Spring Is Here At Last,

already bees are out and about,

pollinating flowers and making honey, but not all honey making bees are equal, the bees of Easter Island south-eastern Pacific Ocean, are free of all the pathogens and pesticides ravaging the global bee population, and therefore produce the purest honey on the planet, and with bee colonies all over the world struggling to survive serious threats like pesticide poisoning, new diseases and climate change, the bees of Easter Island are probably the only ones in the world yet to be affected by such problems, and their Chilean owners hope to keep it that way, by banning other bees to be imported,

“Here the farmers practically do not use pesticides, they use ancestral cultivation techniques,” beekeeper Rodrigo Labras said. “The water is also completely natural, collected from rain. They have clean water sources all over the island. But the main thing is that unlike bees in the world, they are not associated with any type of disease. And therefore we do not have to apply any chemical product to the hive or to the bees.” Not only are the bees of Easter Island the healthiest in the world, they are also the most productive. Because of the island’s pleasant climate – spring weather almost all year round – the bees remain active throughout the year, along with the flowering of the plants. Colonies on the island produce between 90 and 120 kilos of honey per year, compared to 20 kilograms produced by similarly-sized bee hives anywhere else, because of the lack of bee diseases on Easter Island, beekeepers have no use for antibiotics of any kind, there is no risk of pesticide contamination, so the honey made here is considered the most pure in the entire world, as it happens I looked to see if any could be bought, apparently it is sold as Rapanui honey, it has a more liquid consistency than common honey due to the high humidity of the island, which prevents crystallization, but the only references to Rapanui honey I could find were these two, here and here, so there is a marketing opportunity for Chile!