Honey hunting

Definition

Depicted in rock art across Spain, southern Africa and India, and continuing today wherever the bees cannot be hived. Apis dorsata builds single open combs that defeat every attempt at domestication, so Malaysian tualang honey and Sundarbans mangrove honey are hunted rather than farmed — the first from fifty-metre climbs at night, the second in tiger country under licence. Nepalese cliff honey is cut from Apis laboriosa nests reached by rope ladder.

Where the word gets used loosely

Romanticised in photography and increasingly distorted by tourism. Paid demonstration climbs raise harvest frequency beyond what colonies sustain, and the international market for mad honey is a direct driver of over-harvesting on a small number of Himalayan cliffs.

Honey records that discuss this

• Himalayan cliff honeyStrong, dark and complex, with a bitter herbal edge and a slightly astringent finish. Spring harvests are frequently sharper and more bitter than autumn ones.

Guide records that discuss this

• A history of beekeepingFrom cliff-face honey hunting to the movable frame, the history of beekeeping is a history of one problem: how to take the honey without destroying the colony.
• A history of honeyFor most of human history, honey was the only concentrated sweetness available. Almost everything about its cultural weight follows from that, and from how abruptly it ended.