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found to contain some brood, the honey and brood can be eaten together, as long as
the brood is still in the larval stage. Older, pupating (and presumably capped) brood,
which has developed wings, is discarded. The larvae are said to contain a milky
substance, which is quite tasty in combination with honey.
The harvesting of these two types of honey can therefore be labeled ‘sustain-
able’, as much of the hive and brood is left intact, and the bees are usually able to
rebuild the missing comb, and collect new food stores. Moreover, when harvesting
from ‘ bee tree s ’, a few colonies are always left untouched, to allow the population
to build up again. For this reason, it is possible to harvest honey up to three times in
a year from the same hejje:nu colony. In contrast, the collection of honey from
kaḍḍi je: nu and nesari je:nu hives tends to result in the destruction of the hive. For
the former, since the top of the wax comb wraps around the supporting branch, it is
usually severed towards its proximal end (with respect to the central trunk of the
tree), and the comb, with the branch running through it, is gathered whole. In the
latter case, the small size of the nest makes it diffi cult to selectively harvest some
parts of the comb, while preserving others.
Solega honey harvesters, who have been involved in the sale of honey to non-
Solega tradespeople, are able to give estimates of typical honey yields from each
type of bee. A full hejje:nu comb could hold as much as 25 kg of honey, a thuḍuve
je: nu colony could store 5–7 kg, while a kaḍḍi je:nu colony might yield 0.5–1 kg.
Nesari je:nu hives are usually raided for an on-the-spot meal, but might also hold
the same amount of honey as a kaḍḍi je:nu colony.
Excursus 7.1: A Beesting RemedyNo action is taken when one receives a few stings during the course of honey -
gathering activities. When something goes wrong, however, and the gatherer
is attacked by en masse , the following remedy can be employed:
Namage ja:sti je: nu kaccu uṭṭre, nammalli a:sa:ḍi be:ru anta ondu giḍa ide. Adava
na:vu tegedu asi:ne tintivi. Adu je:nu kaccidare ma:tra. Geṇasu tara irutte. Me:le
tokke irutte, tokkege tegedu bisha:ku uṭṭu oḷagaḷa ba:ga tintivi. A:va:ga visa ella
eḍdu ho:gu uḍte, no:vu solpa beṇḍa:gotte.
We have a plant called a:sa:ḍi be:ru for when we get stung a lot. We look for it,
and eat it raw, but only when we get stung by bees. It’s like a yam. There’s bark
outside, we remove the bark, throw it away, and eat the inner part. Then the poison
goes away, and the pain lessens.7.4 Bee Songs
Like the Jenu Kurumba and the Alu Kurumba of the nearby Nilgiri Hills , the Solega
also have a ‘ honey song ’, which is sung prior to, or during, a honey-harvesting
event. Unlike the highly elaborate song of the Kurumbas, however, the Solega honey
song is short and simple, although it can be sung with different melodies, and with
7 Honeybee Lore