Indonesia: biggest bees, dangerous harvest, liquid honey

All black and about four times the size of our honey bee: this is the Wallace's Giant Bee. It was thought to be extinct. Until a few years ago, researchers found a few specimens on an island in the northern Moluccas in Indonesia.

Much more common on the island of Borneo is the giant honeybee, Apis dorsata. It is the size of a European hornet and builds its nests in the tops of large trees, which are considered sacred. The honey is harvested - depending on the area - during the day or at night by honey hunters climbing the trees, which can be up to 50 meters high.

Giant honeybees have open hives that can grow up to two meters long. Protection from external influences is provided exclusively by a «curtain» of bees in five to seven layers.

But there are also bees similar to ours. They are the eastern honey bees. Their honey is popular and expensive. And above all, it is much more liquid than ours, with more than 20% water content. That is why in local dialects people do not talk about eating honey, but drinking it.