“Japanese honey” – honey harvest

Shrine? Unique shape hive is cute

Driving Tsushima’s road, you will see many logs along mountain. These are hive boxes called Hachido (bee cave).

In Tsushima, bee farming has been active, and honey is valued as a medicine for nutritional fortification. Same as energy drink. Might have caught a cold? Tushima people say “lick honey and you will be fine”. This is true actually. You will be really fine!

Hundred-flower honey – concentrated seasonal flowers’ honey

Japanese bees on soba flower

You may see honey with flower name such as “Lotus honey”, “Acacia honey”. These are single flower honey by western bees. Western bees can extract lots of honeydew in a go. Their honey is usually collected at, for example, lotus field, when the flower is in season

On the other hand, Japanese bees are very modest. They drink honeydew little by little. So we collect honey only once a year. Japanese bees drink honeydew from various flowers over a year. We taste the blended honey. Western bees’s honey is called single-flower honey, whereas Japanese bees’ honey is hundred-flower honey. Very valuable and expensive honey.

Honey collection: end September – early October

We collect honey before hibernation. Open hive, take out honey using special equipment. For their hibernation, leave one-third of honey in the hive. Collected honey is filtered and put it in bin. They make “Micchin Shochu” using Garal and that is privilege of producers. You can taste this only in Tsushima. Don’t miss out!

Things to bring

• Clothes that you don’t mid getting dirty (long-sleeve and long-trousers)

※Hives are located in the mountain usually, so prepare yourself to climb a mountain.

We provide you with equipment necessary for honey harvest.