Honey Highlight: 2020 Middle East Winner

Beekeeper: Ubeydullah Subasi

Middle East – East Anatolia, Turkey

How long have you been a beekeeper?

Actually my family has been interested in beekeeping since 1870. But not for trade, more like a hobby maybe their self needs and of course distributing as gifts to our society and close friends. From 2015 to this date we have been doing this business as a profession.

Why did you become a beekeeper?

A bit of coincidence I guess. As I wrote my family was into beekeeping as always. I remember one year we -like always distributed our honey to close friends and family but it was still too much to distribute. I made little gift bags and distributed them to other people also. They called back and ordered more for next year.

How many hives do you nurture?

Currently 800 pcs. All of them are made from willow springs in basket shape and covered by soil. After bees produce honey we do not open the covers and bees are always dark. Harvesting season we are opening the hives. We are not using medicine, wax and other kinds of unnatural components. Bees produce the wax as well. We keep the honey for 6 months before distributing.

What is your favorite thing about beekeeping?

The very best and joyful thing about my job is that my customer and friends like our honey. they call back and congratulate us for the honey. Their passion to find the best honey is my passion to produce.

What are the floral sources for your bees?

Our region is called Hizan. It is in Southeast Turkey. A well-known university made a research about the flora and I am sending it to you. Some parts of it are in turkish but the flora part is in universal terms.