Regional commitment: animal welfare and nature conservation on the doorstep

That's what we call good neighborliness: apple, pear, sweet cherry, plum, ringloom and mirabelle trees stand side by side in colorful diversity on the meadow orchard of our company premises. Hedgehogs, slow worms, frogs, toads and grass snakes cavort among them, as do ants, ground beetles, crickets and spiders. And where insects live, birds are not far away. In short, our meadow orchard is a small, balanced ecosystem of its own, the likes of which are unfortunately becoming increasingly rare these days.

In the last two decades alone, around 25 percent of the bird population in Germany has disappeared from the scene. It goes without saying that we do not want to stand idly by and watch this happen. This is where Bernhard Neckermann of the Würzburg-Ochsenfurt Friends of the Environment comes in again: along the ornithologically valuable Main-Danube-Lake Constance path, the volunteer conservationist has set up cat- and marten-proof nesting boxes made of wood concrete - after all, every surviving young bird is enormously important for the preservation of its species. The boxes offer various tit species as well as tree and house sparrows, robins, wrens, the house and garden redstart, the starling as well as the collared and pied flycatcher the same safe shelter that they increasingly rarely find in the wild. Even bats and insects can use the boxes to hatch their eggs or as shelter for the winter. We are also happy to support this project by financing nesting boxes.

Besides our meadow orchard and the in-house herb garden, we still had plenty of green meadow left this spring. So why not think a little bigger (than insects and birds)? Thought, done - our flock of birds got new neighbors. We provided the vacant space free of charge to five very special Kneipp guests: Three mini Shetland ponies, a donkey, and a mule from a nearby sanctuary quickly settled in perfectly there. No wonder, given the quiet surroundings and the loving attention of many colleagues who were happy to keep the four-legged friends company at lunchtime or after work. Unfortunately, the animals were not always treated with respect before they were taken in at the sanctuary; our summer guests were happy about numerous nose scratches.