Colonies

Environmental Mission: Support local Organic, Healthy Hives – Through working with local leaders in Turkey’s beekeeping community the program will work with Turkey’s newly organic certified women beekeepers to produce unique organic honey from indigenous bee species and protected rare flowers. Core to the program is continued support and supervision so that the hives remain at the highest organic and ethical standards. To ensure healthy hives, we will work with local communities to try alternatives to pesticides, hormones, and chemicals in agriculture, crops, and apiculture.

Communities

Socially Driven: Community Run Honey Production - Through our close-knit communities, we will share organic cultivation practices, processing equipment, transportation trucks, and team up with other local NGOs to hold trainings, workshops, classes, and produce honey products. Through collaborating with a network of NGOs, women will have a safe space to try new honey practices and to minimize the costs of being a small local honey producer while maximizing the benefits of working collaboratively. A portion of the honey proceeds are also reinvested to participating women for education, health, and basic skills training/entrepreneurship.

Connections

Sustainable Operations: Working With Regional Hotels and Tourism For Selling Honey and Establishing Honey Tasting Tours - Our program works with local hotels to serve and market our honey products and arrange tour packages for international tourists to visit the villages, hives, and cultural areas in local eco-friendly ways. In particular, through establishing honey tasting tours, we offer authentic trips to remote, pristine, parts of Turkey to ancient architecture, local villages, combined will local organic honey sampling. With Turkey’s 9,000 plus flower species, through sampling specialized honeys that are specific to each plateau and valley, visitors will emerge as honey connoisseurs and advocates for local indigenous honey.

Through this program, awareness about organic honey as well as the culture and traditions around honey in Turkey will be celebrated internationally, shaping a sector centered on organic, ethical, high quality honey led by women and local communities.