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Bingöl Honey and Highland Beekeeping

A product name can describe the map of a province.

Radar TürkiyeRadar Türkiye6 Kasım 2026
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Bingöl Honey and Highland Beekeeping

A product name can describe the map of a province. For Bingöl Honey this is not an exaggeration, because the official description of the product rests directly on geography: a single province is named as its boundary, and that province's flowering highland pastures are its raw material. Drawing on the registration document and university sources, this article explains what kind of place the honey comes from, how the beekeeper's year unfolds and in which forms the product is offered. It contains no shop, price or brand recommendations; the aim is to look at Bingöl's highlands from a different window.

What the registration document says

In the records of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, Bingöl Honey (Bingöl Balı) appears under number 1237 as a geographical indication of the designation of origin type. The application is dated 16 December 2020 and the registration 7 October 2022. The body that applied and received the registration is Bingöl University. The document names the province of Bingöl as the geographical boundary, so the product name cannot travel beyond the provincial border.

The product description is short and clear. Bingöl Honey is a polyfloral blossom honey obtained in the province of Bingöl, meaning it relies on many flower species rather than a single plant. Its colour can range from light amber to dark amber. The same honey is produced in three forms: comb, karakovan and strained. The document also lists, as a distinguishing feature, the presence in the honey samples of at least one of the plant groups known as geven (milk vetch).

According to university sources, the preparation was long. Work began in 2018; honey samples were collected over three years from nearly fifty locations covering the central district and the seven other districts of Bingöl, and analysed in laboratories. The application file was prepared with these data and submitted to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office in December 2020. After it was published in the office's bulletin of geographical indications and traditional product names, it proceeded to registration.

Highland altitude and flowering

The geography section of the document describes Bingöl as a land of rapidly changing elevation and dissected topography. This structure creates variety in climate and vegetation. The average altitude of the highlands is between 1500 and 2000 metres; according to the document, this keeps summers cool and extends the flowering period. The provincial centre itself lies at about 1151 metres, in the northwest corner of the Çapakçur plain. This difference in elevation is decisive for beekeeping.

The geography page of the provincial directorate of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change also summarises the vegetation of this ground. Oak forests are found on the slopes below 1200 metres and spread up to about 1900 metres. More than half of the province's land, 51 percent, is pasture. Forest accounts for 27.92 percent and farmland for 7.28 percent. In other words, the area where honeybees work is mostly natural pasture and highland rather than cultivated fields. The registration document also notes that the province's flora includes about 300 endemic plant taxa.

The flowering calendar in the document runs as follows. The flowering period begins in the first week of March and lasts until the end of August. In the high highlands between 1900 and 2500 metres, flowering starts in the first week of June and ends at the end of August. The document also states that the sites available for beekeeping stay usable between June and October. In short, spring comes early at lower elevations and late higher up, and the beekeeper works by linking these two rhythms.

The beekeeper's year

The document states that beekeeping in Bingöl is largely carried out as migratory beekeeping, meaning hives are moved from one site to another following the bloom. Beekeepers begin their activities in early March, when the colonies receive post-winter care and feeding and the queen bees are checked. This preparation continues until mid-May. In May the development of the bee population is monitored, and hives are taken to new sites depending on the nectar flow.

According to the document, bees are moved from places at 1100 metres to 1900 metres and above when the vegetation declines. The sites they are moved to are chosen three or four kilometres away from settlements, with natural water sources taken into account. July is named as the month of the best nectar flow. The activity calendar closes in the last week of August. This description shows that a honey season stretches roughly from early March to the end of August.

The harvest is also described in detail in the document. Honey is taken from the honey chamber of the hive; the brood chamber is not touched. The combs are carried to a harvest tent and the wax cappings are scraped off with a capping comb. The strained honey is collected in stainless steel containers of 100 to 200 litres. Strained honey that passes analysis is offered in glass jars of at most one kilogram. For comb and karakovan honey, packaging suitable for food contact, of at most three to five kilograms, is foreseen.

Three forms, three differences in taste

Comb honey is the form in which the comb filled with honey is presented as it is. Strained honey is obtained by separating the honey after the cappings of the comb are removed. Karakovan honey is listed in the document as a third form of production alongside comb and strained. Which one to choose is entirely up to the visitor or buyer; the document makes no ranking.

On colour too, the document gives a wide range, from light amber to dark amber. The reason for this range is that the honey does not depend on a single flower. If a beekeeper worked in a high pasture, or harvested from a site dense with different plants, honey from the same province can carry a different colour and aroma. The practical meaning of the polyfloral description is this: while the name on the label stays the same, small differences from jar to jar are natural.

Bees and plants

The document also names the bee races used in production: Apis mellifera anatoliaca, A. mellifera caucasica and A. mellifera meda, together with their hybrids. The announcement of the Bee and Natural Products Research Centre at Bingöl University reports the same races.

The centre's announcement also mentions laboratory values. According to it, EU-registered Bingöl Honey has a diastase number of at least 15 and a hydroxymethylfurfural value of at most 20 milligrams per kilogram, against Turkish Food Codex limits of 8 and 40 respectively. The same announcement says none of the 105 antibiotics checked was found in the samples. These are quality management measurements and should not be read as a health claim.

From the document to the European Union

After national registration, the international geographical indication mobilisation of the Ministry of Industry and Technology came into play. The Bingöl Honey file was submitted to the European Commission on 5 January 2023 through the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. The Commission found the file suitable, and the application was announced in the Official Journal of the European Union on 12 March 2024. After a three-month period, Bingöl Honey was officially registered by the European Union on 10 July 2024.

What matters is that registration ties the name of a product to a specific geography and a specific production method. The university's news item also says that post-registration inspections will be carried out under the coordination of Bingöl University, with the municipality, the provincial directorate of agriculture and forestry, the chamber of commerce and industry and the provincial beekeepers' association. The document itself mentions a spring inspection between March and May and asks beekeepers who wish to produce to apply to the university rectorate in April and May.

Going to the highlands and looking at honey

For those who want to visit Bingöl's highlands, the most important practical information is the season. According to the calendar in the document, the high highlands come alive in early June; according to the Environment Directorate data, the province has hot summers and cold winters. The annual mean temperature is 12.1 degrees, annual precipitation about 873.7 millimetres, the number of snowy days 24.5 and the number of frost days 94.1. These figures explain why highland visits should be planned for the summer months.

If you see beehives in a highland, it is best to look from a distance. According to the document, these are working sites chosen away from settlements and near natural water; keeping away from the beekeeper's work and the hives is important for the safety of both you and the bees. Not trampling flowering pastures, staying on the paths and leaving no litter are part of the same care. If you are allergic to bee stings, carry the precautions your doctor recommends.

If you want to buy honey, look on the label for the geographical indication wording, the producer information and the product type; these match the framework the document describes. Since the document states that strained honey will be offered in glass jars of at most one kilogram, these sizes can also offer a clue. For current inspection and document information, check the pages of Bingöl University and the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.

In conclusion

What makes Bingöl Honey special lies in the common ground of the sources: high highlands, a long flowering period, migratory beekeeping and a written production method. The honey in the jar can be read as a product of the province's mountains and pastures. On your next journey to Bingöl, when you look at the highlands, knowing that this labour lies behind the green cover adds a layer to the view.

Sources

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