Beekeeping is easier said than done

Pesticides are the biggest concern

It may seem that honey forms on its own as thousands of worker bees leave the hive every morning. They fly off without needing directions, find flowers, collect nectar and pollen, then return, repeating the process throughout the day until nightfall.

Humans do not make honey. They simply provide the hive and keep the colony healthy. The rest is up to the bees. Yet beekeeping is far more challenging than many people imagine.

Hoang Xuan Thuy (born in 1964, hamlet 4, Tho Van commune, Phu Tho province), one of the founders of the Hamlet 4 Beekeeping Group, puts it simply: "All we can really do is take care of them, but in reality, it's very difficult." His words sum up years of experience living alongside his bees.

Thuy has been keeping bees for around a decade. Along with Dang Van Hung (born in 1964, Hamlet 4, Tho Van commune) and three other members, he formed the beekeeping group five or six years ago.

The five members currently manage nearly 200 colonies of native bees, inspecting them every other day. They check whether the colonies are healthy, whether the queen is doing well, and whether enough honey has accumulated.

According to Hung, the two main diseases affecting their colonies are foulbrood and wax moth infestations. One can lose an entire colony if these problems are not detected in time. Most of the knowledge Thuy and Hung have accumulated comes from hands-on experience, painful losses, and training courses organized by the local authorities rather than from textbooks.

There is one threat that every beekeeper has to face - pesticides. Bees are extremely sensitive to crop protection chemicals. If nearby farmers spray pesticides within just a few dozen meters of a hive, an entire colony can be wiped out.

Thuy no longer remembers the exact year, but one morning he opened his hives to find piles of dead bees inside. It was not just one hive but several at once. The weather had been unfavorable that season, and local farmers had heavily sprayed their crops. The bees foraged among the treated plants, carried the chemicals back to the hives, and gradually weakened before dying.

There was no way to save the bees that had already died. The only option was to clear out the dead bees, replace the frames, give the surviving bees antibiotics, and rebuild the colonies from scratch. Losing colonies to pesticides means losing an entire honey harvest. But for experienced beekeepers, such losses are simply part of the job, much like getting stung while inspecting a hive.

Where there are forests, there are bees

Beekeepers eventually get used to bee stings, and lost colonies can be rebuilt. But there is one thing they cannot replace, which is the forest. Native bees collect nectar from wild forest flowers rather than relying on a single floral source. Their honey varies with the seasons, and so does the way beekeepers care for their colonies.

During hot weather, hives need shade and ventilation. In cold weather, the colonies must be kept warm. During the rainy season, when flowers are scarce, beekeepers supplement the bees' diet with sugar. When pollen is in short supply, they purchase pollen from southern Vietnam, where beekeepers collect and sell pollen gathered from coffee flowers.

The health of the colonies and the amount of honey they produce depend largely on the availability of wildflowers in the surrounding forests. No one understands this better than the beekeepers themselves.

The honey-harvesting season runs roughly from February to July each year. Depending on weather conditions and the availability of flowers, the beekeepers harvest honey every 10 to 20 days. With nearly 200 colonies, Thuy's group collects approximately 300 liters of honey per harvest. Over the entire season, a healthy colony can produce around 10 to 15 liters. Wholesale honey currently sells for VND 100,000 per liter, while retail prices can reach VND 150,000-200,000 depending on the area.

The group chooses to raise native bees even though foreign breeds generally produce more honey. The reason is that native bee honey is noticeably thicker and considered higher quality. Both native and foreign bees fan their wings to evaporate water from nectar, but native bees are more meticulous, sealing the honeycomb only when the honey is fully ripened.

Foreign bees are highly productive and collect honey quickly, but they sometimes seal the honeycomb before the honey has fully matured. This is why native bee honey is thicker and has a longer shelf life. Properly ripened honey should weigh 1.4 kilograms per liter, a benchmark Thuy and Hung know by heart.

According to Han Duc Cuong, an officer of the Tho Van Commune Economic Division, the locality aims to establish five to 10 honey bee farming models, develop around 700 to 800 colonies annually, and eventually produce 14,000 liters of honey per year.

The commune is also looking beyond honey to value-added products such as beeswax and pollen, which have high economic value and are increasingly popular in the market. The plan is based on making use of natural flower sources from forests and existing agricultural and forestry crops. The commune aims to develop beekeeping under a biosecurity-oriented approach and build distinctive products under a brand associated with the midland region of Phu Tho.

From five people joining forces with a few hundred colonies, beekeepers in Tho Van are demonstrating that the midland region still has considerable untapped potential. As long as the forests remain green, these small bees will continue bringing sweet rewards.

$ 1 = VND 26,320 - Source: Vietcombank.