Haihara Masatoshi, 27
Beekeeper from Kumamoto
Masatoshi said that it would take five hours to begin to explain beekeeping properly, but we finished in one hour. He gave me a dark soba (buckwheat) honey, which was delicious.
Why beekeeping?
My father started the business. At first the goal wasn’t to raise bees, but to grow strawberries, watermelons, etc. The bees help the crops grow. So, a beekeeper can make money by lending bees to various farms.How is honey produced?
To get honey, you need a lot of flowers, especially for quality honey. I’m still learning. When bees are sleeping I still take care of them It’s a 24-hour job. All honey is produced the same way, but the flowers and fields make a difference. Hokkaido, for example, doesn’t have the same flowers as Kyushu. The environment is changing. More and more houses are being built on fields. The most fun is April and May when the flowers bloom. We travel to collect honey and meet people. I go as far as Tottori. The best part is drinking sake at night!Any bad points?
There’s almost no rest or vacation time. We follow the cycle of the bees.Were you afraid of bees at first?
Yeah, everyone is! Some people go into shock if stung. Every year, one or two beekeepers die from a kumabachi (hornet’s) sting. Many don’t die the first time, but a second time is very dangerous. It took time for me to overcome the fear, especially of the sound. If a bee lands on you, don’t move; then they won’t sting. Bees sting when surprised. Bees are mysterious. They distinguish flowers by smell, and always return to their family--which is convenient for beekeepers. The smell of glue and paint can actually kill them. Bees need a lot of nature. There are 50,000 bees in one hive (bee’s home): one queen, 45,000 workers and 4,999 drones. If the queen dies, they make royal jelly and put it in the new queen’s room so another queen can be born. If two queens are born, one has to leave and try to start a new hive.How is the money?
I have two stores; each makes ¥500,000/month, half of which goes on expenses. Renting out bees makes ¥20,000,000 a year. Now there’s something of a honey boom in Japan, though it’s still the beginning. There are many special programs on tv. Honey is very healthy. It becomes energy quickly; sugar becomes fat. And honey lasts a long time--100 or 200 years! They recently found 3,000 year old honey in Egypt and it was still edible. Royal jelly is as nutritious as mother’s milk: it’s the perfect food. Many people take it to cure cancer.the end
This interview was originally published in Kansai Time Out magazine.