Keeping honey bees, not only enriches, but also 'feeds' the ecosystem

Eradicating poverty through beekeeping based on nature

Established in 1995, De Tham Honey Beekeeping Club, Cao Bang City is one of the long-standing clubs that still maintain and develop honey beekeeping to this day. Up to now, the club has nearly 20 members, each member raising an average of 10-40 bee colonies. Every year, the club collects from 2,000 to 4,000 liters of honey. The club no longer has poor members, many households become well-off, earning hundreds of millions of dong/year.

Mr. La Van Cao's family, group 19, Song Hien ward, is the household with the largest number of bee colonies in the club. From empty hands, Mr. Cao moved from Tot Co commune, Ha Quang district down to group 19, Song Hien ward to get married and develop the economy.

After 20 years of developing the garden - pond - barn - forest model, Mr. Fox planted more than 5 hectares of forest, planted thousands of square meters of oranges, guava, bananas, raised bees, raised more than 5,000 square meters of fish, etc. minus the initial cost, every year. for a total income of more than 200 million VND.

Mr. Cao confided: The family's property going up like today also comes from honey beekeeping. At the beginning of beekeeping, due to not knowing the technique, the bees died, left a lot, the amount of honey obtained was low, the quality was not high.

In 2000, he joined the De Tham Honey Beekeeping Club, and was guided by other members on how to build nests, build colonies, and multiply bees. Currently, the highest time after the Lunar New Year, he raises more than 100 bees, each year collects from 500-600 liters of honey, minus the cost of collecting more than 100 million VND.

In order to operate effectively, every month, the Board of Directors of De Tham Honey Beekeeping Club and its members monitor the quality of each family's bees, and promptly overcome problems. At the end of the season, the members shared experiences on how to keep the swarm, take care of bees in cold weather, clean the beehive, find the source of flowers...

Mr. Dam Hoang Xuyen, Chairman of the club said: When the club was first established, there were many poor households and difficult circumstances. In the club, only a few members know about beekeeping techniques because they used to work at Cao Bang Bee Company. People who know a lot pass on experience to those who know little, even from family to hand, they gradually have basic knowledge for beekeeping.

The most difficult thing for the club today is that the products do not have a stable output, do not have a brand, have not yet registered a trademark, so they are easily mixed with inferior quality products to discredit...

From practical experience combined with knowledge in books and documents on honey beekeeping, the club's members researched and developed a process of beekeeping for honey suitable to local conditions; strictly follow the principle of only harvesting when the honey is old enough to ensure product quality.

In the low-flowering season, honey is not exploited and this is also a measure to maintain the brand of honey raised by the club's natural forest.

Raising honey bees, "feeding" the ecosystem

As one of the beekeepers for a long time, Mr. Dao Minh Quan, group 5, De Tham ward, Cao Bang city has nearly 30 years of experience in beekeeping for honey.

According to Mr. Quan: Beekeeping is not difficult, but requires farmers to apply the right techniques and be persistent. Honey bees develop the strongest swarm after Tet, especially around April - May of the solar calendar.

In order to raise bees with high efficiency, it is necessary to pay attention to multiplying the colony at the right time, usually from December to April next year. When there are no flowers, it is necessary to find a place with flowers such as in the forest or orchard to move the bees to. Pay attention to moving the bees at night to avoid making the bees fly away.

If you want to have a lot of honey, you must regularly check the bee bridge, move the bee bridge continuously to accumulate honey. The secret case from before Tet to August next year will end. Mr. Quan's family has invested in a bee-floor printing machine to put in a box for the bees to quickly build a new hive. The queen bee loves to lay eggs in this new honeycomb cake, which increases the multiplier of the colony faster.

In recent years, many young people have also participated in beekeeping for honey. Mr. La Van Minh, Pac Hao hamlet, Le Trung commune, Hoa An district is one of the young people who have pursued the profession of beekeeping for honey since he was still in school.

Overcoming tens of kilometers of hilly roads, we arrived at the place where Mr. Minh placed nearly 100 beekeeping crates, most of which were natural bees from the forest, some were seed bees bought from other colonies and propagated year by year.

Minh shared: From a young age, he liked beekeeping. This year, the weather is favorable, the weather is sunny, the flowers bloom a lot, so his bee colony grows well, there are always 8-10 bee bridges in the barrel. At the time of the bee swarm for the most harvest of the year, about every 15-20 days, it will be harvested once. From beekeeping, he earns more than 100 million VND per year.

Like many places, Cao Bang natural honey has many different types. In which, nectar will be collected by bees from flowers; nectar mainly gets nectar from acacia leaves, cassava leaves and the best honey, the best is crystallized honey, then honey has a soft, milky white layer at the bottom of the bottle that is honey. quality.

According to statistics from the Cao Bang Gardening Association, the province has thousands of beekeeping households, of which there are from 10 to more than 100 colonies with more than 200 households, with a total of about 3,000 - 4,000 bee colonies. The whole province has established many beekeeping clubs such as De Tham honey beekeeping club (Cao Bang City); Natural Bee Conservation Club in Tam Kim Commune (Nguyen Binh District); Beekeeping Club in Thong Nong district (now Ha Quang district). In addition, there are many localities with a large number of honey beekeepers such as Hoa An, Thach An, Ha Lang...

In order to protect and develop Cao Bang honey brand as well as protect domestic bee colonies and create livelihoods for beekeepers, authorities at all levels and functional sectors have promoted propaganda to help beekeepers. bees raise awareness to protect the environment, ecology, develop local domestic bee colonies.

In order for the beekeeping industry to develop more and more, to have a foothold in the market, it is necessary to continue to pay attention to support the establishment of the province's beekeeping association, and to build the Cao Bang honey brand to extend beyond the province.

In addition, clubs and beekeepers need to ensure the quality of honey, and do not sell poor quality honey products that affect the reputation of Cao Bang honey. In addition, there should be policies and programs to promote bee products, create markets and stable outputs for products...

Mr. Hoang Duc Thien, Vice Chairman of Cao Bang Horticultural Association said: Cao Bang honey bees have good resistance to diseases. Beekeeping is not a new profession, but it can be affirmed that the economic efficiency from beekeeping is quite high, contributing to economic development and increasing income for people.