Country

Bulgaria

Bulgaria is serious honey country. Official agricultural statistics recorded 816,600 colonies in October 2023, with 659,000 used for honey production and 11,189 tonnes harvested that year. Its Atlas value, though, is diversity: linden, acacia, lavender, sunflower, rapeseed and wildflowers all appear in commercial honey, while the oak forests of the Strandzha Mountains create something entirely different. Strandzhanski manov med is a protected dark honeydew honey made from sweet secretions associated with oak forests rather than ordinary flower nectar. Bulgaria also maintains locally selected honeybee populations described in breeding research as Apis mellifera macedonica, type 'rodopica.'