CARNICA
Slovenia
Slovenia is a country in the heart of Central Europe, famous for its incredible landscape diversity. Despite Slovenia being a small country, it offers favourable conditions for beekeeping, as the diversity of plants enables the production of various types of honey – acacias, lindens, chestnuts, fir, spruce, flowers and forest honey. Slovenia was labelled the “heart and soul of beekeeping” in Europe. The country is known for the quality of its honey and its long tradition of apiculture.
One of the pioneers of apiculture on a global scale was Slovenian. Anton Janša (1734-1773) is considered to be the first teacher of modern beekeeping at the Habsburg court in Vienna.
Slovenia is the only European Union member state, which has protected its own autochthonous honey bee - the Carniolan Bee
The Slovenian territory is the original territory of the Carniolan bee – Apis mellifera carnica. Slovenia is the only European Union member state, which has protected its own autochthonous honey bee. The Carniolan bee or Carnie for short (Krainer Biene in German) is now the second most common honeybee in the world, famed for its docility, hard work, humility and excellent sense of orientation.
Carniolan honey bee
Today, the Carniolan honey bee is the second most common bee subspecies in the world. It has some excellent qualities that are prized by beekeepers from around the world.
The main among them are:
- non-aggressive, rarely stings,
- calm and docile behavior on the comb,
- rapid spring developmnet,
- high honey yields,
- good use of forest pastures,
- less collection of propolis,
- excellent sense of orientation,
- a well-developed cleaning instinct,
- wintering in small families and using small amounts of the winter food supply,
- the brood is adapted to pasture conditions.
