Indonesia: biggest bees, dangerous harvest, liquid honey

Indonesia? A wonderland. There you will find the biggest bees, experience the most dangerous honey harvest at dizzying heights and drink the honey because it is liquid.

Of giant bees and brave honey hunters

All black and about four times the size of our honey bee: this is the Wallace's Giant Bee. It was thought to be extinct. Until a few years ago, researchers found a few specimens on an island in the northern Moluccas in Indonesia.

Much more common on the island of Borneo is the giant honeybee, Apis dorsata. It is the size of a European hornet and builds its nests in the tops of large trees, which are considered sacred. The honey is harvested - depending on the area - during the day or at night by honey hunters climbing the trees, which can be up to 50 meters high.

Honey with over 20% water content is the most expensive

Giant honeybees have open hives that can grow up to two meters long. Protection from external influences is provided exclusively by a «curtain» of bees in five to seven layers.

But there are also bees similar to ours. They are the eastern honey bees. Their honey is popular and expensive. And above all, it is much more liquid than ours, with more than 20% water content. That is why in local dialects people do not talk about eating honey, but drinking it.

Which honey do you like best?

There are wine connoisseurs, we all know that. But did you know that there are also people who are engaged in tasting honey? It's the obvious thing to do. Try it as well. On FleuropHOME we have about 15 types of honey, whether as a single jar or in noble boxes with 2, 6 or even 12 different samples.

So, you can experience for yourself whether you taste a difference between sunflower honey, blossom honey, forest honey, phacelia honey, lime blossom honey, lavender honey, goldenrod honey, acacia honey, silver fir honey, sweet clover honey, mountain blossom honey, buckwheat honey, chestnut honey and Stachys honey. Have fun!