It’s Sunday morning in Bahnwärter Thiel.

The last of the late-night revellers have moved on and a serene stillness hangs over the site, only interrupted by the occasional whir of a slowly rotating crane.

A cable car hangs from the boom and on second glance I notice people sitting inside. I wave and they wave back. I’m not sure who looks more unusual: The group suspended in mid-air or me climbing a ladder in full beekeeping gear, socks pulled up over my jeans.

I’m here to meet Basti and Elmar, the hobby beekeepers behind Oho-nig. Since 2022, the pair have managed two hives here, hidden away on top of two stacked freight containers.

“It’s a little wobbly and cramped up top, but this setup is actually pretty perfect,” Basti explains. “Bees typically nest in trees about four to five metres above the ground and from here they also have an open take off path.” The metal roof is corrugated and there are no barriers around the edges. I stabilise myself by positioning my feet in between the grooves. I can see across the neighbourhood, over the trains tracks and on to the Alps in the distance.

We chat as they carry out their weekly checks, the hot stainless-steel smoker filling the air. One by one, they remove the bee-covered vertical frames, looking for eggs and larvae, checking for anomalies and occasionally shaking the more mature sheets to see if the honey has reached the required consistency.

“Did you see that?” Basti asks me, his well-trained eye quick to spot distinctive behaviour, “that one just did a bee dance.” I ask him what that means and he tells me that bees can spin around in circles and wiggle their abdomens to inform fellow workers where to find the best foraging trees. I also learn about diseases, queen dynamics and disobedient colonies - there is very little these two don’t know about bees.

The spring honey is harvested in mid-June and the summer honey at the end of July, once the linden trees have finished blooming. “After that we prepare for winter, giving the bees sugar water for energy and treating the hives for mites. From the end of October onwards, we no longer disturb the colony,” Basti explains.

Basti and Elmar head to the Imkerverein München und Umgebung e.V. (the local beekeeping association) to produce their honey. “Anyone who’s a member of the association can sign up for a slot,” explains Elmar. “Throughout summer, there’s normally someone harvesting honey at the club house every single day.”

The association, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, also hosts a weekly Jungimkerstunde (young beekeepers' hour) where curious beginners can come to learn the ropes. “There are mentors around to show them what needs to be done,” says Basti. “It’s a modern club, with lots of young members and an increasingly large number of women beekeepers.”

Elmar completed his two-year training at the Imkerverein, while Basti took an elective apiculture module during his studies. “A colleague of mine later started with a local club and I spent about a year listening to what they got up to,” Basti smiles. He later asked Elmar if he’d be interested in setting something up and soon they were hooked.

The duo work closely together to coordinate the work and avoid holiday overlap, both acutely aware of the responsibly involved. Basti is also juggling a young family. “When I go cycling or head to the gym, that’s really just my personal choice, but the bees can’t help the fact that I’ve made them my hobby. In that sense, I have an obligation to check in on them once a week,” he explains.

There are beehives on rooftops and in gardens across the city, including the Volkstheater directly opposite and the Lenbachhaus museum in Maxvorstadt, but this location has something special about it. The people in the cable car are not the only ones who have noticed us. Several passers-by also stop to look up and to see what’s going on.

Basti and Elmar sometimes sell their honey directly to curious pundits, but their sole stockist is sourdough bakery Brotatelier, just a few containers down. They have both the summer and the spring honey.

Once the checks are complete, we make our way back to down the ground, the transition from the container back onto the ladder not instinctive for a first timer. Kits packed away and the ladder tucked out of sight, it’s like we were never there. I walk straight to the bakery to pick up some honey and a loaf of bread that I intend to dip straight into the jar.

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Address: Tumblingerstraße 45, 80337 Munich
Website: instagram.com/oho_nig/

Bahnwärter bees: Munich’s unlikely rooftop beekeepers

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