Honey in the Sahara Desert?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It would seem: what kind of beekeeping is possible in the arid northern regions of the Sahara?However, it was here, and not in the more fertile regions closer to the sea or ocean, that I discovered large beekeeping farms.

The Kingdom of Morocco surprises with its customs, traditions and everyday life of the peoples living in this country. It turned out that the production of honey is one of the components of the daily life of the inhabitants of the south of Morocco.

On the other side of the Atlas Mountains in the north of the Sahara Desert, among the red wastelands, hives stand right on the rocks. From a distance, it is not immediately clear what these white boxes are, and the thought of hives can hardly come to mind (in this hot and scanty world for vegetation).

But the further you get from the snow-capped mountains, the more of these bee houses you can find. In some areas, instead of hives familiar to our eyes, wicker baskets are still used - they are generally impossible to distinguish on the slope.

Along the road in the villages, honey is sold in plastic bottles, and in the morning you will be served cheese, nut paste and the same honey, there is enough of it. Curiosity haunts: what do bees eat here? Nothing grows.

It turns out that in the spring, when the snow melts in the mountains, the rivers are filled with water, and the lands of the oases are well watered, the bees have plenty of space: various flowers bloom, plants awaken. During this period, certain types of honey are produced. They say that the locals' favorite is thyme honey.

And then summer comes, when the bees have to lead an ascetic lifestyle, but even in summer they find where to fly. From exotic: date palms and blooming cacti. And in oases, even in the dry season, plants turn green, which are also purposefully watered. And, of course, the Moroccans feed their bees with sugar to prevent death - no one hides this.

There are times of severe drought, then beekeepers have to move to more fertile lands with their hives, good, the spirit of nomadism is still alive in their hearts. And sometimes Moroccans have to deal with pests (for example, locusts), in this case, the treatment from them kills the bees. But beekeepers do not give up and continue their work in these conditions.