Inge Lotter, the bee expert

Everything bees

Inge is an entrepreneur and owner of The Beeger Picture with an apiary of 500 hives where she works as a beekeeper, bee removal expert and consultant. She further does hive management for a further approximately 600 hives owned by farmers. She also has extensive experience in skills development in several fields.

Skills development

She has eight years hands-on experience as a beekeeper. She has extensive experience in skills development in several fields. Her beekeeping course has to date been attended by at least 200 private individuals and 85 rural beekeeping project participants in several projects throughout Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal. Inge also was the beekeeping consultant for the Working on Fire, Kishugu Honey and Kishugu NPC Firewise Beekeeping Projects from February 2014 - 2019.

Part of a larger community

She is also currently the Chairperson for the Lowveld region of the Northerns Beekeeping Association and serves on the board of the South African Beekeeping Organisation (SABIO). She has set up several forums with members from the beekeeper, farming and academic (universities) sectors to discuss and find solutions for the ongoing threats that face the honey bee in South Africa and especially the Mpumalanga Lowveld.

She has developed several planting strategies to assist both beekeepers and farmers to ensure healthy honey bee populations that will in turn provide adequate pollination for the crops grown in the region. She has been communicating extensively with all role players, from DALRRD officials (both nationally and provincially) to University professors and Growers Associations of several agricultural crops grown in the Lowveld to ensure sustainable beekeeping and pollination into the future.