2011 – Warth (Austria)

2nd International Meeting of Young Beekeepers

Warth, Austria

July 11 – 14, 2011

Participating countries:

Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Wales.

Competition:

• Written academic knowledge test
• Botany test
• Microscopy
• Practical bee handling (work with a real honey bee colony)
• Recognition of different beekeeping tools
• Other tasks

Winners:

Support of young generation in its passion for beekeeping, international cooperation and international exchange not only on professional but also on cultural and personal level – all of these are important aspects of the idea of the international meetings of young beekeepers and also reasons why IMYB has its support and became an annual event.
Once the tradition of International Meeting of Young Beekeepers was successfully started in 2010 in the Czech Republic in Nasavrky, the baton was handed to the Austrian organizers Albert Schittenhelm and the president of the Autrian Beekeeping Association Ing. Josef Ulz who decided to organize the 2nd meeting in Austrian. Their task was not easy but the organizers did a great job and the meeting, which took place at a beekeeping school in Warth and which grew from 9 to 16 delegations from different countries, was appreciated very much by all the participants.
Day 1 was planned for the arrival and meeting of all the delegations and later on for a dinner and social activities where the participants met and got to know each other.
On day 2 in the morning was held an opening ceremony where one delegation after another was coming in the opening ceremony hall and was holding its national flag. This offered a truly international atmosphere and a spectacular view on the participants once all the delegations came.

Then the competition itself started. The participants had to go through many different disciplines. One of them was botany and recognition of plants or microscopy (anatomy of a bee) where the young beekeepers had to identify enlarged parts of the honey bee body. However, compared to the previous meeting, other competition tasks of IMYB 2011 were more oriented on the practical side of beekeeping. Other disciplines were dividing of a living colony of bees, sorting of beekeeper´s tools into groups according to the field where they are used. The young beekeepers also had to figure out quality and maturity of honey and last, but not least, they had to produce their own candle made of wax.

In the evening, eight of the delegations presented their countries and beekeeping in a ten-minute presentation. This part of the program was very creative and also full of food specialities, music, traditions and interesting information.
On the Day 3 after breakfast, there was a theoretical test with questions in 12 different languages in order to have fair conditions for all the participants who had the questions and answers in their native languages.
After the written test, the young beekeepers could relax during various outdoor activities, games and competition tasks in the forest and could enjoy the afternoon outside. Then the closing ceremony started and the winners of IMYB 2011 were announced.
In the evening, another eight delegations held presentations about their countries which was a pleasant time in a friendly atmosphere shared by all the participants and the event came slowly to its end.
For more photos, visit our gallery.