News around the World

CAMEROON

The International Centre for Environmental Education and Community Development (ICENECDEV) promotes conservation and protection of the Mount Cameroon Forest Region through practical activities. In June and July 2012 we organised a mountain sensitisation campaign to create awareness of beekeeping. ICENECDEV informed inhabitants of the local villages and primary schools on the importance of beekeeping in conserving the forest, generating income, reducing wood consumption and alleviating poverty.

Eric Fongoh, Executive Director ICENECDEV, Buea, SW Region

PHOTO © ICENECDEV

FIJI

Children as young as six were part of the recent beekeeping training and they have since formed the Wainadoi Community Junior Beekeepers Group. The Group’s leader Jeremaia Naivalarua said that beekeeping brought the community together despite their religious differences and that they are now working to expand the project. Assistance worth US$13,000 (€9,600) from the government of New Zealand to a youth group in Navua has helped them to establish a thriving beekeeping operation. The Department of Agriculture’s national co-ordinator for Apiculture, Kamal Prasad, said the assistance including equipment, bee suits and smokers would enable the group to develop five apiary sites with about 20 hives.

Fiji Times online

NIGERIA

It was with delight that we received our Resource Box here at African Custodians of Nature (AFRICON). The materials will be put to good use. We are organising a seminar with Bees Extension Education Services (Ogun State) and their main resource person is Mr Elijah Asade, (also a BfD beneficiary). This is because of his in-depth technical expertise and experience at training and empowering rural people with the knowledge to carry out sustainable beekeeping.

Olusola Adeniyi, AFRICON, Lagos

Forager and guard bees in front of the hive

Queen cells in a queenless colony

PHOTO © HOSSAM FARAG ABOU-SHAARA

SAUDI ARABIA

Beekeepers all have their own experience and experiments in beekeeping. I would like to present some common skills of beekeeping.

To tell the strength of foraging bees without opening a hive, close the hive entrance for about five minutes: forager bees will collect in front of the closed entrance and you can see the number of honey bees collecting pollen. This will also show if the plants growing around your apiary are good sources of pollen.

Your honey bees may need feeding if there are no flowering plants around the apiary. You may notice that the bees are unusually defensive, worker bees are removing drone larvae from cells, the queen is not laying eggs, or worker bees are aggressively searching for a sucrose source.

It is preferable to split honey bee colonies 45 days before the main season begins because it is important to give the colony the chance to rebuild and to become strong with field bees. Apis mellifera honey bee workers need 21 days to emerge from the cells and 21 days working in the hive. After 42 days worker bees become foragers (field bees) to collect nectar and pollen.

Apiary balance means that the beekeeper gives all the colonies the same number of frames to ensure approximately the same strength. However, in striving for such a balance very great care must be taken not to transfer diseases from one colony to another.

Beekeepers must take care to:

• not spread disease within the apiary

• watch out for colonies that need feeding

• watch out for robbing behaviour between colonies

• notice queenless colonies or colonies with egg laying workers

• recognise if colonies are weak before or during flowering seasons.

Hossam Farag Abou-Shaara, King Saud University, Riyadh