Fun stuff : Real Forest Honey have you tried it ?

Dear blogger ;

Honey..honey..honey.
This remarkable substance produce by bees is already well known good for human health.
Some honey bees had been domesticate to easily harvest the honey.
But the natural forest honey is believed to had more healthier effect than the common one.
Maybe because the honey producing process is natural and no human involving on it.
This kind of honey is so natural from the trees where the bees build their hives to the way the forest honey is collected, using clean but basic equipment.

At West Borneo, a forest honey farmer is called Periau. They follow traditional guidelines - local wisdom dating back centuries- that regulate honey cultivation. This guidelines including using a traditional smoker ( which does not burn kerosene ) and wore rubber gloves.

When harvesting, the honey is strained several times through hygienic equipment so that no small creatures such as ants get into the storage vessels.

The tricky thing about harvesting forest honey is the bee stings.
The wild forest bees ( apis dorsata ) are "fiercer" than cultivated honeybees.
Again, following the advice of their ancestors, before gathering honey the farmers sing a traditional song whose lyrics are believed to calm the bees.
But what do the farmer do if the bee actually sting ?

Well, they don't kill the bee. If one is killed, hundreds more will come and attack. So let it sting and your body to decide the effects. But when the situation get worse, the best way to escape the attack is to plunge your self into the nearest water. A river or a lake is the best.

The final question is how about conservation ? Do they damaged the nature ?
No, they don't. They only collected honey in the daytime. So that fewer bees are sacrificed.
Also only part of hive can be removed. The rest is left for the younger bees.
This young bees must not be harmed. Only the minimum necessary amount of smoke may be used and no kerosene or other oil-based fuels may be burned.

With this discipline the only obstacle is the climate. The past two years global climate change has drastically reduced the honey harvests. Specially at the Lake Sentarum Sintang - West Borneo. Rain fell so high so no flowers bloomed and there was no pollen for the bees to collect and process into honey. A poor condition for the farmers. Let's hope the nature be kind again for this people.

Report by Mr Poriaman Sitanggang ( Poriaman@bankfoto.com)

Regards;