Country: Macedonia
Category: Climate
Project aim: By creating a new way of beekeeping and inventing a new hive -Elle Hive- Macedonian Honey work for one common goal: survival of the honeybee. Their bees become stronger, and their genetic material provide future bee generations easily to deal with predators and climate changes. Protecting endangered honeybee is not an altruistic venture – they are attempting to safeguard our own future. Honeybees as a major pollinator, are essential for the plant and ecosystem biodiversity. Climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked.
What do you do?
We have created a new way of beekeeping and invented a new hive-Elle Hive. Everything that conforms to the natural habits of bees. We aimed our work toward one common goal: survival of the honeybee. Our work resulting in stronger bees with strong genetic material that provide future bee generations easily to deal with predators and climate changes.
We use no chemicals, no antibiotics, no acids, no fungicides, no artificial materials inside or outside the hive, no agricultural activities in 8 km radius around the hives. Our hives are sited 1600m up to the mountain where the wildflowers are pure and untouched We leave our bees alone to do what they naturally do best. We then collect all the surplus honey and place it in Tbsp size Honeystick´s.
Why do you decided to create Macedonian Honey?
Maybe you could stand to live in a world without honey, but could you stand to live in a world without chocolate, coffee, apple pears, avocados… Bees are responsible for 1/3 of all our food because bees are pollinating 70 percent of the crops that provide most of the world’s food including the alfalfa eaten by dairy cows. So, milk, butter, cheese, whipped cream and ice cream could all be missing from future tables, if bees are missing from this world.
Unfortunately, bees are dying at unprecedented rates — millions of bees are dying off across the planet each year. Scientists point to several causes of the bee die off, including climate change (recent wet summers have prevented bees from doing what they do best, searching out pollen), parasites, a class of bee-killing pesticides known as neonicotinoids and growing of monoculture crops to feed the world population.
Alas, these pesticides end up in the honey too, as bees buzz from pesticide-sprayed plant to plant, gathering tainted pollen and nectar, returning with it to the hive.
A world without bees would be devastating for food production and decreased biodiversity can lead to increased transmission of diseases to humans and increased healthcare costs. Our ecosystems sustain us and our economies – purifying our drinking water, producing our food and regulating our climate. We are in danger of approaching “a point of no return”.
The only species that will survive this mass extinction will be those species that benefit from our presence. We need to seize the opportunity to stop the damage to nature and biodiversity.
Climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked. Preserving bees will therefore benefit all kinds of pollinating insects, animals and people. Protecting endangered honeybee is not an altruistic venture – we are attempting to safeguard our own future.
“As winners of the national Startup Europe Awards, we will continue to fight against bee decline and create a worldwide network with others beekeepers that will embrace our beekeeping method and Elle hive.” Elena Fidanoska, Macedonian Honey´s CEO