Organic beekeeping means dealing with bees in accordance with their nature and environment. It requires conversion of all bee colonies to organic practices over a minimum one year period. Organic certification is controlled by EU regulations and national control bodies, with producers paying for an annual control program. There are also additional standards from biological associations in Luxembourg like Demeter and Bio-Lëtzebuerg that have stricter rules than EU organic regulations around materials used for hives and feeding, and banning interventions like artificial queen breeding. Inspections of certified organic beekeeping operations verify compliance with production volumes, storage, and record keeping.

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Bio Imkerei
Organic Beekeeping
Organic beekeeping means:
Dealing with bees having regard to their
nature, especially the species-specific
properties. Taking into consideration their
relationship with the environment, taking
into account the nature, and critically
assessing the beekeeper’s interventions.
EU Regulations
• REGULATIONS
Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007
on organic production and labelling of organic products and
repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91
• COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 889/2008
of 5 September 2008
laying down detailed rules for the implementation of
Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic
production and labelling of organic products with regard to
organic production, labelling and control

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Control Bodies
• Member States shall set up a system of controls
and designate one or more competent
authorities responsible for controls with respect
to the obligations established by this Regulation
in conformity with Regulation (EC) No 882/2004.
• A contract between producer and control body is
made.
• The producer commits to accept the EU
regulation and accept the standard control
program of the control body.
• The producer must pay the costs for the control
program.
Control Bodies
Number system
• The control numbers of the control agency on organic
products are built up since January 1, 2011 as follows:
• Luxembourg has no own control body, but a contract
with a German control body
• LU-BIO-04: Prüfverein Verarbeitung ökologische
Landbauprodukte e.V., Karlsruhe
• LU-BIO-05: Kontrollverein Ökologischer Landbau e.V.,
Karlsruhe
• LU-BIO-06: Certisys sprl/bvba, Bolinne
• LU-BIO-07: Gesellschaft für Ressourcenschutz GfRS
mbH, Göttingen
Biological Associations in
Luxembourg
• Bio-Lëtzebuerg
• Demeter

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Different Bio Associations –
Different Views
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Form of Management
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Conversion of
all colonies to
Demeter-mode
of operation
necessary.
Conversion of
all colonies to
Bio-Lëtzebuerg
mode of
operation
necessary.
Conversion of
all colonies to
organic mode of
operation
necessary.
Conversion
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Conversion must
be made within
three years. In the
meantime, the
honey may be
marketed as “In
conversion to
Demeter.“
The minimum time
for conversion is
one year before
marketing honey
and wax.
The minimum time
for conversion is
one year before
marketing honey
and wax.

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Hives
No polystyrene Only wooden hives
Hives
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Hives must be
made of natural
materials like
wood, straw or
clay (with the
exception of
fixings, roof
coverings, and
floor screens).
The hives shall be
made basically of
natural materials,
(for example
wood, straw or
clay) with the
exception of
fixings, roof
coverings, and
wire mesh.
The colonies must
mainly placed in
natural material,
presenting no risk of
contamination to the
environment or the
apiculture products.
Cleaning and Disinfection
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
The cleaning and
disinfection of
hives may only be
undertaken using
heat (flame or hot
water) or
mechanically.
With heat, flame,
or mechanically. In
case of acute
infections, the use
of NaOH solution
(with subsequent
neutralisation with
organic acids) is
permissible.
With heat, flame,
or mechanically. In
case of acute
infections, the use
of NaOH solution
(with subsequent
neutralisation with
organic acids) is
permissible.

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Wax
Wax
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Wax used for guiding
strips or midribs must
be natural comb or
capping wax and
sourced from Demeter
beekeepers.
During the conversion
period the wax shall
be replaced with wax
coming from organic
beekeeping.
Honeycombs
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
The brood area naturally
enough forms a self-
contained unit. Both comb
and brood area must
be able to grow as the bee
colony develops through
building more natural comb.
The brood chamber and
frame size must be chosen
so that the brood area can
expand organically with the
combs and without being
obstructed by wood from
the frames. Separation
barriers are not allowed as
integral elements of the
management system.

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Honeycombs
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Super: Only in the
supers may waxen
midribs be used. It is
nonetheless desirable to
avoid their use here too.
Storage: Only the
substances non-
transgenic bacillus
thuringiensis and acetic
acid may be used to
protect stored combs
from wax moths
Feeding
Price: 1,73 € /kgPrice in supermarket 0,65 € /kg
Feeding
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Honey and blossom pollen
are the natural foods for
bees. The aim should be to
winter them on honey.
Where this is not possible
supplementary winter feed
must contain at least 10%
honey by weight. This must
come from a Demeter
certified source.
Chamomile tea and salt are
also to be added to the
feed.
All feed supplements must
be of organic if not
Biodynamic origin.
At the end of the production
season hives must be left
with reserves of honey and
pollen sufficiently abundant
to survive the winter.
The use of organically-
produced sugar syrup or
organic sugar molasses
instead of organically-
produced honey in artificial
feeding, in particular, when
it is required by climatic
conditions that provoke
crystallisation of honey

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Management Systems
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Clipping the wings of
queens is prohibited.
Male brood is only
allowed to be partially
removed.
Clipping the wings of
queens is prohibited.
Male brood is allowed
to be removed, for
purposes of varroa
treatment.
Reproduction
Swarm cells Queen breeding
Breeding and Reproduction
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
Swarming is the natural
way to increase the
number of bee colonies
and is the only permitted
means for increasing
colony numbers.
Artificial queen breeding
(grafting etc.) is
prohibited.
Instrumental
insemination and the use
of genetically modified
bees are prohibited.
The replacement of the
queen bees involving the
killing of the old queen is
permitted.

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Buying-in of Colonies
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
The system of management
cannot rely on the continual
introduction of colonies,
swarms, and queens from
elsewhere.
Any bees or queens purchased
must, wherever possible, come
from Demeter beekeepers.
If these are not available, bees
and queens may come from
organically certified sources.
Multiple and routine uniting of
colonies as well as systematic
queen replacement is not
permitted.
Apiaries must be constituted by
means of the division of
colonies or the acquisition of
swarms or hives from units
complying with the provisions
laid down in this Regulation. For
the renovation of the apiaries
10% per year of the queen bees
and swarms not complying with
this Regulation can be
incorporated into the organic-
production unit provided that the
queen bees and swarms are
placed in hives with combs or
comb foundations coming from
organic-production units.
Honey Harvest and Storage
Honey Harvest and Storage
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
During the extraction,
pressing, sieving,
purifying, and
subsequent bottling of
the honey, temperatures
should not exceed 35°C.
Pressurised filtration is
not permitted.
Any additional heating of
the honey is to be
avoided.
Harvest: All equipment
for the extraction and
storage must be of food
grade materials. Honey
sieve mesh size must be
no less than 0.2 mm.
Pressure filtration is
prohibited.
By selecting suitable
filling process heating to
over 40 ° C is excluded.
Storage: cool, dark, and
dry.

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Honey Harvest and Storage
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
As a rule, the honey should
be put into the glass or
metal jars which it is to be
sold in immediately after
extraction and before any
solidification occurs. In
certain situations
subsequent refilling may be
permitted subject to the
conditions.
Storage: dark, airtight, cool.
Plastic containers are not
allowed.
Honey Quality
Demeter Bio-Lëtzebuerg EU-organic-
regulation
The legal requirements and
criteria must be fulfilled:
Water content - measured
according to DIN/AOAC -
18% max and for heather
honey 21.4% max.
The HMF content -
measured according to
Winkler - 10 mg/kg max
The Invertase level -
measured according to
Hadorn - must be at least
10 (except honeys with a
low content of enzymes like
honey from acacia).
The legal requirement must
be fulfilled.
Inspector Visits
• Make a date
• Inspection of the business
• Inspection of the storage
• Query of colonies/production volumes
• Inspection of cards stock / honey book
• Possible inspection of delivery notes (food!)
• Volume calculation, for example, feed
10 colonies will require 150 kg sugar in the storage still
50 kg sugar according to the delivery based 200kg.
• Sampling (honey and wax)

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Thank you for your attention!