GUA MUSANG - What started as a hobby to satisfy his own craving for honey has turned out to be financially rewarding for vegetable seller Zolkefli Rashid.
The 28-year-old trader said the difficulty in getting pure honey had also prompted him to venture into part-time beekeeping, starting with four species of stingless bees - Trigona Itama, Trigona Torasica, Trigona Terminata and Trigona Canifrons.
Zolkefli has been breeding stingless bees for their honey at his home in Kampung Kundur here the past five years.
"Initially, I kept only one log of beehive and harvested the honey for my own consumption. I learned the health benefits of drinking pure honey and the difficulty of getting it in the market.
"I gradually expanded my farm and now has more than 20 logs of beehives behind my house,” he told reporters here today.
Zolkefli, who sells vegetables at Pasar Borong Gua Musang, said apart from seeking advice from other beekeepers, he also used social media to learn the proper methods of breeding stingless bees in order to produce quality honey.
"For sure, the venture comes with challenges. I have been cheated by people before and have unknowingly bought damaged beehive logs. The logs have also been attacked by frogs, lizards and ants.
"But I get the satisfaction of collecting pure honey every month. The harvest can exceed two kilogrammes,” said Zolkefli, who earns almost RM1,000 a month from his part-time work.
He sells his stingless bee honey for between RM30 and RM180 per bottle. - BERNAMA