OUR ACTIVITIES

Tenacious Bee is working with communities in Himachal to support local beekeepers in developing sustainable, non-exploitative methods of honey production. Our goal is the development of a robust local industry that brings ecological benefits to the area, financial benefits to local producers, and pure, high quality, unprocessed honey to consumers.

Tenacious Bee’s ambitious plans were graciously adopted in 2018 by the then Sarpanch of Badsar Village, Ms. Kirna Devi, who has been instrumental in helping us with our preliminary research and in introducing our project to the larger community. Additionally, we have received tremendous support from numerous residents of the village who have enthusiastically participated in the workings of our collective since early 2019.

Tenacious Bee has initiated the work to revive the lost knowledge surrounding bees and beekeeping. We are developing an action plan in collaboration with local beekeepers and apiarists, to revive the traditional beekeeping practice of maintaining ‘Dhalooni’ in the walls of vernacular homes of the region. This ancient tradition has begun to be buried quickly under the brick and concrete construction that is replacing the thick, stone and mud walled homes typical of the region.

Tenacious Bee has leased a small piece of farmland in Badsar village with the aim of setting up a knowledge exchange facility around bees, bee flora, and beekeeping. Our plan is to cultivate local herbs and bee flora at a small scale, and foster beeboxes alongside, as a first step towards demonstrating the many ecological and economical benefits that these practices can bring to the village community.

Tenacious Bee has started collating a knowledge base of local bee flora and herbs that can help bees produce a range of distinct and medicinal honey varietals. Starting with gaining an understanding of the seasonal cycles of specific flowers and herbs, we are building collaborations with local apiary institutions and herbal scientists to revive traditional knowledge around different varietals of Honey native to this part of the Himalaya, while simultaneously finding creative ways to disseminate this knowledge across rural and urban demographics.

To know more about a few of the Honey Varietals we have discovered till now, Click Here