KORÇË, May 24 — With factories and farms silenced by the coronavirus shutdown, Albania’s bees have been busier than ever, stirring excitement among farmers expecting an unparalleled honey harvest thanks to a respite from pollution and pesticides. “It’s a golden year for bees,”...
Beekeeper Gezim Skermo , handles a beehive’s frame covered in bees at the Morava farm, in the village of Plasa, near the city of Korca. — AFP pic
The bucolic bee farm, home to some 300 colourfully-painted hive boxes, is one of the biggest in Albania and the only operation in the Balkan state to export its honey abroad. In the area around Morava, the restrictions have brought quiet, cleaner air and less pesticide-spraying from farmers who curbed production in the face of economic uncertainty from the virus, which has claimed some 30 lives in the Balkan state.
“Each bee has its own job and position, with the queen, the layer, in charge of all the inner life,” explains Ermal Benga, who oversees production, as he uses his bee-smoker to calm the insects down before opening a hive.The Morava farm normally produces between five and 15 tonnes of honey a year, in varieties ranging from white clover to pine, rapeseed, wild thyme and chestnut, depending on which flowers are in season.
It is a huge turnaround from the devastation of 2016 and 2017, when 40 per cent of Albania’s hives collapsed and losses topped €60 million . Today, however, Albania’s “conditions are optimal for the bees, which are real ecological sentinels,” Skermo’s 44-year-old son Eugen told AFP, referring to species that can provide an advance warning of risks, such as canaries in a coal mine.
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