Mainz-Finthen, a small place near Wiesbaden, Germany, on May 6, 2022. It is shortly after 21:30 on a balmy Friday evening. A fluffy cat is creeping along under the cherry trees, curiously observing the people who are bustling and excitedly scurrying around. The sun has already set, but the air is still wonderfully warm and the sky clear and deep blue. The evening atmosphere is lovely.
The people, five in number, disappear under the trees again and again, wrapping wooden frames there with tension belts. In the process, they make a fair amount of noise and seem to be having fun.
But when the first box is finally lifted, a tense silence sets in. Will everything work? Will the belt hold and will the throng in the crates remain well-behaved?
Thankfully, everything is secured and no angry swarm of bees attacks! So, if it works once, it will surely work on the second and third try, right? And lo and behold: it does!
Review
Let's quickly rewind to the year 2021. We lease a piece of land in the cozy, idyllic town of Wiesbaden-Naurod, and since then it's been there: the Seibert field, a piece of arable land where we want to try out whether our green thumbs also works on a larger scale.
We've already planted fruit trees, picked mirabelles by the bucketful, grown high-yield sunflowers. Now we have another project in the pipeline: the establishment of a bee colony with the support of Tom Junghans from the Mainz Beekeepers' Association and committed other helpers.
The move
So now we drive from Finthen to Naurod, super-cautiously, in a car loaded to the top. The destination: the Seibert field.
26 kilometers can sometimes feel quite long... Does the deer really stay on the side of the road like a good boy (or girl)? Watch out, a cat on the road! And also the confusing forest paths, which look so very different in the dark than during the day, get the blood pumping a little.
But in the end, we finally reach our field. In the meantime, night has fallen. And the nights in Naurod are a lot darker than you're used to in the big city: Where the headlights stop, the field of vision also ends completely.
We park in a way that the headlights illuminate the field a bit, because now comes the exciting part: unloading, setting up, and hoping that all the bees are doing well.
A few weeks ago, this small plateau was built from concrete slabs, a drinking trough was laid out and a spacious box was set up for all the bees' things - frames, frames, veils, and whatever else is needed. Finally, the moment of truth has arrived.
A little while later, it looked like this:
We have just transported the three right (inhabited) bee boxes, the two on the left are still empty and will soon receive bee offshoots from our existing colonies.
And then comes the big moment: opening the hives. All bees are doing well and the move worked out wonderfully! The next day you can already see and hear our new bees buzzing and buzzing, great!
Reaping the Rewards
It turns out we have some very busy bees, because on May 20th, we could sample the first batch of honey already! Beekeeper Tom personally came over to the office and those of us lucky enough to be at the office that day managed to sample some. Yum!
Hmmm... Liquid gold!
Would you like to be there the next time we taste our delicious Seibert honey? Or would you like to take part in the next farming project in our field? Many of our teams are looking for reinforcements in different roles. Here are all the current English-language job openings (more will be coming soon). For German job openings, click here.
You can also find detailed information about Seibert Media and our products in our Knowledge Base.
Further Reading
- Corporate Values at //SEIBERT/MEDIA – Give Your Work Meaning
- Urban gardening with //SEIBERT/MEDIA: Now with real garden beds instead of trash cans!
- Urban Gardening at //SEIBERT/MEDIA: Results from the summer harvest 2018
