Varmul Valley Bee Fed Producer Company Limited

Keeping bees in Sopore is a lot of work that most people don't see. We are the Varmul Valley Bee Fed Producer Company Limited and we operate out of the Sopore block area. Mohammad Yousuf Lone is the one who usually handles the visitors and the messages. It’s a quiet kind of life, mostly spent checking on the hives and making sure the bees are healthy and have enough flowers nearby. We get stung more than we like to admit, but that is just part of the deal when you work with bees. The weather in the valley can be tricky for honey. If it stays cold too long, the bees don't come out, and if it rains too much, the blossoms get ruined. We are just local folks who know the cycle of the seasons here. We don't have a big factory. It is mostly just small setups in different spots around the village. We spend hours walking between the different areas to check on things. Sometimes the honey is thick and dark and other times it is light, depending on what the bees found that month. We aren't doing anything fancy or modern. We just do things the way they have been done here for a long time. It is a lot of standing in the sun and lifting heavy boxes, but it keeps us busy and the honey is good. It is honest work for people who enjoy being outside.