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COLOMBIA Comunidad Por Los Nifios has started an apiculture project which is now flourishing in many regions of Colombia, with all the joys and hardships of working with the Africanized bee. Africanized bees have reached virtually all areas of Colombia and provide a readily available and free source of bees for hives. The project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the University of Guelph. Materials (5 Kenya top-bar hives, overall, gloves, veil and smoker) are loaned, without interest, to beekeepers for a two year period. At present there are about 150 hives distributed in the coastal region of Antioquia and another 150 in the mountainous inner region of Antioquia. The climate changes drastically and thus each area has its own idiosyncrasies and problems. Unfortunately the fame of the “killer bee” has preceeded the work of the project, and preformed opinions are hard to dispel. Since resources are limited, the area of work is restricted to the geographical region easily accessible to the two people working on the bees project. Enquiries have been received from many interested communities who are situated too far distant to be accessible to the project. (Mr Car! Lowenberger, Communidad por los nifios.)
INDIA Sac brood in Apis cerana Himachal Pradesh: Apis cerana colonies in northern India are badly affected by sac brood disease. This viral infection does not cause much harm to Apis mellifera colonies but great losses have been reported to native Apis cerana colonies. In the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, about 50 colonies of Apis cerana owned by the state 4
horticulture department died of this disease during last winter and spring. This disease was first reported in India from Assam and Neghalaya in 1981 and is now spreading to other states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. So far the disease has not been reported from the Kashmir valley, where beekeeping with Apis cerana is widespread. Earlier, the disease was reported from Thailand, and it was not present in India in the native bee species prior to the introduction of Apis mellifera. More than 90% of colonies affected by this disease tend to abscond resulting in mixing of queens or complete loss of colonies.
(Dr L. R. Verma)
vered an outbreak of American foulbrood disease of bees in certain areas of Kingston. In the past, Jamaica has had four outbreaks of American foulbrood disease. The first three in 1918, 1926 and 1935, all occurred within the old Corporate Area of Kingston. The fourth, in 1943, was much more serious, not only within the Corporate Area, but spreading also to St Thomas, St Catherine, Manchester and St Elizabeth. During the first outbreak, all hives (1719) within a three mile radius of Kingston Parish Church, whether infected or not, were burnt in two huge fires on Kingston Race Course. In the other outbreak only infected and suspected colonies were burnt. Thus in 1943, 1710 colonies were burnt. As far as is known there has been no recurrence of the disease since 1944 until this recent outbreak. The Ministry of Agriculture has instituted an Island-wide survey and inspection of all apiaries to determine the distribution of the disease. If the disease is localized then it can be confined and eradicated by methods of total destruction within the prescribed area. If however it is widespread, such measures would be ineffective and other control methods, such as drugs, would have to be applied.
(Source: Mr L. Church; Daily Gleaner, 29 September 1984)
MOZAMBIQUE
Patiala: Beekeeping has become a viable economic proposition in Punjab and has the potential of becoming a source of stable income for educated rural youth. For example, Mr Kulwant Singh, a young beekeeper, says that he had the training to manage more colonies [of Apis mellifera] but at first he had insufficient funds. For setting up a colony an investment of Rs 500 is needed—banks would not agree to lend him the money as they did not consider beekeeping a bankable project. To meet running expenses he had to sell his 17 colonies for Rs 5800 in the first year and 27 colonics for Rs 6500 in the following year. “‘And this was the most painful act of my life’ says Mr Kulwant Singh with tears in his eyes. ‘““No farmer would part with colonies and slash his breeding programme like this”. Now Mr Singh receives advances from business men who want to be assured of the supply of honey, and receipts from the sale of honey are sufficient to meet the recurring expenses and take care of his colony multiplication programme.
(The Tribune,
JAMAICA The Plant Protection Division of the Ministry of Agriculture recently disco-
Mozambique is promoting beekeeping with the objective of turning honey hunting traditions to active and economic management of bees. It is hoped to discourage the poor type of activities used in exploiting bees (and the hazards this involved) and the destruction and killing of useful trees to get bark hives. The Beekeeping Programme was officially in-
augurated in April 1982 and had three main objects: (1) to train personnel at all levels of beekeeping (2) to establish a factory to make basic beekeeping equipment and (3) to investigate ways of making honey containers out of plastic. By 1984, all basic materials, except bee gloves, are being made in Maputo. The Mozambique Transition Hive has been introduced, of manageable size and cheap to construct. This type of hive is being introduced to co-operative unions, family sectors, parastatal organizations and provincial apiaries. The programme helps beekeepers in every province with technical assistance from the headquarters.
(Source: M. N. Kawa; Domingo, 4 March 17
June)
1984)
