THE PLACE TO ENJOY NATURE
THE INDUSTRIOUS HELPERS OF NATURE
The flowering meadows around the IMLAUER Hotel Schloss Pichlarn are buzzing again. The Pichlarner bees are out and about, busily collecting nectar for the Pichlarner honey. Whether for breakfast on bread or as an ingredient for one of our wonderful desserts, this honey is a real treat straight from the Enns Valley.
On the way to
climate-neutral organic hotel
we are taking a wide variety of measures to use natural resources carefully and sustainably and to live respectfully with nature.
Small but mighty
Last year, a total of nine beehives were set up in the hotel’s own woodland, and the busy inhabitants have settled in well in the protected area between tall grasses, bushes and trees. Some of the bees, around 10,000 per colony, spent the winter there. Now in spring, the bee colonies are growing again.
The Pichlarner bees belong to the genus Apis mellifera carnica, or Carnica for short, a subspecies of the western honey bee that is widespread in Austria. A colony comprises around 50-60,000 bees, each of which lives with its queen in a hive.
In order for bee colonies to grow and thrive, they need a variety of flowers and blossoms. You can find them, for example, in our orchard with 60 apple, pear and plum trees.
Well looked after
Our beekeeper Max Radhuber makes sure that the bees in Pichlaren are doing well. In addition to his professional activities as a self-employed master roofer and tinsmith and as an expert in this field, he is a passionate beekeeper in his spare time and runs his own honey factory.
Fascinated by bees and their way of life since his youth, he now devotes his free time entirely to caring for and keeping bees. He looks after around 40 beehives with his expertise and extensive experience. He relies on natural beekeeping and is a certified organic beekeeper.
Depending on the time of year and the weather, he sometimes comes to Pichlarn every week to check on things. Organic-certified beekeeping and care is complex and the beekeeper’s activities are varied. Throughout the year, he looks after the health and reproduction of the bees, ensures they have sufficient food, checks honey production, sets up honey chambers and finally harvests the honey.
The delicious gold of bees
Depending on the weather, a bee colony produces around 15 – 20 kg of honey per year. Honey is a healthy natural product that contains many active ingredients such as amino acids, vitamins (B1, B2, B5, B6, C), minerals, proline and acetylcholine
For beekeeper Max Radhuber, the focus is on keeping and caring for the bees, but of course he also enjoys the wonderful honey that comes from them. His strict organic-certified beekeeping and his interest in sustainability and a respectful approach to nature have brought him together with the IMLAUER Hotel Schloss Pichlarn and the
Pichlarn Castle Estate
and the Schloss Pichlarn estate and a great partnership has developed.
This benefits our bees, the nature around our hotel and, of course, our guests. They can enjoy the delicious Pichlarner honey and look forward to genuine organic quality.
