Relying on natural advantages, in recent years, many households in Cuc Phuong commune (Nho Quan district) have developed a beekeeping model to produce honey, creating jobs and increasing family income.
Mr. Bui Van Thuan is one of the senior beekeepers in Cuc Phuong commune (Nho Quan district). Mr. Thuan said that because he lives near Cuc Phuong National Park, there are many types of flowers for bees to collect honey: In March and April, lychee and longan flowers bloom in his garden; in September and October, there are acacia flowers in abundance; the remaining months are wild flowers... To take advantage of this, since 1994, Mr. Thuan has started building a beekeeping model for honey, starting with 7 bee colonies.
However, according to Mr. Thuan, beekeeping is both easy and difficult. It is easy for those who are passionate, willing to learn and want to stick with the profession for a long time, but difficult for those who like to make quick money and do not invest in techniques. Beekeeping requires dexterity and caring for bees like children. The beekeeper must also be as diligent as the bees.
According to Mr. Thuan’s experience, bees reproduce mainly in the second and third lunar months. This is the right time for new entrants to buy boxes at beekeeping and breeding facilities. For those who are raising bees, this is the season for bees to separate from their colonies. Bees often suffer from paralysis, diarrhea, etc. If not detected and treated promptly, it can easily spread and lead to the loss of the entire colony.
"But to detect the disease quickly, the beekeeper must have both experience and good technical equipment. Using the wrong dose of medicine will not only not cure the disease but also cause the honey to be contaminated. Also due to lack of experience, in the first years of beekeeping, I let the bees abandon the colony or die from cold or disease," Mr. Thuan shared.
Having been a beekeeper for many years, bees have become his friends. Over the years, Mr. Thuan's joy has remained the same: the joy of pulling a beehive out of the hive with his hands heavy because of the thick, tightly packed honey; the joy of collecting drops of thick, golden honey after each honey extraction.
With more than 70 bee colonies, Mr. Thuan also harvests 800-1,000 liters of honey each year, bringing in hundreds of millions of dong in revenue. Adding the money earned from raising other livestock, the life of an old farmer like Mr. Thuan is very stable. Not only that, with his experience in beekeeping for honey, Mr. Thuan was also elected as the Director of Cuc Phuong Honey Production and Consumption Cooperative since the cooperative was established in 2021.
Mr. Dinh Minh Chau is one of 41 members of the Cuc Phuong Honey Production and Consumption Cooperative. Currently, Mr. Chau is one of the people who owns the most bee colonies in Cuc Phuong with over 200 honey bee colonies. Mr. Chau shared that his family has been raising honey bees for a long time. When joining the Cooperative, the raising of bees became much more effective. In the Cooperative, members share experiences, help each other with raising techniques, support the consumption market... Mr. Chau boldly expanded the colony, supplying more than 2 tons of honey to the market each year.
Experienced people in the cooperative regularly go closely to guide members on breeding techniques and disease prevention, visit each family, check each beehive, guide members on methods of creating queens, leveling the colony, and honey extraction... At the same time, guide members on the process of making beehives to suit seasonal weather conditions so that bees can develop well, producing many products such as: types of beehives made of soil, brick, bamboo, and wooden boxes...
Therefore, over the years, the cooperative's bee colonies have not been affected by diseases, honey productivity has increased day by day, and honey quality has improved. On the other hand, in the club's activities, beekeeping households have joined hands to connect with each other, find and introduce products as well as consume products... Thanks to that practical support, many members have started to raise more bees and have high incomes from beekeeping.
Mr. Bui Van Thuan, Director of Cuc Phuong Honey Production and Consumption Cooperative added: Currently, there are 41 beekeeping households participating in the cooperative, with more than 1,000 bee colonies. In order to optimize production stages and increase product value, in recent times, with the support of local authorities and functional agencies, the cooperative has invested in machinery and equipment to serve production stages. Each product has its own stamp and barcode to trace its origin, and is certified to ensure food safety.
Cuc Phuong forest honey products have met the 4-star OCOP standard. Each year, the total amount of honey collected in the commune is estimated at about 40 tons, of which the amount of honey from members of the cooperative alone is about 30 tons per year.
Cuc Phuong Honey Production and Consumption Cooperative also acts as a focal point for purchasing, processing and selling Cuc Phuong honey products to the market, of which about 30 tons are sold through social networking channels such as Zalo, Facebook...
Along with valuable crops and livestock, other effective economic models have contributed to raising the average income per capita in Cuc Phuong to 68 million VND/person/year as it is today.
Dao Hang - Minh Quang
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