Today we visited a bee farm in Thailand, Chiang Mai and would like to share our impressions and discoveries. We hardly found this place, asking Google at first and then Thai people on the road. Bee farm is quite small.
We bought few products in a shop and asked to show us an apiary.
An old man affably invited us and lead us for just 100 meters to the backyard. We saw about 50 hives. He opened a hive and showed us 10 honeycombs with honey and brood. He told that in this district bees collect nectar only from longan for 6 weeks in a year in March and April. And other honeys come from other nearest districts throughout a year. The honey is quite liquid, because Thais learned beekeeping from Chinese. Chinese like to give sugar to bees.
Also he told that the bees had problems with Varroa mite, beekeepers use little sticky papers against them.
Bees give about 50 kg of honey for 6 weeks.
Beekeepers store honey in such metal barrels.
We were staying near the open hive and the beekeeper worked with the bees (opened the hive, took away the frames and so on), but none bit us. They were very calm.
After we went to another big honey shop.
Bees in Thailand