This rare ‘mad honey’ is only found in two places in the world. It’s strong enough to fell bears and soldiers

Kaçkar Mountains, Turkey —

In the little wooden hut perched high on metal-wrapped stilts, the drone is high, loud and insistent.

With his beekeeping suit on, but hands uncovered, Hasan Kutluata squeezes the bellows on his pine-filled bee smoker. Pale wreaths swirl in the air, mirroring the mist that drifts over the slopes of the densely forested Kaçkar mountains outside.

The smoke is to calm the bees, masking the pheromone they release when they sense danger and which warns other bees to attack.

When Kutluata lifts the lid off the round lindenwood hives, the hum rises to a crescendo — but these bees aren’t angry, it’s just their honey that’s mad.

We’re here to harvest deli bal — bal means “honey” and deli means “crazy” or “mad” — and Turkey’s Black Sea region is one of onl