Abstract: The study was conducted to evaluate natural forest honey quality from Bedele, Chora and Didesa districts of Bunno Bedele zone, south western Ethiopia in terms of physico-chemical properties of honeybee. For the analysis, 120 honey samples each of 250gm were obtained from traditional and modern hive within the two production seasons. The physico-chemical properties evaluation was moisture content, water-insoluble solids, Hydroxyl methyl furfural, ash, acid, pH, Sugar, sucrose, diastase and electrical conductivity. Though there were significant variation (P<0.05) between the different hive types and seasons, all samples collected were found in the range of the national and international standard limits. The average physico-chemical contents were 18.65 ± 0.28 and 20.13±0.37% of moisture, 38.61 ± 3.81 and 30.34± 5.84 mg/kg of HMF, 30.45±0.91 and 27.75±2.30 meq/kg of acidity, 7.42±1.01 and 8.11±0.47 Goth scale of diastase, 4.07 ± 0.67 and 4.47± 0.22 of sucrose, 3.75 ± 0.29 and 4.08± 0.23 of PH, 0.43±0.08 and 0.55 ± 0.01mS/cm of electrical conductivity, and 0.25±0.04 and 0.20±0.13 of ash during early and late dry season respectively. The Results shows that, honeys produced in study area were excellent quality properties according to the national and international standards. Even though there were high potential of honeybee flora, beekeeping is practiced as a sideline to other agricultural activities, there was low production but good quality honeybee production in the study area. It needs to promote beekeeping sub-sector strategy that would be applicable to different production systems.
Key words: Honeybee, Physico-chemical properties, Bunno Bedele.