BEEKEEPING IN SRI LANKA
The Apiculture Development Project of Sri Lanka In Sri Lanka beekeeping is practised mainly as a part-time activity. Most beekeepers manage their hives in the Eucalyptus or rubber zones,
the major honey producing areas.
Beekeeping development in Sri Lanka has been confined to training, extension, honey marketing and supply of equipment. The extent of development was measured by the number of bee boxes issued by the Department of Agriculture. Such a measure is inappropriate since there is no relationship between total number of bee boxes issued and honey production. Low honey yields may be due to absconding, poor quality queens, lack of pollen, poor management and environmental factors such as droughts and
Colony multiplication The supply of colonies according to the current method of colony division may lead to failure or degeneration of existing colonies for the following reasons: e
high rains.
However beekeeping is very popular despite the various technological problems associated with it. Perhaps our extension and training have exceeded our research capacity. Also the supply of beekeeping equipment by funding agencies and subsidy programmes aggravate this popularity. It is essential to develop a strong research component to provide technical assistance.
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Up to 1988, the Project's priorities were: training; production and distribution of equipment; honey promotion activities through processing, marketing, and model apiaries. Research was not considered a priority until 1988.
A marketing programme aiming to promote beekeeping and the honey market in Sri Lanka includes honey purchase, processing and sale, also using a revolving fund from CIDA. The ultimate goal is for the private sector to collect and process honey for marketing. A Cooperative Society of Honey Producers has been formed to continue these activities. The Project conducts training programmes for extension and training officers, those from other organisations and farmers’ groups.
Research Research work done in the past is inadequate to cater for our extension and training needs. Among the completed work, the identification of floral calendars, foraging distances, and the development of a metric hive are of major importance. Although these achievements help to upgrade beekeeping, there is more work to be done. The following are most important:
Emergence of poor quality queens The amount of royal jelly fed to queen larvae has a positive impact on the development of internal organs such as ovaries and mandibular glands. When a colony is divided, the queenless half is allowed to make emergency queen cells. The developing queens in these cells may be fed with inadequate amounts of royal jelly. The young bees necessary for royal jelly production occur in large numbers during the swarming period or should be added to queen cell-building colonies when queens are artificially reared. In addition, cell-building colonies are fed copiously with protein supplements to increase the production of royal jelly by young bees. Poor mating frequency
Mating with drones from many different genetic backgrounds results in progeny with different full and half-sisters. This mating behaviour increases colony resilience to stressful conditions and results in bees which work efficiently over a range of conditions. Virgin queens emerging from colony divisions may not be able to mate with an adequate number of drones (Apis cerana are reported to mate with 30 drones). Therefore it is essential to maintain a mating yard which is supplemented by productive drone rearing colonies.
Activities
Beekeeping equipment is supplied using a revolving fund from CIDA (Canada). Since there is a great demand for bee boxes (6,000 per year), they are produced by private manufacturers, but frames are produced by the Apiculture Development Project. Equipment such as smokers, honey extractors, and bee veils are also produced by private manufacturers. Production and distribution of bee equipment was to be privatised by the end of 1990 and their standard supervised by the Department.
by Dayarathne Howpage
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Possibility of inbreeding Colony increase by division may lead to inbreeding (mating of virgin queens with drones from the same colony).
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Considering these three factors, it may be essential to rear queens artificially from high producer colonies for requeening and for colony multiplication. The programme will include: 1} the maintenance of a mating yard 2) the maintenance of drone producing colonies and 3) the maintenance of queen producing colonies.
The production of nucleus colonies
This programme will be carried out with the queen rearing programme. The following studies must be completed before large-scale production can commence: |) compare the growth and development of different sizes of nuclei; 2) determine the effect of producing nuclei from colonies kept for honey production; 3) estimate the benefit of pollen supplements for the production of nucleus colonies.
Colony management in the rubber zone
Since rubber, Hevea brasiliensis is an important bee plant, it is essential to develop a system to manage bees in rubber plantations. Among many problems, the poor keeping quality of honey from rubber has been a barrier in promoting beekeeping under this plantation crop. Since preliminary trials in 1989 to process rubber honey gave successful results, there may be a good future.
