José Manuel, a beekeeper who runs hundreds of hives with his brother Jesús in the Los Alcornocales Natural Park in Cádiz province, southern Spain, said beekeepers' work goes unrecognised and underpaid. Speaking on the podcast @DesdelaRaíz-ElPodcastdeFruSur, he said that when people see a one-kilo jar of honey selling for 8 euros in the supermarket, they are surprised, but do not realise all the work behind it. He said beekeeping is not paid for at all and that beekeepers are not valued, describing the physical effort and constant risks the profession involves.
A Family Tradition Since 1982
The business dates back decades, according to José Manuel, to when his father began combining his job as a fruit seller with weekend hive-keeping in 1982. After his father died in 2018, the family continued the tradition under the brand Miel del Madroño, producing a fully natural, limited-run honey sold mainly through greengrocers in Cádiz and Seville. José Manuel said what he has is only what comes out of the hives, describing a traditional model that rejects artificial additives.
Los Alcornocales, one of Spain's largest natural parks, straddles the provinces of Cádiz and Málaga and takes its name from the cork oak forests covering much of its hills, forming the backdrop for the family's colonies.
Bees at Work in the Hive
The annual honey harvest is concentrated in July and August, when bees intensify their work day and night to remove moisture from flower nectar, José Manuel said. He explained that a worker bee's life during the summer lasts barely 30 to 40 days because of the constant strain, while a queen bee can live up to five years by feeding exclusively on royal jelly. He said the queen is the only one that lays eggs, describing how each colony functions biologically.
A Vital Role in the Ecosystem
Beyond the harvest, José Manuel stressed the crucial role these insects play in the environment, noting that 85% of plant pollination depends directly on their activity. He warned that without bees, the planet would last five years at most, and said areas such as Grazalema and Los Alcornocales would not survive without them. He argued that the usual market price barely covers the work needed to sustain the hives.
Asian Hornet Threatens Hives
The main challenge facing beekeepers in southern Spain is the advance of the Asian hornet and the oriental hornet. These predatory insects, whose arrival is linked to shipping containers reaching the Port of Algeciras, have spread within a few years to provinces including Granada and Huelva, attacking hives directly to devour bees and raid their brood. José Manuel warned that the hornet is getting worse every year, killing more and more hives.
The Asian hornet, native to Southeast Asia, was first recorded in Europe in France in 2004 and has since spread across much of the Iberian Peninsula, where it preys on honeybees to feed its own larvae.
The pest has taken a heavy economic toll on local operations in recent seasons. José Manuel said the hornet caused more than 200 losses last year alone, and that combined with factors such as the varroa mite and natural losses, the family lost around 350 hives. Varroa is a parasitic mite that attaches to honeybees and is considered one of the biggest threats to hive health worldwide. He called for greater institutional support, saying beekeepers need help because they cannot cope with the problem alone, calling the situation impossible.
From Hive to Jar
The family operation currently manages around 1,600 hives in Cádiz province, a figure scaled back from a peak of 2,200 hives, yielding annual harvests of between 27,000 and 28,000 kilos of honey. Mature honeycombs are processed by removing the surface layer of virgin wax before being placed in a centrifuge, which extracts the honey directly into drums holding more than 300 kilos before final filtering.
The variety of honey produced depends on the flowering available in each area, ranging from sunflower and wild scrubland honey to the prized eucalyptus honey, valued for easing respiratory ailments and colds. José Manuel summed up the process as going from the hive to the jar, describing an artisanal method that preserves the honey's botanical purity and the natural balance of the mountains.
