Harvest calendar: honey on the island's rhythm

This is the rainy season. Mean temperatures sit at 26–28 °C and humidity can climb above 85%. Vegetation explodes: mangoes, avocados, coastal scrub, tamarind (February–May). It is also cyclone season, officially open from 15 November to 15 May with a peak in January–March.

• December: start of the hot season, tail end of the dry-season blooms, first hot-season multifloral harvests if the weather allows.
• January–March: cyclone watch is the priority. Harvests are possible between systems but secondary. We prioritise hive protection and moisture management.
• February: peak humidity (~86%). High risk of over-moist honey if harvested; we wait out the system and let the bees ventilate the frames.
• April: rains ease, trade winds begin. Late hot-season multifloral harvests.

This is the most productive season. Temperatures drop to 19–24 °C, humidity eases, days become more stable. The south-east trade winds blow steadily.

• May–June: end of the hot-season harvests. Quiet period for the hives. Preparation for the cool dry season (colony strengthening, sanitary checks).
• July–August: windiest period on the east coast¹. Bees fly less, production slows. Start of eucalyptus flowering depending on species planted nearby.
• September: lychee (Litchi chinensis) flowering. The window is short — two to three weeks. Hives fill fast if the weather cooperates.
• October: lychee honey harvest, followed by the first eucalyptus harvests. This is the peak of our beekeeping year.
• November: late dry-season multifloral, transition to hot-season harvests. The cyclone season opens.

To put this calendar in context: the 2024 Agricultural Census of Mauritius measured 42 tonnes of honey produced on the main island and 42 tonnes on Rodrigues for the period July 2023 to June 2024⁷. For reference: production was around 35 tonnes before the arrival of Varroa destructor in 2014, then fell below 25 tonnes in 2015 before a progressive recovery.

Beekeeping in Mauritius is still mostly a part-time activity, practised by a few hundred producers.