Linden honey

Imkerei Bien

Moritz Seidler’s colonies are spread across several locations in Berlin, from the center to the eastern outskirts of the city. For other varieties, he also takes the colonies into the surrounding countryside, to rapeseed fields or close to patches of buckwheat. Moritz is fascinated by the nuances of individual locations, the influence of the soil and individual plant varieties, and the differences between years. That’s why he also deliberately spins the combs from the individual hives without mixing them afterwards with the varietal honey from another location – because that’s the only way to compare each individual honey. 

For Moritz, honey is the essence of its environment. He takes great pleasure in making tangible these subtleties of taste. 

Summer honey in Berlin is always characterized by the intense aroma of Berlin city linden, but this linden honey comes from the northernmost tip of Teltow-Fläming and is a pure linden honey from a wandering stand. This clear honey from the country has a delicate floral fruity aroma.



200g jar


(€ 35.00 per 1kg)

About the beekeeper’s work

Moritz’s bees live in wooden hives where they build their own combs. Once Moritz extracts the honey, he returns the combs to the bees, provided the quality of the wax is up to par. In nature, bee colonies reproduce by swarming. As a rule, a hive starts to swarm when there are enough bees, brood and stores and they begin to run out of space within their hive. The bees then create so-called swarm cells to start raising new queens. But before these young queens hatch, the old queen leaves with some of the bees to look for a new home.

In the city, this is rather more challenging than in the countryside – and requires some extra work of the beekeeper. For this reason, beekeepers try to guide or even prevent swarming. Just how they go about this is a matter of individual philosophy and makes for quite some disagreements among the trade. Moritz’s strategy is to keep the brood nest compact so that the bees can keep warm more easily. He also likes to keep them busy, so they’re less motivated to go swarming elsewhere. 

Like any beekeeper, Moritz also has to think about Varroa mite prevention. For this, he uses ants or oxalic acid, which is always something of a painful compromise to beekeepers as it is almost like subjecting the hive to a course of chemotherapy. His hope is that new breeding strategies will allow bees to enter a sort of harmonious co-existence with the mites. However, it is only a matter of time before new pests or unwelcome co-habitants (such as the hive beetle) are bound to arrive in our parts.

Imkerei Bien
Moritz Seidler grew up on a small Demeter farm in the Black Forest and discovered beekeeping at the tender age of 13. He bought a book about beekeeping, found himself a “beekeeper grandfather” and acquired two bee colonies from him... and thus an obsession was born! Moritz sees himself as a guardian of bees; his work is based on a respectful attitude towards nature. His approach is all about learning from bees and understanding their authentic needs. This means, among other things, that the beehives are made of wood, the bees are allowed to build their own honeycombs and get to feed on the honey they produce. Of course, this type of beekeeping is significantly more complex and cost-intensive than in most large-scale beekeeping operations. In return, Moritz receives from the bees all the more valuable and actually natural honey, which you can enjoy with a clear conscience.