Beekeeping in Bhutan: Hives, Bees and Honey Markets

If you keep bees in Bhutan, you already know the frustration. You smoke the hive, open it up, crush the combs by hand, and end up with a modest amount of honey, a lot of mess, and bees that may decide to leave altogether. Or maybe you have never kept bees, but you have watched neighbours sell honey and wondered whether it is worth the trouble — and whether anyone will actually buy what you produce.

The short answer is that beekeeping in Bhutan is growing, and there is room for more of it. Around 7,500 households across the country keep bees. Together they produce close to 42 metric tonnes of honey and earn more than Nu 36 million. Even so, Bhutan cannot produce enough honey for its own people, and roughly the same volume is imported from India every year. That gap is your opportunity.

Why beekeeping fits Bhutanese farms so well

Bees ask very little of you compared with other livestock. They do not need grazing land, they do not need daily feeding in most seasons, and they pollinate your orchards and field crops while they work. Government policy treats apiculture as both an income-diversification option for rural households and a pollination service — and in 2024 the Department of Agriculture published a draft vision for a "resilient, competitive and export-driven honey industry by 2034", with targets for production, hive density and exports.

There is a climate reason too. Communities in Langchenphu, inside Jomotsangkha Wildlife Sanctuary, report less freshwater and water shortages, more flooding from harsher monsoons, erratic rainfall, drying water sources, habitat degradation, pest outbreaks and crop losses. When consultations asked what could earn money without pushing harder on already stressed land, beekeeping came up again and again: culturally familiar, environmentally sustainable and high in potential. About a quarter of households there already practise small-scale traditional apiculture.

It is much the same story in Bumthang, where families depend on farming and livestock, sheep rearing and seasonal Cordyceps collection. Honey adds another line of income without competing for the same land or the same labour peak.

Which bee should you keep?

Six honey-bee species live in Bhutan, but three of them carry most of the honey production.

Apis cerana — the local bee

Apis cerana is the indigenous Asian hive bee and the backbone of traditional log-hive beekeeping in central and eastern Bhutan. It is well adapted to Bhutanese conditions and works at altitudes up to about 3,500 metres. In the southern foothills, honey from local Apis cerana fetches a good price because of its medicinal reputation — families use it at home and for treating common ailments. If you are in a cold, high or remote place, this is the bee that already knows how to survive there.

Apis mellifera — the introduced bee

Apis mellifera, the European honey bee, arrived from the late 1980s through donor-supported projects. Today it is the main species in commercial-scale operations, especially in Bumthang. If your goal is volume and steady supply to a cooperative or a shop, this is the bee most commercial beekeepers have settled on.

Apis laboriosa and the smaller species

Apis laboriosa, the giant Himalayan honey bee, nests on overhanging cliff faces in remote eastern dzongkhags including Lhuentse and Trashi Yangtse. Its high-altitude honey has traditionally been harvested in spring and autumn using ladders and ropes. Be careful here: cliff honey-hunting now falls under conservation rules administered by the Department of Forests and Park Services and is allowed only under licence in designated areas. Apis florea and the stingless Trigona are also present but play a smaller role, though the Jomotsangkha project did work with stingless bee honey alongside eastern honeybee honey.

Where to actually buy a starter colony or nucleus, and what that costs, depends entirely on your area and who is keeping bees near you. Ask at your nearest livestock or agriculture office, or ask an established beekeeper in your gewog.

Traditional hives, improved hives and Flow Hives

This is the decision that changes your workload most.

What the old method costs you

Traditional harvesting means opening a wooden hive, smoking heavily, then pulling out and crushing the combs by hand. It is hard physical work, it upsets the colony badly, it takes time, and the yield is modest.

Improved hives

A study across selected areas of Bhutan's southern districts compared traditional and improved methods. Honey production from improved hives significantly surpassed traditional hives. Extraction was easier, productivity was higher, and colony management was better. Farmers overwhelmingly preferred improved hives — though a small share of farmers still prefer traditional hives, because they are simple and hold up well in cold weather. So while most beekeepers in the study moved on, some stay with what they know, and they have their reasons.

Good news on cost and availability: the frames do not have to be imported. In Langchenphu, local carpenters were hired to build modern hive frames from native tree species so they would suit local conditions. Each of the 38 participating households received three hive frames for rearing eastern honeybees, plus a honey extractor. If there is a carpenter in your village, there is a way to get frames.

Flow Hives

The newest option uses a food-grade plastic honeycomb. Honey is drawn straight out of the hive without dismantling it. That means:

• cleaner, more hygienic honey
• far less disturbance to the colony
• no need to smoke the bees out or lift and crush combs
• fewer bee deaths at harvest

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MoAL) and UNDP, with funding from the Government of Japan and UNDP, distributed 250 Flow Hives plus essential accessories across six dzongkhags. In Chhumig Gewog in Bumthang, a group of 15 women farmers moved to flow hives with PET feeding systems, nuc boxes, electric smokers, bee suits and hive tools through the Small Grants Program, and harvested once with the new system before winter set in.

Be honest with yourself about the open questions, though. The initiative itself flagged two: how well the system suits local bee species, and how it performs at commercial scale. More research, adaptation and support are still needed. If you are considering a Flow Hive, talk to someone in your dzongkhag who is already running one with the same bees you keep.

The problems that will test you

Bhutanese beekeepers report the same difficulties over and over:

• Absconding — the colony abandons the hive
• Swarming — the colony splits and half of it leaves
• Pests and predators
• Adverse weather

If your bees have absconded, you are not a bad beekeeper. It is one of the most common complaints in the country. What the studies keep pointing to is the same remedy: training in modern beekeeping practice, and continued support. Pest and disease management was built in as a core module in the Jomotsangkha training for exactly this reason.

Which specific pests and diseases are present in your valley, and what treatments you can legally and practically get hold of, varies from place to place. Do not guess and do not copy a treatment from the internet — ask your nearest livestock officer or vet what is recommended and available where you are.

Learn locally, and learn by doing

The training that works in Bhutan has a clear shape to it. In Jomotsangkha, 38 households were trained in bee biology, bee handling, hive management, pest and disease management and hygienic honey harvesting. It was hands-on, tailored to local conditions, and delivered in local dialects by an established local beekeeper who rears the same species in similar country. That last detail matters more than any manual.

To get started:

• Learn the basic practices before you buy anything.
• Attend a training programme if one is offered near you.
• Get your equipment through local authorities or organisations.
• Find a beekeeper nearby who works with your species and altitude, and stay in touch with them.

Modern apiculture has been promoted in Bhutan since the 1980s by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Forests and Park Services, and improved hive technology, training and equipment have come in with support from partners including ICIMOD, UNDP, the Bhutan Foundation Small Grants Program, and Swiss and Helvetas-supported projects in the Bumthang valley. Which of these is active in your dzongkhag right now, and what support you can apply for, changes over time — your gewog or dzongkhag agriculture office is the place to ask.

Where the honey goes: packaging, brands and buyers

Producing honey and selling honey are two different skills. The strongest example in the country is the Beekeepers' Cooperative of Bhutan (BCoB/BECoB), founded on 21 July 1997 and headquartered in Bumthang. It runs as a producer cooperative under Bhutanese cooperative law, with an elected chair, secretary, treasurer and committee. By the early 2020s it had around 73 registered members, each running between five and several hundred hives. Its annual production averaged approximately 15 metric tonnes — around a third of the national total — sold as Bumthang Pure Honey through Druksell, the state-supported e-commerce platform, and retail outlets in Thimphu and Paro.

Two lessons there. First, a cooperative lets a small beekeeper reach shops in Thimphu and Paro that they could never supply alone. Second, a name and a brand are worth building.

Turning raw honey into a product

In the Jomotsangkha project, honey samples from eastern honeybees and stingless bees were sent to a lab in India for nutrition profiling. A consultant then designed labels carrying nutrition facts. Each household received:

• 300 labels — 200 for eastern honeybee honey and 100 for stingless bee honey — plus digital copies so they could print more
• 100 glass jars, half holding 250 grams and half holding 500 grams
• a direct connection to the glass supplier for repeat purchases

Standard operating procedures were written so hive management, honey production and packaging stayed uniform across all the households, because the honey is sold in bulk. If you plan to sell as a group, agree on your standards early. Participants were also taken on a trip to meet potential buyers around Bhutan, and a marketing campaign with videos and social media posts was developed for them.

On prices, licensing and food-safety certification: these depend on your buyer, your market and current rules, so check with your local agriculture office or the cooperative you plan to sell through rather than relying on what someone got last year.

Where to start

If you already keep bees in a log or wooden hive, the single biggest step you can take is to move to improved hives with removable frames — built by a local carpenter from native timber if that is what is available. If you are starting fresh, choose your bee to match your place: Apis cerana for cold, high or remote ground up to about 3,500 metres, Apis mellifera if you are aiming at commercial volume like the Bumthang operations.

Then get trained, in your own dialect, by someone keeping the same bees nearby. Expect absconding and swarming, and treat them as management problems rather than bad luck. Sort out your jars and labels before your first harvest, not after. And join or form a group — the market for Bhutanese honey is bigger than the national supply, but it rewards people who can deliver a consistent, clean, properly packaged product.