Selina Vogel is from the German city of Cologne and came to Lanzarote on vacation eight years ago, where she found "an inner peace" that made her decide to move to the island.
In Germany, she studied a degree that combines Mathematics, Biology, and Chemistry, and upon arriving in Lanzarote, she worked in a bakery.
After a few years, she was finally able to focus on one of her passions, beekeeping. "I've loved it since I was little, I grew up in a very small town where there was a beekeeper," she shares.
When she discovered the organic honey from Lanzarote, she wanted to meet its producer, Klaus Guttenberger, who launched the brand in 2012 with organic certification from the Government of the Canary Islands.
"We have 50 beehives on 15 farms all over the island"
Now he collaborates with him and last year launched the Lanzarote Honeybees project, which organizes experiences with bees for tourists and locals to financially support the production of organic honey from Lanzarote. "We have 50 hives on 15 farms all over the island, we are harvesting."
Since the profits from selling organic honey from Lanzarote go towards production costs, equipment, and transportation, Vogel decided to launch Lanzarote Honeybees, a sustainable project for tourists and Lanzarote residents. "We are open to everyone who is curious about bees and loves nature."
The scheduled visits, which take place on Wednesdays starting at 11:30 a.m., are for people twelve years and older and last about two and a half hours, but can be extended "depending on people's curiosity."
Vogel explains that she also organizes visits, at a time to be agreed upon, with groups of work colleagues or for families with young children so that the explanation is adapted to them.
"I start by talking about biodiversity in Lanzarote, people are amazed that there are bees here, we talk about the island's plants and where they find pollen and nectar, then about the different ways of working as a beekeeper in the world, about the life of the bee, the hive...", Vogel explains.
"Then we put on the suits, they are small groups, a maximum of ten people, I think it's nicer that way, we open the hive, we look to see if we can see the queen, we see the nectar, the pollen..." completes the project coordinator.
"Canarian bees are smaller and resist heat and wind"
Each hive in the project has between 3,000 and 20,000 bees. "We have hives in all the municipalities of the island except Yaiza and Arrecife. In La Florida, Masdache, in Muñique, El Cuchillo, Cajaste..., he shares".
They are plots of land for ecological agricultural production: "They have to have a certain amount of square meters, ecological certification, they cannot be next to a road, they cannot have fields with monocultures next to them, etc.," Vogel lists.
"These are farms of peasants who are happy if we put a hive there, because the bees pollinate the fruit and vegetable plants," he adds.
The bees of the Lanzarote Honeybees project are black Canary Island bees, which "have been in the archipelago for thousands of years and are smaller and more resistant to heat and gusts of wind," says the project coordinator.
For those who are afraid of stings, Vogel explains that "the Canary black bee is very docile and calm. If you are not bothering them, they do not sting. On Wednesdays I open the hive for visitors and they are very surprised at how good they are."
Asked about the situation of pollinating insects in Europe, whose critical situation has been denounced by scientists in recent years, Vogel explains that, fortunately, honey-producing bees are among the few pollinators that remain, "thanks to the beekeepers who care for and preserve them."
The Lanzarote Honeybees project, for example, does not place too many hives "so as not to compete with wild pollinators" and always provides drinking troughs that also serve the rest of the pollinators.