BEEKEEPING
DEVELOPMENT
&
36
ZOOMING IN
VENEZUELA Caribbean Sea B
Size
916,445 km?
Population GNP
20 million
The swarming season is from January to April. Seasons are well defined: dry (January-April), rainy (May-September) and transient (October-December). The best honey yields are during the dry season. There are three honey harvests a year at UNELLEZ: December (dark honey); January (amber honey) and March (almost white honey).
USS700 per capita
CARACAS
Location
Orinoco
COLOMBIA
GUYANA
VENEZUELA
Most northerly country of South America. Bolivar (170 Bs = USS1) Currency
|
Problems
Main agriculture
Acquisition of good quality equipment and queens is difficult, as is credit for the purchase of beekeeping material. Number of beekeepers
Cocoa, coffee, tropical fruits.
Exports Venezuela's principal income is from oil
BRAZIL
exports.
Precise number unknown, but increasing!
Honeybees
We would like
Africanized honeybees Apis mellifera scutellata are dominant. Few beekeepers work with pure European honeybees. The Africanized honeybee is more defensive, adapts better to extreme conditions of drought or flood, is more resistant to varroa and acarine, and is a good pollinator. It is possible to obtain up to 180 kg of honey per colony in three harvests.
to
thank Rafael
Thimann for providing information towards this article. He is
Beekeeping
Head of the
Nacional Experimental de los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora (UNELLEZ)
All beekeepers use original or modified Langstroth frame hives. Traditional stingless bee hives are made from scraps of wood or from “totumas”, a local hard-skinned spherical fruit Crescentia cujete. Apiaries are located beneath the canopy of big trees: Samanea
where he manages 40 colonies of honeybees.
saman, Cassia moschata, Pterocarpus acapulsensis.
Beekeeping
Production
R&D
Unit at the Universidad
PLANTS Latin name
]
X
Anacardium excelsum
chaparro mijao
Hyptis suaveolens
mastranto
Pterocarpus acapulsensis Casearia hirsuta
sangredrago fruta de paloma
X X X X
Gliricidia sepium
mata de ratén
Protium quianensis Curatella americana
eM
A
M
J
J
A
S$
O
N
X
X X
OD
Local name mamoncillo tacamahaca
Licania apetala
F
-X xX
X
X
xX
X xX
XxX
X
xX
Honey production 1994: 864,000 kg (unofficially). Yields: 20-60 kg per hive per harvest. Honey is sold locally at Bs700 (US$4.1) per
kilogram.
Honeybee diseases, pests and predators Acarapis woodi, Braula coeca, sacbrood, Varroa
Also birds and humans honey thieves are very active.
jacobsoni, wax moth.
Research. The Beekeeping Production Unit at UNELLEZ is carrying out research on: api/botanical flora, behaviour of Africanized queens (reproduction and production), physical and chemical properties of honey, and pest control in rabbits using propolis.
Training. UNELLEZ trains students from farms and
FLOWERING PERIOD
Melliferous vegetation
ON...
X XxX
schools. Each year Rafael Thimann runs a short course for the University Fire Department on how to capture swarms anc avoid multiple stings. A 40 hour course on Beekeeping Economics for small groups of farmers is being planned this year.
Projects Government agencies give credit to start small businesses.
Platymiscium diadelphum roble Tabebuia chrysantha araguaney
xX
xX
FUNDACITE-ORIENTE provide training and
X
xX
long-term credit to new beekeepers.
Tabebuia rocea
xX
xX
Petrea glandulosa
Vitex orinocensis Lonchocarpus pictus Mimosa pudica
Muntingia calabura Albizia lebbeck Albizia guachapele Pollalesta condensata
apamate penitente aceituno jebe
dormidera niguito saman montafioso urero macho
Oyedae verbesinoides Cupania americana
negrito chupa-chupa tara amarilla rabo de pava
Vernonia brasiliana
estoraque
Davilia nitida
chaparrillo
Combretum fruticosum
FOURTEEN
X X
The Ministry of Agriculture is organising beekeeping programmes for the Indians living in Bolivar State, and Mr Thimann has visited the Yanomami Indians in the Amazon Basin to teach beekeeping techniques.
xX XxX
xX
X X X
X
X X X
X X
X
K
XK
X
xX
X X
xX
X X X
X
X X
Beekeeping museum Museo Nacional de Apicultura Ignacio Herrera
xX
Journal
XxX
X X X
X X
X xX
Revista del Munapih, Ec Elda Bricefio de Barrios, Coordinacién Técnica Mérida, Corporacién de Los Andes, Apdo 94, Mérida, Venezeula A Bees for Development publication
.
