Yanhe Honey

Yanhe Honey

　　Yanhe Honey is a specialty of Yanhe County, Tongren City, Guizhou Province. Yanhe County is one of the main honey-producing counties in Guizhou, ranking among the top in the province for honey production. The "Royal Jelly Honey" produced by the Yanhe County Bee Products Processing Factory is a health product suitable for both the young and the old.

　　The "Yanhe County Annals" records: "There is an old farming proverb in Yanhe County: 'Attract bees and raise sheep, no need for household grain.' During the Jiaqing reign of the Ming Dynasty, honey was one of the county’s major local products. By the end of 1949, the county had 11,560 beehives with a honey output of 20 tons. In 1974, the supply and marketing cooperative purchased 86.4 tons of honey. In 1976, the county had 93 bee farms with 162 beekeepers managing 2,767 colonies. Additionally, 221 farmers switched to using wooden hives and artificial comb foundations to raise Chinese honeybees. The history of beekeeping by humans can be traced back to primitive animal husbandry in primitive society, while the documented history of beekeeping in the Yanhe area today can be traced to the Ba Kingdom era. The 'Yuanhe Junxian Zhi' records that during the Tang Dynasty, Sizhou (with its administrative center in present-day Yanhe) offered honey, beeswax, tea, raw lacquer, and cinnabar as tribute."