NEWSLETTER #37 (English) von Urs & Izzy: New Website, Blog & much more!
- Izzy the busy bee....
- May 2
- 5 min read
February 2026 ( #37)
Dear honey lovers! New year, new style! During those long winter nights, Izzy has been working on a new ".cH" web. In the meantime, Urs has been working on the apiary. And what do the bees do? Well, not much, actually! They enjoy their "well-deserved break". But we'll still tell you a few interesting facts. Where (and when) do bees go to the toilet? How fast do bees grow compared to humans and which is the latest Swiss start-up to deal with bees? Read on!
We decided to start a "real" local website (ursizzyimker.ch) of our own and learn about website management. New Year's resolutions, well ... now there is no turning back! We also have new email addresses that are easier to remember. And everything looks more modern.......and, as you'll notice, Izzy still needs to improve her skills in dealing with all this software stuff. 😀 Any WordPress tip is welcome!
We hope you like it! Let us know what you think so we can improve. And all this while our bees are sleeping. Or are they? No, not anymore! Read on to find out what the bees have been up to since the beginning of the year!
News from the Apiary
December, January and February are the only months in which we can safely carry out repair work on the apiary. Why? Because the bees don't "snoop around" and check what we're doing. So what DIY work are we doing this year?
Bee house in the forest, winter
No-fly zone!
This year's Christmas gifts for Urs included a cordless power tool and a large box of wood screws. Now there are no more excuses! He is working on adding additional shelves inside the hive so that we have more storage space and do not have to transport material (by bike) between the basement and the hive.
We also lined the interior walls of the apiary with additional wooden panels to better insulate it. All wood comes from recycled material from other buildings. Next, we need to harvest a little more solar energy to illuminate the inside of the hive ... He is an expert in this field ... at least on paper!
Where is my honey...?
Well, that's it. We have run out of honey ... until July. Some of you are asking us, "Will you have some again (or more)?"
We hope that we will have honey again next year. This depends on many factors – only a few of which are within our capabilities. Some years there is a lot of honey, others less – it depends on the availability of nectar, which in turn depends a lot on the weather and also on the bees!
The bees are always busy. Well, maybe there are a few lazy colonies that "wake up" later in the year. A bit like us humans, each "family" has its own personality, but in general, they are hardworking.
However, swarming is another big reason why we may not have as much honey. Shortly before a bee colony swarms out (between April and May), they "polish" up to 12 or 14 kilos of honey in two days. They simply fill their bellies, as they don't know how long they will have to fly to reach their new home.
So will we have honey? Yes, we hope so. How much honey? That is the million-dollar question!!
Facts & Figures
Nature has its own wonders – and the transformation from the egg laid by the queen bee to the birth of the new bee is a miracle in itself – and testifies to how powerful the combination of pollen (proteins) and honey (carbohydrates) is.
Check out these amazing numbers:
A honey bee egg weighs about 0.1 mg. The larva weighs just as much in the first stage. In the following six days of its larval life, the larva increases from 0.1 mg to about 120 mg. Shortly before pupation, it excretes once, and the resulting adult bee weighs about 110 mg. So the new bee weighs about 1,000 times as much as the day-old larva." All this in just 21 days.
Now listen to this:
"If a human baby weighing four kilos at birth were to grow at the same rate, it would weigh 4,000 kilos, or 4 tons, at the end of six days.
Wussten Sie, dass...?
Bees feed on nectar and pollen as long as they are available, and honey in winter. Like any other animal, they also have to relieve themselves. But they stay in the hive all winter ... How do you manage that?
They have an exquisite etiquette!
As long as they are active and the weather allows them to fly, bees "defecate" a few times a week. They relieve themselves during the flight, and their excrement is yellow ... and smells like flowers! (Well, at least that's what the scientists say). Bees are very well behaved and do not poo inside the hive. So what do they do in winter? Bees do not leave the hive in winter – they freeze to death when temperatures drop below 15 °C. So they hold back their feces for 2, 3 or even up to 4 months. Yes, they can. However, if a winter's day is sunny, beautiful and warm, they will naturally sneak out of the hive to make a short flight and relieve themselves! The ONLY bee that poops in the hive is the queen. Her ladies-in-waiting take care of cleaning her (and behind her). A bit like it was in the European courts with the noble ladies in their large crinoline dresses in the 18th and 19th centuries...
Schweizer Bienen
Switzerland also has technological innovations at the highest level in the field of beekeeping – unfortunately, not all start-ups survive
Vatorex, a Swiss company involved in the development of a device to control the Varroa mite in bees, filed for bankruptcy in 2025. Vatorex had been working on a technological solution for ten years and raised capital (more than 7 million Swiss francs from grants and private investments). Unfortunately, the beehive heater they developed did not pass the field trials in Canada and New Zealand. In these countries, beekeepers keep thousands of bee colonies, and it would have been an amazing leap forward to improve the survival rate of the colonies. The concept is good (warming the hive to 41 °C for 12 days, all mites die, and the bees are only slightly affected). But the implementation was not good enough. Hopefully it will work out next time...
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