News around the World

BERMUDA

Two hurricanes in October 2014 destroyed most of the nectar producing plants during a major nectar flow period. This meant that 2014 was a poor year for honey production, according to Jean Atherden, Minister of Health, Seniors & Environment. Production had an estimated value of US$43,000 (€38,500), less than half that of 2013’s (also disappointing) harvest.

Source: www.bernews.com/2015/03/honey-bees

COMOROS

We invite all beekeepers on the island of Grand Comore to gather for a Workshop in August 2015, to share knowledge and experience, thus building capacity around the island. There is limited technical information available in Comoros about apiculture, and farmers are eager to learn as much as possible. Beekeepers in thirteen villages around the Karthala Volcano started keeping bees in top-bar hives four years ago with the support of the United Nations Development Program. The beekeepers have made their own veils, smokers, and wooden hives. They would like to learn also how beekeepers around the world manage bees, build equipment, process honey, and market their bees’ produce.

Ellen Geisler, Peace Corps Volunteer

[Workshop participants will receive materials from a Resource Box supplied by BfD Trust]

ETHIOPIA

In sub-Saharan Africa more bee colonies exist than in the rest of the original distribution area of Apis mellifera in Asia and Europe. This figure is related not only to the extensive diversity of flowering plants, shrubs and trees of tropical and subtropical Africa, but also to the abundance of insects in the sub-order Homoptera. Many of these insects, including aphids, soft scales, and mealybugs feed on plants and excrete large quantities of sap which they cannot use: this is known as honeydew. Honeydew can be so abundant that leaves, twigs, branches and even the ground below the plant are covered in a glistening layer.

The honeydew is often sweet enough to attract honey bees which gather the drops either from the plants or directly from the insects themselves. They process the honeydew like nectar into honeydew honey or use it to feed brood. Many ants are also attracted to this sweet foodstuff.

Ethiopian beekeepers have repeatedly reported that maize and sorghum are important crops for honey production, but do not produce nectar. Farmers have described a sticky, sweet substance on grasses and legumes in the presence of sap-sucking insects. This would indicate that the proportion of honeydew in many honeys must be quite high. In addition, intense honey bee foraging on these plants has been reported by experienced beekeepers when flowering species are scarce. These observations explain why bee colonies are able to survive during long dry periods when flowers are almost absent.

There are many families and species of the sub-order Homoptera found throughout the country, some are already known elsewhere as prolific honeydew producers. To what extent the numerous different aphids, mealybugs, psyllids and scale insects present in Ethiopia contribute to mixed honeys is not studied yet.

Reinhard Fichtl, Regensburg, Germany

Many of these insects feed on plant sap. The large quantities of sap excreted by aphids, soft scales, and mealybugs is known as honeydew

PHOTO © REINHARD FICHTL

GHANA

Cashew nut farmers in Wenchi, Brong Ahafo Region participate in a training course emphasising the value of beekeeping and pollination

Image provided by Arno Bos, Managing Director, Cashew Trade Centre Ghana

PAKISTAN

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) to keep honey bees and market the branded honey of Margalla Hills. PARC would help the CDA in harvesting, extracting, quality testing, packing and labelling of the honey. PARC will provide assistance to build capacity within Margalla community, and a demonstration apiary at Margalla Hills to raise awareness about beekeeping.

Source: www.thenews.com.pk

TANZANIA

I am working to empower women in my home village of Lake Eyasi where Datoga and Hadzabe people live. The picture shows the women beekeepers from the project at Lake Eyasi Girls Vocational Training Center.

Lightness M Bayo

TURKEY

Beekeepers in Turkey have been dealing with the financial burden of bears destroying their hives: “Bears are known to enjoy honey and also will eat the bees and larvae inside a hive. Some beekeepers tried hanging their hives high up in trees, others used electric fencing: nothing worked! However, through the Agricultural Insurance Pool, a government supported scheme, we will now be reimbursed. TRY175 (US$65; €61) for each hive lost to a hungry bear”, said Bahri Yilmaz, President of the Turkish Beekeepers’ Union.

Neset Nuhoglu, who works in Ordu on Turkey’s northern coast, said: “Shooting the bears is illegal, leaving beekeepers with few options to protect their livelihoods. Beekeepers will still try to save their hives, but this insurance is important and will provide peace of mind”. Turkey is one of the world’s biggest honey producers, second only to China in 2013 (source: FAO of the UN).

Anadolu News Agency at www.bbc.co.uk/news

Thanks to Dr Will Clayton for sending the link

ZAMBIA

Trees support beekeepers – literally!

In Chifuwe South, in Zambia, a beekeeper named George Samahongo has to climb a tree to get a signal on his mobile phone so he can tell his buyer that he has honey ready to sell. More reasons to conserve trees!

Bob Malichi, Musamba Beekeepers’ Society

ZIMBABWE

Beekeeping in Zimbabwe is seen by many people as a source of food, medicine, income and pollination services. This is a result of many things including increasingly high rates of unemployment, food shortages due to drought or flood, and higher educational and medical costs. Demand for training courses for school children, school leavers and adults is on the increase. Instead of paying school fees for these vulnerable children, Kutsungirira Beekeeping Society (KBS) decided to teach productive beekeeping methods and skills in an effort to generate income to meet the costs of fees, stationery and uniforms. With financial support from Stitchting Onamika in The Netherlands, KBS trained 23 school children (from two primary and one secondary school), two teachers, two officials from the Ministry of Youth Gender & Employment Creation, and two chiefs, Madzivire and Shindi, to signify their support for the project.

Trainees spent five days at the KBS Centre before returning to their own areas for a further day’s training in apiary siting, hive baiting and attracting colonies, and understanding the local environments where the projects will run.

Children at local schools are keeping bees and raising enough money through sales of honey and beeswax to meet their school fees and other social challenges. Consequently there will be no need to drop out of school if they manage their bees well.

KBS would like to thank Bees for Development for providing copies of BfDJ for the training. All the participants were interested to read stories on beekeeping and related issues, because they said, many had never before read anything about beekeeping in their lives. Some people are visual learners and therefore the use of pictures is crucial.

After the course each trainee received a starter pack of a bee suit, a top-bar hive, a smoker, 100g of beeswax, 50g of propolis and a copy of BfDJ. They were divided into three groups with each group choosing a representative to communicate with KBS. The representatives and ministry officials are providing follow up assistance. The support programme is funded by KBS from its income generating projects. However, speculation based on the current cash inflow is that most of our projects, like honey sales and bookings, have been hard hit by the liquidity crunch - giving us little hope to raise enough money for the programme. If anyone can assist, it is important to give further assistance to these new beekeepers.

Michael Hlungwani, Project Co-ordinator, Kutsungirira Beekeeping Society

Ed: You can contact KBS via Bees for Development

Kutsungirira Beekeeping Society provided beekeeping training for school children, teachers, officials from the Ministry of Youth Gender & Employment Creation, and two chiefs, Madzivire and Shindi

© Obert Shiriyapenga and Vicky Moyana

Children are keeping bees and raising money with sales of honey and beeswax to meet their school fees

© Obert Shiriyapenga and Vicky Moyana

TECA Beekeeping Exchange Group Discussion

Veterinary medicines in beekeeping around the world: which active ingredients are in use and do they respond to the needs of beekeepers?

30 June to 7 August 2015

To read, ask questions or join the conversation see www.teca.fao.org/group/beekeeping-exchange-group

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA PROMOTES POLLINATOR HEALTH

On 19 May under the leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture the interagency Task Force (initiated in June 2014, following a Presidential Memorandum from Barack Obama) released its Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators with three main goals:

1) Reduce honey bee colony losses to economically sustainable levels;

2) Increase monarch butterfly numbers to protect the annual migration;

3) Restore or enhance millions of acres of land for pollinators through combined public and private action.

The Strategy and its accompanying sciencebased Pollinator Research Action Plan outline needs and priority actions to better understand pollinator losses and improve their health. These actions will be supported by co-ordination of existing Federal research efforts and accompanied by a request to Congress for additional resources to respond to the pollinator losses that are being experienced.

John P Holdren www.whitehouse.gov/blog

Tell us your story

www.beesfordevelopment.org/ resources-for-beekeepers/tellus-your-story

We will be delighted to hear from you!

Sponsored subscribers

If you change your email address or any other contact details remember to let us know

If we cannot contact you, we cannot sponsor you!

ERRATA

On page 21 of BfDJ115 we repeated information in the second pie chart of the page. The title should have read When we send training materials which format do you prefer? The responses were: paper (41.5%), DVD (32.6%), CD (14.8%), data stick (11.1%).