The ‘”Acacia” Municipal Beekeeping Association – Plovdiv organizes the last beekeeping exhibition for 2019 , taking place in the period November 8 - 17. Among the exhibitors are Nellie Salcheva and her daughter Gergana, whose stand attracts visitors with beautifully arranged jars of different types of honey and variety of honey products.

“My family has been involved in beekeeping for a long time. We have four apiaries,” Nellie Salcheva says and adds: “Having apiaries in different places helps us produce various types of honey. We produce a total of 7 types of honey: forest bouquet, coriander, lavender, linden, honeydew honey. However, this year was not very favorable for acacia honey.”

As an owner of apiaries in the mountains and in the field Nellie Salcheva summarized the problems of beekeepers as follows:

“In the field, we were negatively affected by spraying. In the Kalofer Balkan and Sredna Gora Mountain we are more protected, but accordingly the yields there are lower, and this is difficult to estimate. Balkan honey is thicker, stronger, but very small in quantity.”

Due to the low purchase prices, the Salchevi family prefers direct sales and is thus able to bypass the dealers. Nellie and Gergana rely on their regular customers who are looking for their high-quality honey. "We may start looking for sales abroad," Nellie Salcheva says about her plans.

As we talk, the beautifully designed beekeeping stand attracts the attention of a group of British tourists.

“Whatever honey they try, foreigners find it delicious,” says the owner with a smile. “I had heard that Europeans loved only light honey like that of acacia and rapeseed but that is not true. They like all types of Bulgarian honey.”

Nellie told us of another aspect of beekeeping:

“The stress in our daily lives has a negative effect. The good thing for us beekeepers is that when we go to the hives, all the stress goes away, especially if you love bees. You begin to deal with their problems. The clean air itself is saturated with their pheromones, which are beneficial for the human body.”

Nellie says that humans can learn many things from bees:

“An unclean person cannot become a beekeeper, a drunkard cannot become a beekeeper, a nervous man cannot be a beekeeper. If the phone in my pocket rings or I shout, they immediately respond and become nervous.”

Although Bulgaria produces honey of the highest quality, Bulgarians, unlike other Europeans, consume the least amount of honey. Why is this so?

“Indeed, Bulgarians consume very little honey. With these exhibitions we try to get people acquainted with the benefits of honey and this is an opportunity to contact the end customer. Our beekeeping association organizes exhibitions every spring and autumn here in Plovdiv.

At the end of the conversation Nellie Salcheva told us that it was much better to consume honey than to give this money to the pharmaceutical industry. A jar of honey gives you much more health than any medicine!

English: Alexander Markov