Ingo Buschmann has been working for Siemens since 2002, currently at Siemens Energy in the Dynamowerk Berlin in Siemensstadt. He manages the Siemens Energy training center. There, on the roof of the dynamo plant, Buschmann has also been pursuing his hobby since this year. He is a beekeeper. And he has settled two of his twelve bee colonies here. Not only do they produce honey, they also have an unusual job.
Mr. Buschmann, bee colonies on the roof of the Dynamowerk in Siemensstadt: How did it come about?
Ingo Buschmann:
That was an idea from my hobby. So I started beekeeping 4 years ago. For one reason: we have fruit trees at home. And I wasn't quite sure if it was the frost or the lack of pollination or something else - they weren't yielding much. And my brother and I goaded each other and then we said, now we're going to start beekeeping. And that was about 2017 when we started that: The first year with two colonies. In the meantime, I've ended up with ten to twelve colonies.
And how did it go from your private garden to the roof of the dynamo plant where you work?
Ingo Buschmann:
When my department moved out here in 2018 and we modernized the office space, I had the chance to go up on the roof at some point and simply approached the employee in charge with a joke and the offer to provide honey. He thought that was great.
Do the bees here in Siemensstadt have enough to collect to make honey?
Ingo Buschmann (with a twinkle in his eye):
Since I've been looking out of the window here for two years now, I'm pretty well aware of what's here. My goal this year was to come here at the end of May if possible, because that's when the black locust blossoms, for example. An important nectar-bringer. There are many black locust trees down Motard Street. Across the street on the waterworks site there are many black locust trees, and along the "Lazy Spree" there are also lots of gardens. The bees have a flight radius of 5 km around their location. That means, they catch a lot of balcony boxes and other gardens in the Siemensstadt or in the districts Charlottenburg and Spandau. Outside, the linden blossom is in progress right now. That's also what they collect as nectar and then turn into honey.
Since this year, the bees have another important side job - as part of the new "biodiversity concept" of Siemensstadt²: They are on the road as "natural drones" and provide important information for BeeOMonitoring.
More about that topic you find here: