Bees for Development Journal 105
PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING
LATIN AMERICA’S PATH TO SUSTAINABLE BEEKEEPING Alexis Torres and Claire McHale, Fundación Salvemos a Las Abejas, Carmen #602, Depto 1706, Comuna de Santiago, Chile PHOTO © OSCAR PERONE
Keywords: Africanised bees, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, frame hive, Oscar Perone, PermApiculture, Perone hive, vertical top-bar hive Though bees play a pivotal role in our food system, people often view keeping them as a costly and time-consuming activity. However, it does not have to be so. PermApiculture is a non-invasive beekeeping system that aims to provide bees with peaceful, chemical-free environments so that they can maintain optimum health, raise local organic agricultural yields, and create high-quality food for themselves and people. At the same time the system seeks to lower costs and labour for the beekeeper. PermApiculture focuses on long-term sustainable beekeeping free of contamination and dependence on fossil fuels. Hives of bees may require a two or three season maturation period before they begin to yield harvests - depending on the environment and genetic strength of the colonies.
[1] Bees nesting in Capulin, Mexico. Oscar Perone advocates that for bees to meet their full potential, they need more space than usually provided by beekeepers
Background PermApiculture was created by Argentinian beekeeper Oscar Perone, who drew his ideas from 40 years of experience with his hives and feral honey bee colonies. Perone sought to imitate the bees’ natural habitat as much as possible. He worked in subtropical Argentina with Africanised bees, but during the last four years, his techniques have also been modified and used in Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica with European bees. In 2012 beekeepers have initiated experiments with PermApiculture in France, New Zealand, UK and USA.
top-bar hive – see images 2 (below) and 3 (overleaf). The hive has two sections: the bees’ part which is a 180 litre area for the nest and the colony’s reserves; and the beekeeper’s part for the commercial harvest. The sections are separated by a comb grid, which has seventeen 24 mm wide bars. Each bar is spaced 9 mm from the next. Perone copied the design from feral nests, in which he measured the distance from the centre of one comb to the next 33 mm. He believes that this distance allows bees to generate and maintain heat in the hive more efficiently, enabling them to survive winter and to control Varroa.
Three principles It is important to note that depending on the reader’s location, he/she may not be able to copy Perone’s techniques exactly: rather we advise that anyone wishing to use PermApiculture adapt it to their own climatic conditions. Whatever modifications are made, three elements must be incorporated:
The beekeeper’s part consists of three 10 cm high supers and the roof. To deter the queen from laying in the beekeeper’s part, additional comb grids (or removable top bars if the beekeeper wishes) separate one super from the next. These comb grids DO NOT ACT as queen excluders - rather the logic is that the queen prefers to make her nest in the form of a giant sphere, so she will choose to lay eggs where she has the most uninterrupted space (ie in the bees’ part). © CLAIRE MCHALE
• Lots of space – Perone insists that for bees to meet their full potential, they need more space than that provided by the boxes most beekeepers offer. He believes that larger colonies are stronger and better able to perform necessary functions – such as hygiene – that keep a colony alive year after year. He cites his own experience and the massiveness of several feral honey bee nests (see image 1). • Lots of honey – PermApiculture recognises a colony’s own honey as the best source of nutrition for bees when there is no nectar flow and rejects the use of sugar or any artificial feeding, which it deems as harmful to the bees (and people too!). The beekeeper must respect the bees by leaving them with ample reserves. • Lots of peace – Bees control hive conditions like temperature and humidity to meet their needs. Every time someone opens a hive, these conditions are ruptured and need to be restored. Furthermore, contamination can enter the brood area via a beekeeper’s hands, gloves or tools. To let bees maintain their health, PermApiculture advocates that the beekeeper never enters the brood nest nor applies chemical treatments. Perone hives To meet the above principles, Perone designed a frameless vertical
[2] Diagram of the frameless vertical top-bar hive 3
