Invest in bees for a sustainable future - BEE FRIEND
About us

bee-friend is a team of passionate beekeepers in Munich, committed to saving bees, and the planet. What makes us unique is that there is more to us than keeping bees.


We are also international experts on climate change, sustainability, and food security with long-standing professional experience, at home and in developing countries.


This expertise is crucial to our work as beekeepers. We know that saving bees requires a fully systematic approach. They need more flowers, less pesticides and monoculture. Not only honey bees populations need us but also their relatives - wild bees, bumble bees, and other insects. Saving bees requires strengthening the entire ecosystem within which they operate. This includes saveguarding beekeepers and their intimate knowledge of those amazingly intelligent and complex creatures, not just locally but worldwide. Because bees really do need to survive, for all our sakes.


There's lots to do - let's get started, together.

 

Dr. Kathrin Köller

Founder and Managing Director


Kathrin is a passionate beekeeper, loves animals und nature, and has been trying to save the planet for as long she can remember.


She holds a doctorate from Oxford University in International Development Studies and has worked as a consultant for global food security for the United Nations. 


At bee-friend she is in charge of the apiaries and daily business of the company, gives talks and promotes beekeeping as a sustainable livelihood in developing countries.


Her aim is to showcase the bees' vital role in the global food chain. Because anyone who eats needs bees: they are the world's main pollinators for many crops upon which we humans rely.

Bernardo Lazo Diaz

Co-founder and Environmental Expert


Bernardo is one of our main beekeepers and our in-house specialist for climate change and the environment.


He is also an international consultant for climate change and sustainability.


At bee-friend he is in charge of our apiaries and responsible for advising our clients on climate change mitigation measures. He also gives talks and workshops on these topics, and is in charge of our very own corporate environment policy.  


His aim is to show the impact of climate and environmental change on biodiversity, and the bees. Because only coordinated systemic interventions which include the natural habitat of bees and insects will sustainably protect them.  

Ela, the boss


Always has her eye on the ball, sniffs out every opportunity and excels at snoozing. Willingly shares her terrace with bees and happily tolerates the buzz. In her free time, she focusses on rodents and retaining her multiple titles of award-winning digger of holes that noone needs.


At bee-friend she is in charge of everything. At least she likes to think so.


Enthusiastically eats insect-based dog food as her contribution to save the planet.

A team of vetted free-lance beekeepers is at hand share the work load if needed. All of us are dedicated to protecting these amazing animals. Among us, we have several decades of beekeeping experience, and combine serious professional competence with excellent customer service. We love working with bees, and this shows in the care and time we invest in tending to the hives.


Our bees reside on 12 Dadant frames in locally-made wooden boxes. We strive to use only regional, natural materials, avoid plastic and unnecessary journeys by the car. In order to guarantee maximum residue-free and healthy building material in the hives, we re-utilise wax from our own bees as much as possible. Regular varroa treatments and continuous health checks go without saying.


Our bees are apis mellifera carnica and as such ideally adapted to the local climate conditions, especially our long and cold winters in the South of Bavaria. We let them rear their own queens, and only if needed supply pure-bred queens bees from a trusted source high up in the Alps. Obviously, we pick the new queens up ourselves rather than having them sent by post.