlstein, a small town in southeastern Styria, said she had to supply her honeybee colonies with additional food in the past few weeks to save them from starving.
Speaking to the Kleine Zeitung newspaper, Margit explained that the cold and wet weather this spring had a detrimental impact on the region’s various blooming flowers and trees.
She explained: “We saw temperatures drop below zero degrees centigrade. This affected the blossoming of fruit trees in a very negative way.”
Margit – who manages an organic honey farm consisting of 100 hives – said: “As beekeepers, we do our best to ensure the pollinators’ wellbeing. But we have to consider Mother Nature’s condition.”
The concerned apiarist added: “At one point, we have to accept that such a thing like four seasons as we used to know them does not exist anymore.”
Margit concluded: “We have to appreciate what nature provides us with. If harvest volumes are shrinking, then so be it.”
