Effective beekeeping for honey

Mr. Vu Quang Dao, Nam Thinh commune (Tien Hai) checks the growth of honey bee colonies.

As one of the first people in Nam Thinh commune (Tien Hai) to implement the honey bee farming model, Mr. Vu Quang Dao has been involved in the profession for more than 20 years. Thanks to his diligence in learning and applying the right techniques in the farming process, his family's bee colonies have developed well. From the first 7 bee colonies, up to now, he has had more than 300 honey bee colonies. On average, his family harvests 10 tons of honey each season. In addition to honey bee farming, Mr. Dao also multiplies colonies to sell seed bees, improving economic efficiency. The family's income from selling seed bees and honey reaches nearly 700 million VND/year. He said: Beekeeping does not require too much investment in costs, mainly depending on the natural flower source of coastal mangrove forests. When the flower source in the area is exhausted, beekeepers will move the bee colonies to other areas to have flowers to collect honey. Beekeeping is not difficult but requires the beekeeper to be persistent, master the techniques and understand the habits of bees. Farmers need to pay attention to farming techniques from the stage of selecting breeds and locations, paying special attention to the growth process of the bee colony; colony separation techniques, effectively applying the method of harvesting honey using centrifuges to increase honey yield, ensuring honey quality, regularly checking the bee nests, continuously moving the bee nests to accumulate new honey to increase honey productivity.

Mr. Nguyen Van Chien, Hong Bach commune (Dong Hung) - a person with over 20 years of experience in beekeeping said: To have a healthy bee colony for high productivity and quality honey, it requires the beekeeper's skill and carefulness when taking care of it. Every day, the bee box must be regularly checked and cleaned, ensuring it is always dry and clean, proactively preventing diseases and insects that are harmful to bees. In particular, beekeepers must pay attention to the growth process of the bee colony, master the techniques of separating the colony, creating queen bees, collecting honey and pollen, promptly handling the phenomenon of bees flying away and rot larvae. During the process of checking the bee colony, one must be very gentle and careful. Depending on each time, there must be appropriate measures to protect the bee colony from cold and heat. With a selling price of 250,000 VND/liter, after deducting expenses, each year I earn from 300 - 400 million VND.

According to Mr. Chien, many people compare beekeepers to nomads because within a year they have to move their bee colonies from one area to another to find food for the bees. Although bees are hard-working, the intensity and duration of their work depends a lot on the temperature and the abundance and quality of flowers in the area. Beekeeping for honey depends a lot on weather conditions. Every year, there is a mixture of rain and sunshine, trees sprout and grow, and in areas with abundant flowers, it only takes 10 days to half a month to have golden honey cakes. If the weather is erratic, it will affect the quality and yield of honey. Specifically, if it rains a lot, the honey will be liquid, if the sun is too strong, the honey will be thick and difficult to squeeze. Good honey must be light yellow, shimmering, have the aroma of natural pollen, and have a sweet taste, not as sweet as sugar.

Currently, the whole province has about 800 beekeeping households, with the number of bees reaching 12,000 hives. In recent years, honey beekeeping has developed strongly, especially in coastal communes. Many households have proactively learned, applied techniques, and expanded the scale of bee colonies. Specialized sectors have also actively organized training and technical guidance to help people improve productivity and honey quality. For sustainable development, beekeepers need to comply with technical processes, control product quality, and build brands to bring honey to supermarkets and larger markets.