Raw wild honey hunting is easy, reliable and seasonal

[goodsamaritan]

I just came home from an Aeta mountain people settlement in Kanawan, Morong Bataan and they were preparing to demonstrate their wild honey collection techniques.  The native word for honey is "pulot". 

Since these people live in the mountains and the forests, they know the trees, the flowers, the seasons and the bees. 

First step is to locate the bee hive.

Second step is to clump together these 4 foot long sticks kind of wood and wrap some special kinds of leaves together.  Tie this underneath the bee hive and light the bottom.  The smoke from this special combination makes the bees dizzy, disoriented and drives them away.

Third step is to get the whole hive and collect the honey from inside.

There is really no danger from them getting stung by the bees.  The only danger there is if the hives are located in dangerous locations where you could possibly fall.

Wild honey collection is done December to May.  The rest of the year they say is the rainy season and they let the bees recover and regenerate.

By the way the Aetas describe the honey collection techniques it is very easy, must have been a staple thing to do for humans since the time humans became intelligent.  Honey must have been a raw paleolithic staple.

[boxcarguy07]

That's really quite interesting!

Did they eat the honeycomb as well?

[goodsamaritan]

Hmmm.... I didn't ask that.  I will text them.

[Raw Kyle]

Hmmm.... I didn't ask that.  I will text them.

That kind of cracks me up that they're collecting honey with burning sticks and getting text messages at the same time. Not meant as any offense, I actually think the melding of technology with old school is really cool and would like to do it in the future myself when I get some land to collect food from.

[TylerDurden]

Best type of raw honey to get hold of is raw honeycomb(preferably from high-grade sources such as heather or apples). So-called "raw honey", in liquid form, is often lightly pasteurised and it's legal, within the UK, to categorise honey as raw if it's heated to 80 degrees Centigrade for only a very short time. Honeycomb(in the UK) is almost always raw, unless it's within a jar, in which case it's pasteurised.

[goodsamaritan]

That kind of cracks me up that they're collecting honey with burning sticks and getting text messages at the same time. Not meant as any offense, I actually think the melding of technology with old school is really cool and would like to do it in the future myself when I get some land to collect food from.

Cell phones are cheap today, even tribes people can afford them.  The cell phone signals are strong, they can send text messages while hunting in the forest.  The village immediately knows when a catch has been made.  This is very recent.  Just within the past year.

Here is a picture of the smoking instrument they use.