Honey can be collected by placing bee boxes among mustard, litchi, black cumin and sweet pumpkin, but this time beekeeper Mosaddek Hossain has caused a stir by collecting honey from a jujube (boroi) orchard. He expects 100 kg of jujube flower honey from 60 bee boxes in an orchard of 2,000 trees.

Farmers in various parts of Dinajpur grow different varieties of jujube in orchards large and small. These orchards flower heavily in the post-monsoon autumn season, from the end of September through October. Beekeeping, like other fields, has been advanced by science: modern beekeepers raise bees of the Apis mellifera species in boxes. Mosaddek Hossain, who produces about 3 tonnes of honey a year, is one of them. Having collected honey from mustard, litchi, black cumin and sweet pumpkin, this time he placed his bee boxes in a jujube orchard to produce honey.

In the North Shibpur and Raniganj Hat area of Dinajpur Sadar, bee boxes placed in farmer Anisur Rahman's 2,000-tree jujube orchard have brought success. In the past, beekeepers could not collect honey from jujube flowers, but Mosaddek obtained jujube flower honey through scientific methods and botanical research.

As bees gather nectar from jujube flowers they pollinate the flowers, raising the yield by 20-30 per cent. The beekeeper profits from the honey, while pollination by the bees promises a good harvest for the orchard, so both the jujube grower and the beekeeper benefit.

Mosaddek Hossain, who has a master's degree in botany, said: "Apis mellifera does not usually collect nectar from jujube flowers. But I made an extract of jujube flowers and leaves and fed it to them to get them used to it. Because they became accustomed to that scent, the bees are collecting nectar from the flowers since the boxes were set up."

He said: "BAU and Apple kul or Kashmiri jujube flowers have little nectar, so the bees do not get much from them. But the seedless jujube variety has plenty of nectar, so I expect about 3 maunds of honey from this orchard."

Ruhul Amin, beekeeping technical officer of the BSCIC Dinajpur beekeeping programme, said: "I have visited Mosaddek's bee farm. Plenty of jujube honey has been stored at his farm. His farm is thriving on the natural forage available after the monsoon. Being a science student, he has quickly succeeded in beekeeping with new techniques."

Source: Bangladesh Pratidin. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.