The first jars of urban honey from AquafilSLO’s honey bees

At the end of July, AquafilSLO poured the first honey from the beehives at their so-called bee garden. Two families of bees have been harvesting honey since June 2020 in the neighbourhood of AquafilSLO factory at Letališka 15 in Ljubljana.

The biggest undeveloped area of nearly 5000 m2 within the AquafilSLO’s Ljubljana factory, had been turned into a garden planted with native apicultural plants and trees, which since April 2020 has been hosting two beehives. It will also function as an information point on bees and apicultural plants for employees and business partners.

AquafilSLO carried out this project with the help of the Municipal Department for the Environment and the Botanical Garden of the University of Ljubljana. The latter designed a garden with native apicultural plants that offer pasture for the bees all year round. The benches for beehives and visitors were made according to a design of Ljubljana’s University Faculty of Architecture students that in 2016 under the auspices of Municipality of Ljubljana devised several urban beehives to be used in the city. The bees are in the hands of a well-known Ljubljana’s beekeeper who pioneered urban beekeeping in the city 10 years ago. According to his words the bees at AquafilSLO gave an above-average yield also thanks to the numerous and diverse pasture in the vicinity.

In November 2020 the company joined the municipal initiative Bee path that connects over 40 businesses, beekeepers and institutions that are engaged in the care for the bees in the city. The director and member of the board Mr Jahić finds the initiative “an opportunity to connect with the community that supports urban beekeeping and shares the vision of a sustainable city where the coexistence of many different activities is possible”.
The sustainable development that takes into account the limits of the planet and the future generations is at the core of the AquafilSLO’s identity and the leading principle in all areas of their activity. “The bees that are at home in our Bee garden are a symbol of our commitment to the planet and to the people,” Mr Jahić concludes.

Slovenia has had a very long beekeeping tradition and Slovenians are a genuine beekeeping nation, as one in 200 inhabitants has a hive. It is home to the second most widespread bee variety in the world: the Carniolan honeybee (Apis mellifera carnica), valued for its gentleness and good sense of orientation. It was the first European country that introduced legal protection of bees and one of the first to prohibit the use of certain pesticides. Upon the initiative of the Slovene beekeepers, the United Nations designated 20 May as World Bee Day to call for protection of endangered bees and other pollinators.