Country

Sweden

Sweden's honey is shaped by latitude, long summer days and landscapes that change dramatically from southern farmland to northern forest. The Swedish Board of Agriculture currently estimates 160,000–170,000 managed honeybee colonies, while the national beekeeper organization represents a very large small-scale beekeeper community. Swedish honey types include rapeseed, clover, linden, honeydew and one particularly interesting northern European specialty: heather honey. Sweden also retains a significant conservation population of the European dark or brown honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera. NordGen estimates roughly 2,000–3,000 brown-bee colonies survive in the country. Sweden has another unusual Story hidden on the island of Gotland: a honeybee population that survived Varroa for years without conventional mite control became one of Europe's best-known research populations for natural mite resistance. Meanwhile, modern Swedish producers increasingly keep harvests separate by location instead of blending them into anonymous “Swedish honey.” That makes Sweden an excellent Atlas country.