BEEKEEPING & DEVELOPMENT 43
ZOOMING IN ON... ..
Where is Albania..? Eastern Europe with coastline on the Adriatic and lonian seas. Borders with Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia In
Size 28,748 km’
ALBANIA
How many people live there? Three million
Recent history r too much of its history Albania has been us d as a pawn in other countries’ games of ch ss. Nevertheless, Albanians have never be len subdued and retain their own language an id strong cultural identity. The end of
co Immunism has brought a period of tre mendous change. Some of this has been on
ac atastrophic scale with Albania losing her vit lal resources, including people.
Currency Lek Main agriculture Farming systems have broken down following decollectivisation. Main crops include maize, pulses, sunflowers, fruits and vegetables.
What is it like? ADRIATIC SEA
Much of the country is wild and mountainous. Sadly the extensive forests that used to cover these mountains have been cleared in recent years.
GREECE
A traditional style wooden hive
Honey is harvested from combs soon after it is stored by bees and supering {adding further boxes) is not always practised because equipment is in short supply.
Honey production Between 800 and 1000 tonnes per annum.
Honey production - per colony Traditional hives yield 5-10 kg of honey per year, and also some wax. Annual honey harvests from frame hives can be over 30 kg per colony. one beekeeper claims yields of 70 kg. 12 kg per colony per year can be assumed as a typical annual harvest.
Marketing Beekeepers do not have access to containers or labels, and have little possibility to market honey well. The Bulgarian and Romanian honey on sale in Albania is attractively packaged and sells at a lower price than local honey.
There is great scope to assist Albanian beekeepers by making the material for marketing available.
Number of beekeepers About 5000 Number of honeybee colonies? 85,000
Any honeybee pests and diseases? Albanian beekeepers all control Varroa jacobsoni mites using fluvalinate, either in the form of impregnated strips placed in the hive, or ina more concentrated liquid form.
Bee forage
A market has developed selling strips at
What is the climate? Temperate Which honeybees? Apis mellifera
The herbaceous plants and woody perennials found in the mountains are known for their excellence for beekeeping, and forage for bees is therefore good.
Flowering period There are many different periods of nectar flow throughout the country, and beekeepers are able to provide ten months of forage for bees by moving them from one area to another as forage comes successively into flower.
Beekeeping equipment Traditional beekeeping. Traditional styles of hives include wooden boxes and baskets.
Frame hive beekeeping Most beekeepers in Albania keep between 11 and 30 colonies in frame hives, similar in design to the Langstroth hive. A small amount of equipment is made in Albania but most is imported from Italy and neighbouring countries. It is difficult to obtain the
FOURTEEN
embossed beeswax sheets known as foundation. Some beekeepers have the presses necessary to make this foundation, but lack of co-ordination means that these are not accessible throughout the country.
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relatively high price and this in turn encourages beekeepers to misuse them in a way that will encourage fast development of mite resistance. The cost of buying these strips is one of the major recurrent costs for beekeepers, making their work less economic than it could be. Chalkbrood is a serious disease for bees in Albania, but it need not be so. Hives are often over-insulated in winter, with little ventilation, and these are just the conditions to encourage chalkbrood. Technical assistance could help to alleviate this problem. American foulbrood is also present.
Other problems for beekeepers The presence of the many pesticides used extensively in Albania.
Projects Since 1992 several organisations have offered assistance to beekeeping in Albania. These include FAO, GTZ, VOCA and The Plunkett Foundation (see next page). A Bees for Development publication
