2023-07-03 12:24:20
Gars am Inn – That lightning strike was a stab in the heart!
A few days ago, beekeeper Mark Huber (49) from Gars am Inn (Mühldorf am Inn district) still had twelve bee colonies in his garden – a total of 500,000 bees.
Then the thunderstorm came. A hard thunderbolt. And a flash. He set Mark Huber’s shed with the apiaries on fire – all the animals burned.
June 20th in the middle of the night: the burning shed with the apiaries
Photo: private
I AM A BEEKER – WITHOUT BEES!
▶︎ The engineer and father of three sons (17, 17, 18) has been taking care of his “bees” for 20 years. Mark Huber to BILD: “This year I wanted to take care of more colonies again. Shortly before the storm, I had brought the 12th tribe over to me. If only I hadn’t done that!”
On the evening of June 20, Huber heard a loud crack of thunder, then he saw lightning. “I have a crane in the garden, I was sure that’s where it hit.”
The burned out garden house
Photo: Theo Klein
Huber looked, but saw nothing suspicious and went to bed – “suddenly our dog barked in the middle of the night.” Huber got up. Then his shed with the beehives caught fire!
“My neighbor had already called the fire department,” says Huber. However, this could no longer prevent the death of the bees.
Huber: “It was just the high season in the bee year, when each colony has 40,000 to 60,000 bees.” Means: around half a million of the species “Apis Carnica” (a subspecies of the western honey bee) fell victim to the flames. Each colony gave Huber 20 to 25 kilos of honey – over…
Not the only loss: the fire also destroyed Huber’s beekeeper’s centrifuge, his beekeeper’s suit, his wax melter and other equipment. He estimates the damage at around 20,000 euros.
Mark Huber with one of his sons in a beekeeper suit
Photo: private
THEN THE SECOND BLOW: “I had insured the shed, but the insurance company wouldn’t pay,” says Huber
BILD has received the rejection letter from the “Insurance Chamber of Bavaria”. It says: “Unfortunately, the damage to the apiary cannot be reimbursed via the property package.”
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The reason: “A garden shed is used by people for leisure purposes and should also be able to be used and entered by you. According to the Insurance Board, the “damaged bee house” is not “a standard size garden shed”. – it would therefore have had to be “extra insured”.
First the shock with the bees – and then the insurance company lets Mark Huber down…
BEEKEEPERS IN GERMANY
In 2022, 135,730 beekeepers were members of the German Beekeepers’ Association. Most beekeepers are active in the Bavarian state association; in 2022 the Bavarian state association had 33,431 members. According to the Beekeepers’ Association, the beekeepers supply around 1 million bee colonies.
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