A fascinating narrative by Grandpa Marigan to a curious child, discovering the sacred traditions of the Kattunayakan tribe and how it honours the bees, the bears, and trees for honey.

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This is the rallying call of the village elder when he invites his companions to join him in going to the forest to collect honey among other things.

A buzzing catalogue of some important bee-types—the rock bee, little bee, Indian hive bee, European bee, and dammer bee.

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So far, we have only touched upon a few of the many things about the life of bees and what an important part they play in saving our planet. Honey is not just something sweet and tasty; but what makes it sweeter is the makers of honey—the bees. There are over 2,000 bee species across the world and not all of them make honey. In India, there are five major bee types that produce honey...

Harvesting wild honey has been the main occupation of the Cholanayakan and Kattunayakan tribes of Wayanad, in Kerala, for centuries. But the recent drought and delayed summer rain have affected the harvesting of wild honey. The number of beehives has come down drastically, by over 50 per cent from 2023. Honeybees make hives every year on the same big trees. The right amount of rain, according to the season, is crucial for honey production. But unseasonal rain is posing a huge threat to it, affecting the tribes that depend on honey collection for their survival...

Check out some amazing honeybee facts about these nature's tiny engineers and their sweet secrets.

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How many eyes do honeybees have? Bees have FIVE EYES and SIX LEGS.

How do honeybees share information with each other? By DANCING. They do a figure of 8 dance called the ‘waggle dance’. Through this dance, they tell the other bees where pollen, water, etc. is available. 

How many flowers do honeybees have to visit to get a kilo of honey? About 40 LAKH flowers. But one bee makes only about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. So, you need thousands of bees to make a kilo of honey...

Honeybees are an integral part of mountain farming in Himachal Pradesh. They are a source of income, nutrition, and medicine for mountain communities. These tiny superorganisms help in the pollination of plants, which increases the productivity of crops and maintains the biodiversity of the region.

Traditionally, farmers in Himachal Pradesh keep the indigenous honeybee called...

Junk lovers, welcome a new addition to the group—the bees. Pollen is the only natural source of protein for bees, but every day it is becoming starchier—thanks to the increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is sapping the nutritional quality of pollen. Bees need adequate proteins to feed their larvae and maintain their immune systems; some bees store pollen to tide through winters.