We believe in experimenting and learning from our own experiences, yes this is a costly affair; but equally rewarding- beyond monetary boundaries. In our search for the best possible honey and from terrains which were not considered 'advisable' by veteran locals, we still ventured into them with the best intentions of getting the best Honey possible. The first year where we procured our own boxes. In beekpeeing/ apiculture, we have bee boxes where the bees store and collect honey in the hives. These hives are covered and the temperature is maintained to get maximum output and protect the bees and making them less prone to viruses.
Year 2007: We moved from a site close to Delhi and after a successful season of collecting Mustard Honey, moved to Himachal Pradesh as the heat was catching up around the plains and needed to protect the bees. The area chosen by us was supposed to be highly infested with rats and the 'Varrora mite' - the Beekeeper's worst nightmare. This mite is just like a lice and a parasite in nature. It feeds off the bees till it sucks the life out of them. Also, whatever was left was played havoc by the rats who destroyed the boxes and their stool is extremely toxic and poisonous. Ideally, to get rid of the Varrora might you need antibiotics and pesticides to nullify its existence. The unfortunate-if you can call it that was the fact that we did not use any of the chemicals which could have saved the bees but made the honey poisonous.
Loss suffered: 150 boxes
However, this did not deter us from doing things differently and believing that we could have a Bee farm free of viruses without any external elements.
Upset and frustrated, we packed our bags, picked up the pieces and were back to level 0- our favourite level (where we spent most of our time!) We again got fresh boxes 100 in number and the rest of the year was quiet and incident-free: boring we agree.
Back at base camp (Delhi) we began the process of plotting the strategy to go forward and avoid such incidents in the future. Back to Himachal we went, this time more prepared. This time no mites, no rats; what was in store was something rather peculiar and unheard of- The Beeater. This is a bird almost an insect which swoops on the hives like a kite or an eagle catches its pray in the form of a pigeon or a mouse and takes it into it's hideout. This was perplexing to watch and
Summer 2009: Time for yet another migration of the bees to the hills with the summers again getting unbearable for the poor bees.
This time destination Dehradun: Well known for its litchi fruits and litchi honey, this was our next stop to try and get some honey from these plantations. 4 weeks of good to great days with the outlook looking more than perfect or maybe a little too perfect. In come the wild elephants who destroy anything in their paths. With their sense of smell- Honey was the first thing they would like to get rid of!...and they succeeded. We were 2 days away from extraction of all the honey collected over that period and there- everything came crashing down.
RESULT: Another learning experience. 250 boxes damaged.
Time to go back to the drawing board and understanding what was going wrong and where were we lacking. Lot to do, lot to think and analyse. More on the same in the next blog!
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