notice Apis laboriosa gets mentioned constantly around here. genuinely asking, why does the specific bee species matter this much compared to just "bees make honey, does it matter which ones"
Different bee species forage differently and nest in different places. Apis laboriosa specifically nests on high cliff faces, which is inseparable from why this gets harvested the way it does at all, its not incidental to the whole practice....
Also it's a wild species, not domesticated or kept in managed hives the way most honeybees people know are. that's part of why this is a harvest or hunt rather than a farming practice.
oh that acutally explains a lot about why supply cant just be scaled up by "farming more" of it.
exactly, that's also part of why supply is genuinely limited in a real way, not just a marketing framing of scarcity.