News

HIVE AID

Api-Promo Promotion of small-scale beekeeping in developing countries

In May 1995 the German Centre for Technical Co-operation (GTZ), on behalf of the Ministry of Economics and Co-operation started the three year Api-Promo project. The objective is to support farmers and beekeepers to make better use of natural resources in beekeeping. A concept for sustainable promotion of beekeeping will be designed and applied in several countries.

It is hoped that developing countries will benefit from Api-Promo in the following ways:

Activities of on-going projects can be optimised through the international information network Api-Promo provides;

Standards for the assessment of strategies and promotional activities for the most important fields of beekeeping will be developed. Considering regional aspects and problems, these standards will be put at the disposal of the projects;

Api-Promo will support government and NGOs offering extension and other services for beekeeping;

The project may also secure co-operation with German and international institutions in case close scientific assistance is needed.

For more information contact: Api-Promo GTZ, Bieneninstitut,NGermany.

Api-Promo GTZ, Bieneninstitut, Germany

or

GTZ-HO, Department 422, Germany.

GHANA

The Second Conference of the Ghana Beekeepers’ Association (GHABA) was held in Bolgatanga in March 1995. Over 100 delegates from all over Ghana took part. The theme of the Conference was “Beekeeping and National Development”. A workshop on the first day covered apitherapy, appropriate hives for Ghana, and stingless bee beekeeping.

A speech from the Minister of Food and Agriculture brought some good news: National Beekeeping Project is being launched in 1995. Included in the project is the transfer of improved beekeeping practices to farmers through the Extension Services Department. GHABA will be contracted to train all these front-line staff to effect the new programme.

During the Conference the first school of beekeeping, founded in 1994 by Mr Alias Ayeebo, was inaugurated. Seventy-two students are following an 18-month intensive programme which includes beekeeping, afforestation, botany, business studies, rural development and woodwork. Many students plan to set up their own beekeeping projects upon graduation.

A visit to local beekeepers and places of interest in the region concluded the activities of this three-day Conference.

Kwame Aidoo, B&D’s correspondent in Ghana

SOUTH AFRICA

The tracheal mite Acarapis woodi has been found on Apis mellifera capensis queens for shipment to Germany. Dr Mike Allsopp suggests the probable source is European queens imported into South Africa by legal or illegal means, regularly for the last 100 years. “Sooner or later such foolishness was bound to have a price’, says Dr Allsopp.

Source: Capensis, January 1995

UNITED KINGDOM

James Hamill, whose family have been beekeepers for three generations, has won Queen Elizabeth Scholarship worth £6,000. James combines an acting career with beekeeping, which he began commercially in 1985. He opened The Hive Honey Shop in London in 1992 and makes over 80 handmade bee-related products from Victorian and Edwardian recipes for sale. He maintains 100 colonies, breeds queen bees, builds his own hives and equipment, runs adult evening courses, and free bee courses for children in his shop which contains an observation hive. As collector of hives from around the world, he is currently recreating an octagonal tiered hive drawn by Christopher Wren (the architect of St Paul's Cathedral), from designs published in 1655.

ZAIRE

Beekeeping in Bas Zaire

Honey hunting has been a traditional activity in the Bas Zaire region for many years. Honey is often taken from wild colonies in holes the ground, old termite hills, and trees. However there appears to be good potential for improved beekeeping.

In 1981 trial apiary, with funding from Christian Aid, was set up at Mbanza Nzundu by the Salvation Army who had youth camp there surrounded by an area of forest. Peace Corps Volunteers ran the project using top-bar hives.

At first there was good deal of suspicion when local people saw the long boxes in clearings in the forest, sometimes thinking them to be coffins, especially when they were visited by people dressed up in bee suits! Swarms entered the hives of their own accord or colonies were transferred from where they were established in tree stumps and holes in the ground. Though some of these transfers where unsuccessful, gradually the number of successful hives was increased. Local farmers were taught how to look after their own colonies and harvest the honey without destroying the bees at the same time. Protective clothing was made from flour sacks and smokers from scrap metal and inner tubes frame tyres (figure 1*). As the potential for beekeeping was realised the programme spread into new villages throughout the Bas Zaire region.

The Project Apicole/Agricole is now based at Kavwaya, near Inkisi/Kisantu and a beekeepers’ co-operative has been formed. Currently it has 1025 members and last year harvested about seven tonnes of honey.

A group of beekeepers I visited near Kavwaya in July 1995 had 30 members, 21 of them women. To them, beekeeping has become an important source of income. Yields may be comparatively low, probably 10 litres of honey per hive, with honey selling at USS2 per litre, but it is nevertheless proving of great help to their families.

One of the main problems being faced by beekeepers is the cost and difficulty of obtaining timber for making hives. Beekeepers are therefore turning to other materials. I have seen hives made with bricks (figure 2*) or from metal oil drums cut in half. In each case the standard 50 cm long top-bar is used (figure 3*)

The hives are usually placed in patches of thick bush, which provide shade and reduce the risk of attack to passers-by and livestock. Bees are hindered from following the beekeeper home, after he or she has taken the honey crop, when there is plenty of undergrowth and the path to the village is narrow and twists through the bush! It also means that the hives are preserving small areas of natural woodland allowing trees to grow to reasonable height. Siam weed, Chromolaena odorata, though much maligned plant, and common in much of West and Central Africa, appears to be the main source of the pleasant dark golden honey.

Paul Latham

*Where reference to images or figures is made, please see original journal article