People in Son Phu commune (Na Hang) are increasingly interested in beekeeping for honey.

When mentioning Son Phu commune, people think of wild honey. Nature has endowed this land with biodiversity, bees from everywhere flock here to nest, to the point that just by going to the forest one morning, people have a few liters of honey to bring back.

In a two-story wooden house on stilts next to Highway 279, Mr. Phung Thanh Tien, the first person to bring beekeeping to the locality, is working hard to build 20 more boxes to prepare for separation after the Lunar New Year.

Mr. Tien said, in 2003, when the snub-nosed monkey conservation project was implemented in Na Hang district, to help people feel secure in production, the project also opened beekeeping training classes. Mr. Tien is also the only person in Son Phu commune to learn how to raise bees to get honey. In the past, bees lived naturally, but now bringing bees back with humans to care for and collect honey is an extremely strange and difficult task.

After more than a month of studying, he learned how to make a box for bees to make nests, and went to the forest to catch bees to raise at home. He said that in 2005, he had 12 bee colonies and had a stable amount of honey to sell on the market. But only in the middle of that year, it rained non-stop for about 20 days, the bees were hungry and had no food, combined with a humid environment infected with middle rot, after 10 days there were no nests left.

In the past, there was no Internet like there is now, the journey to gain experience in raising bees was extremely strenuous and arduous. Much later, he was taught by an acquaintance in Tuyen Quang city the technique of adding pollen to bees during times of food scarcity, how to remove bridges to keep the nest damp, and how to prevent larval rot, etc. He decided to do it again.

In 2006, Mr. Tien put all his capital of more than 30 million VND into Tuyen Quang city to buy 40 bee colonies. The people of Na La village at that time saw that Mr. Tien was determined to make a bee-based economy. Everyone seemed strange. Ignoring the detractors, young man Phung Thanh Tien remains steadfast in his profession. At peak in 2010, with more than 50 bee colonies, each year he earned about VND130 million.

Seeing Mr. Tien raising bees effectively, the people of Son Phu commune gradually followed. By 2012, the entire commune had over 20 beekeeping households with 10 colonies or more, and people's income gradually stabilized.

In 2014, starting from the idea of expanding markets and finding outlets for his products, Tien founded a beekeeping group in Son Phu commune with 14 members. As the group leader, Mr. Tien took responsibility for providing technical support to people. By 2015, the group had 150 bee colonies, each year collecting more than 800 liters of honey, with a revenue of more than VND200 million.

In 2022, after consulting with the commune government, Mr. Tien and 10 households agreed to establish Viet Phu Agricultural Cooperative (Cooperative) with the main business line being agricultural products, especially honey. Cooperative members must raise their awareness in animal husbandry, so the number of bee colonies is increasing, by the end of 2023 there will be about 230 colonies, with annual revenue of approximately VND500 million.

Comrade Ha Van Duc, Chairman of Son Phu People's Committee, said that the commune has favorable natural conditions and great potential, but beekeeping has just begun. District and commune leaders highly encourage and create favorable conditions for people to develop beekeeping under the forest canopy. This year, Son Phu's honey products are expected to reach 4-stars OCOP product. If successful, the brand will increasingly have a foothold in the market.