From the Puglian countryside to the Milan metropolitan area, Monini pursues its commitment to defending bees. To mark its first hundred years, the company has decided to support LifeGate's Bee my Future project.
For bees, spring 2020 is proving to be a truly promising time. While we can only partially enjoy the trees in blossom, due to the anti-contagion measures made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic, the small pollinators are buzzing undisturbed among the meadows, favoured by mild temperatures and bright sunny days. And they are winning over precious supporters. From this year, in fact, Monini has decided to take part in LifeGate's Bee my Future project by protecting several hives. To mark its hundredth birthday, the company decided to adopt 100,000 bees. A conscious choice that will help protect these insects, which are of vital importance for safeguarding biodiversity in agriculture.
There is a place in Puglia, in the heart of the Gargano, where bees live alongside olive trees. We explained what this means here: among Monini's olive trees cultivated using organic methods, bees can thrive without fear that the use of synthetic chemical substances will undermine their survival. And in return, the pollinators ensure that biodiversity is richer.
The bad weather of May did not spare even the beautiful lands of Puglia, where the olive groves that give rise to Monini's fine organic oil Bios are located. Thanks to the return of the sun and near-summer temperatures, however, the bees adopted by the company resumed their intense work and now have the assurance of being able to spend future seasons in even greater comfort and safety.
Monini has in fact decided to give the bees kept near its organic olive groves by beekeeper Matteo Maccarone ten new hives, fitted with varroa-resistant bases. These are special galvanised "trays" placed beneath the wire mesh at the bottom of the hive, which make it possible to monitor the health of the colony and protect the insects from infestation by varroa mites, dangerous parasites for bees.
The new "little houses" were donated as part of the initiative "Le api e l'olio", the competition open to all buyers of Monini's Bios oil, who until 30 June can enter a draw to win one of 15 annual supplies of Monini Bios oil and organic apiary honey.
Beekeeper Matteo Maccarone, who works in the Gargano near the organic olive groves where Bios, the 100% Italian organic extra virgin olive oil, is produced, sent us a wonderful photo report to show us the bees' transition from winter to spring — a season that in the Gargano already seems to have been in full bloom for days.
The beekeeper told us that the bees came through the cold season in excellent health and with considerable reserves of honey. In the coming days, some frames will be removed to leave more space for the queen bee ahead of the next broods and the growth of the colony. The bees are already in full swing; all around them are many flowers they are particularly fond of: the pomo d'oro, a flower typical of the Gargano, easily recognisable by its yellow corolla, and soon there will be borage and orange blossom. Around the hives, some beautiful fruit trees can be seen coming into blossom — lemons, oranges and olives. The bees are collecting pollen, above all from the pomi d'oro, which produce it in large quantities: this is the main food source for worker bees and drones, unlike the queen bee, who feeds on royal jelly from birth and throughout her entire life. There is such an abundance of pollen that the bees are already building up stores; they began as soon as temperatures rose steadily above ten degrees, thus starting their spring activity, aided also by the abundance of blossoms available outside.
The next fruit trees to blossom will be pears, peaches and apricots. The beekeeper has already placed some honey supers on the hives to begin collecting the surplus honey — that is, the honey in excess of what the bees themselves need. Finally, shortly, the beekeeper will begin the anti-varroa treatment using the organic method, namely by using oxalic acid, which protects bees from this parasite that represents one of the main threats to their lives. Varroa mites tend to attach themselves to the abdomen of pollinators, undermining their nervous system and leading to their death. The beekeeper protects the bees from all these dangers, first and foremost by guaranteeing them an uncontaminated environment where only organic production takes place, far from synthetic chemical agents and pollutants, and then by himself applying the organic method to beekeeping — which entails the use of natural products both for the hives and for health treatments — and by situating the apiary in an area where there are predominantly crops and wild vegetation, at least three kilometres from crops subject to synthetic chemical treatments and at least half a kilometre from polluted areas such as motorways and high-traffic roads, industrial plants and other sources of pollution.
Interested in beekeeping since childhood, Matteo Maccarone graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture in Naples and, together with his wife, set up a bee-rearing operation in the Carpino area, following in the footsteps and heeding the advice of a highly experienced local beekeeper who became his mentor and entrusted him with the secrets of the trade. Today he is a professional beekeeper with 25 years of experience and a great love for his bees.
Maccarone's is a nomadic beekeeping operation: from late February to October, while the climate is mild, he keeps his 50 hives at Carpino, in the locality of Monte Vernone at approximately 400 metres above sea level, bordering on Monini's organic olive groves. From October onwards, he moves them towards the sea, to the area of Rodi Garganico, where the warmer temperatures allow honey production even during winter, because the bees (of the species Apis mellifera ligustica) continue to pollinate and produce honey for their own subsistence. Maccarone runs an organic beekeeping operation, under which no health treatments are carried out on the bees other than those permitted by the organic specification: for example, for the anti-varroa treatment the beekeeper uses only oxalic acid without resorting to acaricides. The hives are also made from natural, untreated fir wood, which is propolised on the inside by the bees to ensure a sanitised environment for the queen. Thanks to the biodiversity of the area and to an ecosystem protected from pollution and pesticides such as that of Monini's olive groves, the bees are able to produce different types of honey — from mint to orange, from thyme to rosemary, from asphodel to varruca and also clover — which Maccarone sells in local shops and markets along with beeswax and propolis.
Buying a bottle of Monini Olio Bios means adopting 100 bees and contributing, together with the company, to supporting organic beekeeping in Carpino: Monini will in fact purchase the honey produced by Maccarone in direct support of his nature-protection activities through organic beekeeping, which involves the use of only natural materials and prohibits the administration of veterinary treatments to bees, except those permitted under the organic certification regulations.
Monini will also donate to Matteo Maccarone 10 new hives fitted with varroa-resistant floors, as varroa is a very widespread parasite in Italy that threatens the lives of bees.
The collaboration between LifeGate and Monini came about after assessing the criteria of quality, safety, wholesomeness and transparency in the company's production process, as well as Monini's strong tradition of handling extra virgin olive oil with care and rigour — an indispensable ingredient of the Mediterranean diet. LifeGate is the scientific and communications partner of the "Le api e l'olio" campaign, conceived to highlight the significant presence of wild and farmed bees near Monini's organic olive groves in Puglia. The "Le api e l'olio" campaign underlines how the Bios Monini product is healthy, wholesome and safe; beneficial to the survival of bees, and therefore "approved" by them, because it is precisely thanks to the organic cultivation of Monini's olive trees that bees find flowers in abundance and no threat to their health. The "Le api e l'olio" campaign celebrates the positive synergy between organic farming and the lives of bees, which is instead put at risk when synthetic chemical pesticides are used in the field.
It is in particular beekeeper Matteo Maccarone of the Apicoltura Carpinese company in Carpino (Fg) who for years has favoured the areas bordering Monini's land in order to benefit from this fundamental synergy between bees and organic olive groves. And on his apiary, managed in accordance with the principles of LifeGate's Bee my Future project, Monini has applied a unique innovation in Italy: the first non-invasive biomonitoring system for checking the health of bees and, through it, that of the surrounding environment. The data are being continuously updated (read below at the end of the article), while with the "Le api e l'olio" competition, you too can take part in the initiative: until 30 June 2018, by buying a bottle of Bios Monini oil you will contribute to the adoption of 50 bees. Moreover, by entering your details and those of your purchase receipt on the website monini.com, you could win an annual supply of Bios oil and one of organic beekeeping honey. In the meantime, let's find out more about the apiary being monitored.
Since monitoring began in the first days of April, the data recorded so far confirm the excellent health enjoyed by Maccarone's bees. The internal temperature inside the hives is between 34 and 35 degrees, a value that indicates the presence of brood perfectly in line with the bees' biological cycle. The external temperature is between 9 and 20 degrees: after the early morning hours, the little foragers venture out in search of pollen and nectar, and they do so at an extremely high rate, reaching over forty thousand flights per hive in a single day.
The hives weigh approximately forty kilograms each, well above average, a symptom of the intense foraging and honey-production activity — an important indicator of the health of bees and their environment, but also of the great biodiversity richness of the area, which encourages the foragers to collect a large quantity and variety of pollen and nectar.
The only anomalous element is the weather: even southern Italy is experiencing this strange spring, punctuated by rainy days and lower temperatures that restrict, on the colder days, the movements of the bees.