BEEKEEPING & DEVELOPMENT 42
Bees for Development works hard
to
Aimo Out o im Af
publish information about
worthwhile and successful beekeeping development projects.
The following article is different.
dé
iy ws
MN
by
Michal Anosh, Israel
project hit bump as the South African Ministry of Agriculture changed the regulations for the shipping of bees - requiring sanitary permits and 100% security. a
<5
Naturally occuring honeybees have evolved according to the conditions prevailing in their region. This means that they have evolved ways of surviving in the presence of local pests and predators, according to the types of plants available, and the seasons and climate. Is it reasonable to expect that honeybees introduced from a different region will survive
more successfully?
When bee expert Mondo Basmat of Israel accepted an agricultural development assignment in the Céte d'Ivoire, West Africa, in the autumn of 1994, he was looking forward to a two-year stint filled with new and rewarding experiences. But he got more than he
bargained for! In Mr Basmat's opinion, the local bees in Céte d'Ivoire were not very good at their job. He believed the bees were very aggressive and poor honey producers, and consequently proportionately fewer crops were properly pollinated. Mr Basmat and his foreign aid colleagues decided to import number of Apis mellifera colonies from Australia. These mild-mannered bees are eager and bountiful producers and it was believed that they would readily acclimatise to the Céte d'Ivoire. a
readiness for the bees’ arrival, Basmat set up training sessions in several communities and constructed appropriate facilities to receive the bees. In
From the outset, the apparently simple project was fraught with difficulties. The bees had to be shipped by air from Australia, via Kuala Lumpur, to South Africa, and then on to Abidjan in Céte d'Ivoire. The first problem was that no airline wanted to ship bees as they are notorious for escaping. Furthermore, the “no room at scheduled time was Christmas
the inn”.
After some negotiation, a suitable bee shipper was found for February 1995, but then the TEN
Some bureaucratic running around achieved the appropriate paperwork - but as for the 100% security? Well, no-one told the bees! There were to be two shipments of 240 colonies in each. For the entire journey, the bees were to be accompanied by a caretaker who would feed and water them at
stop-overs. The first shipment from Australia arrived in Johannesburg in late February and the bees were met by Basmat who cared for them over the next four days until the flight to Abidjan. While in the air, the pilot informed Basmat that the permit for the second shipment had been cancelled, as, during the scheduled stopover, some of the bees had escaped into the cargo bay in contravention of the 100% security ruling. But this was nothing compared to the troubles to come.
When the shipment arrived in Abidjan, the boxes were unpacked and put in pallets; a few hours later they were uncorked and the bees were fed sugar water Upon inspection, the bees were not up to regular standard as there was an insufficient number of bees and brood and the combs were of low quality. Seven bee frames had been divided into two colonies, just before shipping. In Basmat’s opinion a ten-frame minimum would have been necessary for success. Also the bees had not been given time to regroup before such an arduous journey. A new queen in a cage had been introduced into one colony. It is not surprising then that the day after the bees arrived they began reacting in a strange
way. Suddenly many of them simply evacuated the hive and did not return, thus debilitating an already weak colony. These bees hung A Bees for Development publication
a
~
