Mahabaleshwar Honey Village Manghar Tour and Madhuban and Madhusagar Honey Parks

“Tour to India’s first ‘Honey Village’ at Manghar, which is just 7.5 km (19 minutes) from Mahabaleshwar hill station, and the already famous apiculture honey parks are Madhuban and Madhusagar. Pure honey and other products are what one can expect from these tourist places in Mahabaleshwar, apart from the live interactions and deep knowledge about the honeybee community and the entire process of harvesting.

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Honey tourism at Mahabaleshwar Hills, apart from Other attractions are yet another reason to visit these places. Complete details, like the location of Madhuban beekeeping, Madhusagar center, Pure Honey, and other products, and the latest Manghar Honey Village tour, are detailed below.”

Manghar Village of Honey (Madhache Gaav)

Just 7.5 km from the main Mahabaleshwar market, Manghar is a small village in the Satara district at the border of Satara and Raigad. To date, not many knew about this village until it was announced by the Maharashtra Government’s Khadi Gram Udyog Bee Keeping Training Institute (Madh Sanchalanalay) that Manghar will be India’s first ‘Village of Honey, and special tourism will be arranged to boost rural employment, pure honey businesses, and the ecosystem on these hills too.

Manghar is also called the Smart Village of Satara district as it has won many awards like the ‘Nirmal Gram Award’, the ‘Peaceful Village’ (No Fights and Related Issues) award, the ‘Saint Gadge Maharaj Clean Village Award, the ‘Paryavaran Vikas Award, the ‘One Village, One Ganesh Idol’ Award, and many more. Unbelievable right? Yes, there are so many things to learn from one small place and these villagers.

So, why was Manghar selected and known as the first ‘Village of Honey’? Upon survey, it was found that every other home in this village is into beehives and working towards the collection and production of pure honey as an in-house production business. Almost every home has ‘Beehive Boxes’ and apiculture. A prime location is now well known upon recognition for its apiary business.

It is surprising to know that as of day 88, some 100 total families in this village are engaged in the business of beekeeping. A total of 1450 beehive boxes have already been installed in this village. Manghar alone produces about 4000 kg of pure honey every year. Types of honey, as called in the local Marathi language, are Gedha, Hirda, Anjan, Karvi, and Voity.

To boost honey tourism and the existing honey production and selling business, the Maharashtra government has also decided to increase the flora and fauna in the vicinity hills that helps honeybees with more honey. Some of the trees that attract more worker and drone honey bees are Hirda, Jamun, Cinnamon, Mulberry, Litchi, and many other flower plants that are already planted. This village location of Mahabaleshwar gets more than 600 mm of rain every year.

Like Madhuban and Madhusagar, the Manghar village bee breeding center will have a guided tour, or an experienced villager will give a real-life experience and knowledge about honey, bees, and related. One will be able to visit this center and get information about bee breeding, bee collection, and beehives (bee boxes), and will also be able to purchase this natural boon for health, pure honey, at the selling counters available inside this village.

You might like to know about the car toll charges around Mahabaleshwar hills and Major Attractions.

See : Map

Mahabaleshwar Market Video

Madhuban Honey Park

Madhuban is a ‘Maharashtra State Khadi & Industries Board’ apiculture dedicated to bee harvesting and the honey business. It is a beekeeping (also called apiculture) honey park known for its artificial (or man-made) honey harvesting via boxed bee colonies called ‘Beehive Boxes’ to get more pure honey. The best part of beekeeping compared to the natural form of bee harvesting is that one gets 4 to 10 times more honey produced. These man-made colonies are also helpful to understand their behavior and health conditions, as well as to control swarming.

Three types of Indian bees that stay alone in one box are worker bees, queen bees, and drone bees. Worker bees are the main agents of pollination, with a life span of 1 to 6 months. Drone bees live for 1 to 3 months and die immediately once mating is done with the queen bee. A queen bee (usually a single bee in one colony) stays and lives longer than others and has an age span of 2 to 3 years.

Kamble sir, A senior and experienced person with Khadi Gram Udyog (Madhuban Honey Park) guides thousands of tourists, school students, and others with information about the Honey Bees colony, giving individuals an exceptional experience in actually handling these beehives that have 10 to 30 thousand bees.

A point to remember while visiting or personally handling these boxes is that the bees do not like perfume or any other smell around. They get disturbed and can bite the box holder in some situations. So, it is always better to not wear perfume or any strong scent while visiting Madhuban Honey Park or any other place in Mahabaleshwar.

Apart from honey, these bees also produce propolis, wax, bee venom, and royal jelly and also help with the natural pollination of local crops and food plants.

Structure of Beehive Box

From bottom to top, these beehives are made of different compartments and dividers to fit the best bees in their colonies. At the bottom is a board, which is a takeoff and landing platform for foraging bees. On top of it is a hive body for brood rearing, which has frames and combs (also called ‘Beewax Foundation’) to extract honey.

On top of the hive body is a layer of frames called ‘Queen Excluder’ to stop the queen bee. Then comes ‘Honey Super’, which also contains a shallow frame to store honey. The top area has an inner and outer cover, while the inner cover helps stop bees from attaching a comb to the outer cover, and the outer cover on top works as a weather protector.

Madhuban Honey Fast Facts

• Types of Honey Sold by Madhuban: Natural Blend and Sunflower.
• 500 Gm cost Rs. 300.
• FSSAI-approved honey is best consumed before 18 months of packaging.
• To help customers, On the bottle, it is written, ‘Honey has the tendency to crystallize, To reliquify, keep the bottle in lukewarm water or under sunlight when required.
• 6 minutes from Main Mahabaleshwar Market on Old Mahabaleshwar Road.

Contact : 02168260264 & 02168230264

See : Map

Madhusagar Honey Factory

Since 1955, operated as a semi-government organization named ‘Mahabaleshwar Madhothpadak Sahakari Society LTD’, Madhusagar is a government-approved honey collection center located just 5 minutes from Main Mahabaleshwar Market at about 1.5 km.

Another best honey tour place to explore and buy the best quality honey and other products like jam, juice, crush and syrup, jelly, gulkand, chocolate, pickles, and chutney.

Three special types of honey are organic honey, jambhul honey, and gela honey available at Madhusagar Honey Factory in packs ranging from 100 grams to 1 kg. Various types of honey have their own health benefits. Below are the same:

• PISA Honey: Full of Vitamins
• Jambhul Honey: Cough, Cold, Diabetes, Asthma.
• Hirda Honey: Constipation and Gas Problems.
• Akhara Honey: Constipation.
• Karvy Honey: Calcium and Bone Builder.
• Whayty Honey: Glucose.

For many years, thousands of tourists and locals have visited and purchased Madhusagar products and had factory experience, which is just behind the counter area. Madhusagar and Madhuban have been the origins of honey tourism in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani for decades now.

See: Map

Contact : 07057837617 & 02168260219.

Picture Courtesy: Manali Travelling Vlogs, Somnath Nagawade Vlog.