Beekeeping with Apis cerana

In February a group of those involved in beekeeping with Apis cerana, the Asian hive bee, met in Malaysia to attend the Advanced Course in Beekeeping with A. cerana in Tropical and Subtropical Asia. The meeting was jointly organised by Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (where the meeting was held), the University of Guelph (Canada) and the Canadian International Development Agency. This was the first such international meeting entirely devoted to discussion of A. cerana and was brought about largely through the efforts of Professor Peter Kevan of Guelph University who for several years has been striving to bring together those working with A. cerana in Asia.

Great efforts had been made to ensure that as many countries as possible with A. cerana were represented at the meeting. This resulted in 30 participants from 15 Asian countries attending, in addition to the Malaysian delegates. Apis mellifera has been successfully introduced to some areas of Asia where there is abundant bee forage and sufficient finance and technical skill are available: in such areas A. mellifera can be managed to produce worthwhile cash crops. However A. mellifera beekeeping is not viable in every part of tropical Asia and the value of beekeeping with the native A. cerana is increasingly appreciated. The benefits of beekeeping with a native species include its ability to survive well in sometimes adverse conditions allowing production of a honey crop with A. cerana in areas which would not offer sufficient forage for A. mellifera.

Only recently when beekeepers elsewhere in the world have had to contend with their colonies facing Varroa parasitism (a honeybee mite which has spread from south-east Asia) has research attention been focused on A. cerana and how it has evolved to survive in the presence of Varroa. The advantages of working with a bee which has evolved to survive in prevailing local conditions are now more widely recognised.

Comparisons in productivity drawn between A. cerana and A. mellifera are often unfavourable for A. cerana. True, A. cerana colonies are smaller than A. mellifera and average honey yields are consequently lower, but in every comparison wild type A. cerana are compared with selected strains of A. mellifera. The benefits which can accrue as a result of selective breeding have not yet been used to allow A. cerana to prove its full potential. Although some breeding programmes have been started to select strains of A. cerana, in most of Asia still only the wild bee is available to beekeepers.

The meeting emphasised the point that basic research on the biology of A. cerana is lacking and techniques for optimum management of this species await development. Many delegates expressed an urgent need for improved beekeeping extension but others felt that extension is an inefficient use of resources as long as the fundamental research and development of extension messages are still lacking.

A major problem with beekeeping with tropical races of A. cerana is the tendency for this bee to abscond. This behaviour is part of the bees’ strategy for survival in tropical climates, and breeding programmes and improved management techniques are needed to overcome this problem.

The one exceptional country throughout the debate is China where 800 000 colonies of A. cerana are maintained in ten-frame standard hives. These bees produce about 20 kg of honey per colony per year, although exceptional colonies may yield over 50 kg.

Malaysia was an excellent venue for such a meeting. For beekeeping programmes to be successful a variety of skills are required. The beekeeping project at Universiti Pertanian is one of the few cases where this has been made possible by a team working together to provide expertise in apicultural research, practical beekeeping, botany, bee pathology, food processing and economics. The presence at the meeting of experts from countries with differing priorities and constraints and also from various fields related to beekeeping provided an opportunity for extensive debate on A. cerana and how beekeeping with this species could be improved. Much new information on A. cerana was presented during the course of the meeting: this will be published in early 1989 as part of a ‘state of the art’ reference book on apiculture with A. cerana.

On the final day of the meeting delegates divided into 11 working groups to discuss areas associated with the development of A. cerana beekeeping. These groups identified specific constraints and formulated resolutions: one resolution recommended the establishment of a group to coordinate international activities in A. cerana development. This meeting provided an excellent basis from which to develop such international co-operation.

Apis cerana defends itself from hornets

In a recent paper* three Japanese scientists have described how Apis cerana japonica can control attack from predatory hornets. From July to October hornets are found near A. cerana colonies where they capture honeybees to feed to the hornet larvae.

The defence strategy of the honeybees is as follows: First a guard bee attacks the hornet and then between 200 and 300 worker bees rush on to the captured hornet and form a ball. Immediately the temperature within this ball of bees begins to rise and can reach 46°C within the first four minutes. The bees stay in the ball formation for at least 30 minutes and then gradually leave it, revealing the dead hornet at the centre of the cluster.

The high temperature within the ball is lethal to the hornet but not to the A. cerana honeybees. It is interesting to note that the hornet is not stung by the bees at all: it is killed by the heat within the ball of bees.

Introduced European honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Japan were also observed performing a similar balling reaction on hornets, but in this case the average temperature within the ball was lower (42.8°C) and several of the honeybees used their stings against the hornet.

This is the first reported example of defence by heat production in poikilothermic (cold-blooded) animals.

* Heat production by balling in the Japanese honeybee Apis cerana japonica as a defensive behaviour against the hornet, Vespa simillima xanthoptera (Hymenoptera: Vespidae).

by M Ono, I Okada and M Sasaki. Experientia 1987, 43, 1031-1032.