We members of the Botanical Service, together with our service mentor, Mr. Swartzentruber, take care of four bee colonies. But our service also includes many other duties. It gives us the opportunity to get closer to the natural world and raises our awareness of issues related to environmental sustainability. We meet weekly in the Spetzgart greenhouse, or in winter, in a classroom. The Friends of Salem Association has always generously supported our work, and played a great role in the expansion of our small beekeeping operation.

Each year the Botanical Service plants vegetables, herbs and flower seeds in the greenhouse and observes their development. Additionally, we distribute decorative plants to beautify the school campus. For example, three times a year we plant fresh flowers and bulbs in the halves of recycled wine barrels, and we tend a large flower bed at the entrance to the Spetzgart gymnasium, together with the school’s gardener. Since last year we have also been partnering with the Sustainability Service in order to plant a large flower bed at the edge of the Härlen campus.

Part of our sustainable beekeeping includes the maintenance of a bee showcase. Our goal is not only to spin honey but also ensure that our bee colonies stay healthy. We have learned a lot about the appropriate ways to assist them and the problems which they face. We inspect our bee colonies nearly every week, even outside our service times, because we enjoy them so much.

Phil-Lukas Bittner, Abi1

The four bee colonies maintained by Schule Schloss Salem are not the only ones in Spetzgart. The teacher couple Christina and Helmuth Müller privately maintain two bee colonies. This year, on Ascension Day, 21 May 2020, they were assisted for the first time by a student group in spinning the honey from one of their colonies. This first round resulted in 50 jars of “Castle Honey”. The jars of honey, decorated with especially lovely labels, are very popular. The image showing Salem Castle and a bee was drafted by Helmuth Müller together with the 9D1 students as part of their class on business and career orientation. The design was created by an alumnus, Jonathan Schlotterer.