LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
poison ourselves? What have always avoided is to take a sample of propolis from areas where spraying of chemicals is done. |
Therapeutic properties of propolis I have always been curious of the reactions people have when asked about the “wonders” of propolis. am not a chemist but just a technician who has observed the effect of taking propolis especially when am manipulating bee colonies. The following observations have been made during a three year |
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period. ] have keenly observed the reactions propolis has on me personally and the results (in a layman’s language) are not alarmingly negative. The dosage I take whenI feel down is a speck (one quarter size of a chewing gum) of propolis, chewed up or rolled over in the mouth until it disappears or rather it dissolves in the saliva and is swallowed. Feeling down in this aspect is when have feverish symptoms or a slight cough. It is not easy to accept that possibly propolis has some fever reducing properties but used to be a malaria victim and from 1985 to date I have never had another attack. The attacks were sometimes severe. They were coupled with high fever and spinal-tremors. Thank God my wife is a nurse and she knew how to handle the situation. The 1982 attacks are still living in my memories. When started work in Mozambique in 1983, I had several attacks and had registered slight spinal-tremors. In those days I used to take two tablets of chloroquine to prevent me from getting malaria on a weekly basis. Since started the other prophylactic-practice of taking propolis three times a week, have done away with the chloroquine tablets and have always been on the safer zone. In 1986 travelled much and was subjected to variable climates. The itinerary covered Tanzania, Swaziland, Botswana, and Zambia. It took about five months to cover this route, much of it working with traditional African beekeepers in the bush. [ took the normal dose of propolis if there were fever symptoms. I had no malaria attack. During the past five years, 85% of letters from my family carried a message of one member suffering from malaria. told my family of the “wonders” of propolis. Propolis, by its natural appearance is a product which is never appealing to non-beekeepers. They found it strange and funny to the taste in the early days. Now, they are more or less accustomed to the blunt taste. Could this be a breakthrough in this terrible disease? Do you think you can do some observations from your side and inform us of your findings? Do you think that by taking bits of propolis now and again we might in the long run |
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Appeal Please try to contribute ideas on this issue and see how far we can get. am sure it is a very interesting subject for research work. If this research turns out a success, just imagine how many lives we will save and how many tons of bee products will be increased; considering the number of beekeepers in the tropics who are victimised by malaria. Mathew N Kawa, Beekeeping Technical Advisor, Programa Nacional de Apicultura, C P 1011, Maputo, Mozambique. |
Beekeepers, here we come!
The name Liberia must certainly be
strange to the beekeeping world, but we want all of you out there to know that we have finally come, and intend to stay! Although honey hunting has always existed in Liberia, beekeeping has not really been a tradition. was introduced to beekeeping by a missionary friend who has a beekeeping family background. He presently runs seven Langstroth hives on the mission compound. In June 1988] started out on my own with two Kenya top-bar hives. collected one swarm using my friend’s protective outfit; the second swarm colonised the other hive naturally, and within a period of four months ran out of space and left the hive. am most disappointed whenever this happens, but reading the Newsletter always refreshes me. During October of last year formed a small co-operative called the Tappita Beekeeping Co-operative (TBC) starting a solely Liberian owned apicultural endeavour, with the aim of creating an apicultural awareness in Liberia. This year the US Small Projects Assistance Fund (SPAF) provided the Cooperative with US$733 for the construction of 40 Kenya top-bar hives. The hive construction is being carried out hand in hand with swarm capture as the swarming season here is from early June to early July. Out of 10 captures we so far have six remaining. Our young, tiny co-operative needs a lot of help, including training for cooperative members, and finance for expansion and equipment. We do solicit assistance from any kind donor agencies. |
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Joseph M Toah, Chairman, Tappita Beekeeping Co-operative, Nimba County, PO Box 707, Monrovia, Liberia.
around the World’, Newsletter 14 under Cook Islands: ‘15 beekeepers from both public and private sectors attended a Workshop in the Cooks last year’. We asked the Co-ordinator if it would be possible to send one of our beekeepers to the Workshop. We were told that only beekeepers from the public sector were to attend the Workshop. If some enquiries had been made here in Western Samoa it would have been realised that there are no beekeepers other than with our Company. Instead a person from the Crop Protection Project was sent, who never has seen a live bee in his life before and will never work with bees after attending the Workshop. If Workshops like this are held and the money has to be spent anyway, then please send the right people who can benefit from it. Don’t just send stop-gaps. It is just another way of the Iaissezfaire attitude towards the beekeeping industry here in Western Samoa. Andy Welti, Managing Director, Samoa Bee & Honey Co Ltd, PO Box 4591, Apia, Western Samoa.
Help needed
We all know the value of introducing beekeeping into poor rural sectors where there is sufficient forage for bees to produce honey. We also know that in most developing countries where beekeeping is possible, particularly excolonial ones, a ‘bee policy’ has at some time in the past been developed. Unfortunately such policies often remain only
on paper. We are working in 40 villages. The people are landless, exploited tribals, living below the poverty line. We work with them at a real grass-root level and this means they trust us as people who not only speak and talk about things, but do them. We have a Community Centre where women and children come for various activities — including working in demonstration kitchen gardens. We know that it would not be difficult for us to set up a training programme for beekeeping. We also know that there would be more than 40 families who would be interested in setting up a hive system and it would be possible over the following years to have a — but.... ‘pass on the gift scheme’ where do we get funds to start and initiate the project? Who can give us funds to set up a small demonstration unit of 20 hives and run a series of training
courses?
Cook Islands With interest was reading in your ‘News |
Answer to question on page 5: A drone.
