When walking in Rhodes, you can not help but notice the busy honey bees flying from flower to flower amongst all the other insects, the honey on Rhodes as been known to be one of the finest honeys you can buy; this is due to the diversity of wild flowers, herbs, pine and heather on the island.

There are different types of honey which are dependant on the time of year they are made by the bees, the difference can be seen in the colour, texture and taste, Thyme honey from Rhodes is specially known to be of excellent quality. Analyses have been made of Rhodes Thyme Honey at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki which showed to be of superior quality with the highest antioxidant properties than all other Thyme honeys.

Why is the honey in Rhodes one of the best in the world? It can be attributed to the following: The vegetation on the islands are wild and native. They have recorded several hundreds of flora and fauna species on the island. All the mountains are full of herbs and wild flowers such as thyme, oregano, rosemary, etc. In Rhodes in particular, we have pine forests. Rhodes has a good atmosphere with plenty of sunshine. It is therefore an ideal workplace for the bee.

Honey was prescribed as medicine in the past, this was in many formats but commonly as hydromel (honey and water) also it was given as oxymel (honey acidified with vinegar), both these would be prescribed to all manner of ailments.

Mead, honey wine (fermented honey) was in popular use. Plutarch later said that before man knew wine, he used honey (mead) as drink. It was drunk raw or boiled (when honey was of poor quality), mixed with milk as libation to the dead, and used as medicine.

The bees on Rhodes are from the Apis bees also known as the cavity-nesting honey bees. There are three species of these bees and they are the Africanized honey bees, the European honey bees, and the eastern species. Among all of these species, the European is said to have the ability to produce a good amount of honey. While there are other types of bees that also produce honey, only members of the genus group Apis are true Honeybees. The Honeybee is a highly social insect that survives only as a member of a colony.

In some parts of post-classical Greece, like Rhodes, it was formerly the custom for a bride to dip her fingers in honey and make the sign of the cross before entering her new home..

It was believed that Zeus (Jupiter), father of the gods, was born on the island of Crete, and under protection of the Great Earth Mother the infant grew up in the cave of Dicte (Mount Ida). He was fed honey by bees and the beautiful Melissa (daughter of Melisseus, king of Crete). Her name became the Greek word for bee. According to Columella Zeus actually turned her into a bee. Honey was said to be ros caelestis ("heavenly dew") which fell from the upper air onto flowers, from where bees collected it. It was thus proper to use honey ritually for libations to the dead. Feeding it to children imparted wisdom and eloquence. It was later claimed that the infant Plato, like Zeus, was also fed honey by bees

Bee-keeping was practiced from an early stage and well established by 1500 BC. Bee-hive shaped tholos tombs were seen as "hives of the soul".