Country

Norway

Norwegian beekeepers work within a narrow seasonal window, but the landscape rewards them with some remarkable honeys. The country's signature is heather honey, produced when colonies are moved to late-summer heathlands for a bloom that may last only about two weeks. Norwegian producers also harvest raspberry, mountain and summer-flower honeys, while some apiaries keep individual harvests separate by exact location. On the island of Frøya, Nordheim Gård says there often isn't much harvest at all until the coastal heather turns purple. Norway also protects one of Europe's surviving populations of the European dark honeybee, with legally protected breeding zones in Flekkefjord, Sokndal and Lund. Current Nordic conservation material estimates about 4,000 dark-bee colonies within a national population of roughly 50,000 colonies. From Oslo rooftop honey to migratory mountain apiaries and protected native bees, Norway gives Atlas an unusually clear link between latitude, season, landscape and bee genetics.