GAF
Between bees and honeycombs, the delicious console honey
"Give me a queen and I will give you a good harvest", says an old saying from the amazing world of beekeeping; and it is that with the selection of queen bees, the most important breed in the hive, the quantity and quality of honey is guaranteed.
Hence, the beekeeping process begins in the fertilization nuclei, which house around two thousand maternal and paternal bees that give life to a single queen, who will later rule in the hive.
This branch of agriculture has a strong potential in the Consolación del Sur municipality, with fourteen advanced producers, which place it first at the provincial level.
Yunior Fernández Arteaga, beekeeper of the Consolaña Credit and Services Cooperative, "9th ANAP Congress", has been dedicated to these tasks for more than 20 years, with excellent productive results.
As he said, last year he failed to deliver tons of honey to the Pinar del Río Beekeeping Company, which is why this 2020 is committed to providing higher figures.
Currently this console beekeeper owns 180 hives that contribute about 3,600 kilograms to the industry each month, destined for the international market.
Fernández Arteaga explained that the performance of a honeycomb depends in the first instance on the queen's ability to lay more larvae, in addition to flowering and weather conditions.
For this reason at this time of year all the benefits of mangroves on the southern coast of the municipality, which are in full bloom, exploit. Highlights include the varieties of Mangle Prieto and the coastal plant Patabán, whose flowers have excellent pollen and nectar, which worker bees combine to bring to the combs.
In the words of the experienced beekeeper from Consola, the honey produced in the mangroves is finer and light in color, with a delicious mild flavor that sweetens the palate, as well as low humidity levels that guarantee quality for export.
It takes seven to fifteen days for the honeycomb to reach maturation, which is precisely when 70 percent of the small hexagonal holes fill with honey and are covered by a layer called the operculum.
Each mature honeycomb can weigh between 4 and 8 kilograms ready for castration, through an extractor in the ships enabled to carry out this process.
The console beekeepers use Langstroth technology in their mobile hives, as it allows a higher level of productivity for the more than 40 thousand individuals that inhabit the swarm, divided into three castes: queen, drones and workers.
The world of beekeeping involves indescribable beauty. The queen as ruler governs her loyal workers who collect flower, flower, pollen, nectar and propolis for the hive.
The delicious console honey is the result of the effort of beekeepers who, like Yunior, dedicate their lives to these small insects, who demonstrate their hard work every day.
