59-05-032 Proceeding

384 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress be marginal, may be a more suitable option for honey beekeeping promotion, especially for the people in the developing countries. In the case ofThailand, where this paper’s consideration is concentrated on, beekeeping has not been a prominent and sustainable industry in itself. Thai beekeeping is not totally irrelevant; yet, its economic production is not at the level it could have been. The factors could be vast. One major concern is the levels of participation in national beekeeping interest. As a developing nation, generalThai population does not paymuch attention to the ancient way of life, which could have yielded a supporting living economy for their family. Their eyes tend to fix on employments and the emerging trades or modern industrialization they may readily be able to draw income from. Yet, Thais are not strangers to bees and honey. Rural children as well as adults know where to go and find wild honey. They may not know the scientific differences between each of them but they know what kinds will give them honey and where. Whether it is called ‘giant bees’, ‘flies bees’, or just ‘bees’ they usually can identify and realize what gives them the honey they want. Traditional Honey Harvest Traditionally, rural people in Thailand would go to the bee trees whether in the forest or around the house, and cut the hives down (Oldroyd and Nanork 2009). There were plenty of them and there needed to be no keeping. In some areas, they would go and find the bees in the hollow logs or tree trunks and pick honey out of them. The outcome is the same, the wild bees honey. They also know the best honey of the season they may keep for their medicinal use. Yet the quality of honey is dubious (Ryan 2010). The Consideration of Honeybeekeeping as an Economic Engine Though some may have been sold off the big supermarket shelves or even exported (Cuyvers et al. 2013), honey from wild bees has been seen being sold along the roads inThailand. Though many of them are from the raised or kept bees, they lack both the quantity and quality to support the market need. Honey is of various qualities. Many are very well fermented while others are contaminated or with a lot of residues. Prices also vary. Some are of sugar fed bees instead of natural feeding from flowers and plants. The Beekeeping Investment Beekeeping investment can vary greatly. To consider a business scale operation, which usually will be done with the Apis mellifera or European bees, it would cost a lot of investment to be sustainable (Ryan 2010). This will include the bee stocks, the equipment and others to get ready for the operation. To break even, one will have to do a large scale enough to cover the investment. However, to keep local Asian honeybees will be opposite: the investment will be minimal and almost anybody can begin to raise Asian honeybees at any time they are ready.