40 beehives in one house!

A two storey house under construction in Sadar upazila of Rajbari has become home to thousands of live bees that made nearly 40 hives in and outside the house.  

People from near and far now come to see the house, in Rajendrapur village under Ramkantapur union, where the bees have been making hives since 2015.   

At first they made eight hives in different places of the house and they made 15 hives the next year, said house owner Sekendar Munshi, an expatriate worker in Saudi Arabia.

Out of those, bees stayed in three hives in the house throughout the year and they have been making more hives every year, whenever flowers of mustard, mango and litchi are in bloom, he added.

During a visit to the house on a Friday afternoon, this correspondent saw several dozens of beehives in different spots inside the building and on mango and kaalo jaam (also known as black plum, jamun or jambul elsewhere in the world) trees within the building compound.

Like many others, Neetish Bishwas also came to see the house from Indurdi village in Baliakandi upazila.

He said, "I came to see the house today after hearing about it from one of the elders in the village. It's really amazing -- so many beehives in one place!"

The bees arrive around the same time every year and rebuild the hives on the same spots, said homeowner Sekendar. "No one in my house causes any disturbance to the bees and they [the bees] never harm anyone.

"I've got no training on beekeeping or extraction of honey or its preservation. So, I have a professional honey collector who extracts the honey for me from the beehives three or four times a year, in a span of about five months."

A good amount of the honey is collected when mustard flowers are in bloom and a smaller amount is collected when mango or litchi flowers bloom.

After giving the honey collector his share of the honey, the remainder of the honey that Sekendar receives is given away to mosque goers and students of madrasas in the area, he added. 

Honey collector Shariful Islam, who has been extracting honey from Sekendar's house, said he extracted total 120 kilograms of honey from beehives in the house last year and his share was half of it.

This year he hopes to get around 150 kg of honey from the 40 beehives and so far he extracted 16 kg.

The honey sells for Tk 1,000 a kg, he said, adding that people from distant places also come to his house to buy it from him.