Bees for Development Journal
75
ZOOMING BACK TO JORDAN
ZOOMING BACK TO JORDAN Bees for Development Journal 23 we featured Zooming in on Jordan. Dr Nizar Haddad, Co-ordinator of the Bee Research Unit at the National Center for Agriculture Research and Technology Transfer (NCARTT) in Bag'q now provides this update. In
Melliferous vegetation All of Jordan's eco-geographic regions hold rich and diverse resources of wild flora, cultivated plants, fruit trees, and forest trees. Most of these plants provide forage for bees as sources of nectar and pollen. In the Jordan Valley, bees forage mainly on Citrus, the source of light coloured honey, Christ's thorn jujube, Eucalyptus, Syrian thistle and mesquite. In the uplands, fruit trees such as stone fruit, poem fruit, and cultivated crops like legumes and crucifers are the main forage for honeybees. Wild flora, bushes, and shrub comprise the main foraging plants for honeybees in the arid and semi arid region: greenish and tan coloured honeys are produced from these plants.
JORDAN
is located at the crossroads of three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. The landscape reveals great diversity within short distances.
Jordan has an eastern Mediterranean climate, characterised by mild and moderately rainy winters and hot rainless summers.
SAUDI ARABIA
kept by beekeepers who are still following traditional ways.
There is little manufacture of beekeeping equipment and supplies, except for the wooden hive boxes and frames. Most equipment such as honey extractors, ripeners, queen excluders, wax foundation, smokers, and clothes are imported from New Zealand, China, Syria, Europe and the USA. From 1980 to 1998 honey production ranged between 50 and 200 tonnes per year. The average domestic consumption reached 379 tonnes per year. The Kingdom imports about 282 tonnes a year, which means that domestic production may meet only 20% of national consumption. Jordanians prefer local honey. They believe that local honey has more medicinal value than imported honey, because of the diversity of Jordan flora. The price of imported honey reaches US$5 per kg, while the price of local honey is US$10-15 per kg.
Apis mellifera syriaca at the entrance of a frame hive, at the left side bees are balling a tethered Vespa orientalis
Beekeeping
According to Ministry of Agricultural Statistics (2003), 65% of hives are located in the north, 25% in the central parts, and 10% in the south of Jordan. The statistics also show that in 2003 the number of beekeepers was over 1,000 with about 60,000 colonies distributed in the categories shown right. Hives, equipment and production In 1979, more than 80% of colonies were kept in traditional clay hives, hand-made cylindrical tubes of mud and straw, 66 cm long and 30 cm in diameter internally - the walls are a full 5 cm thick. Honeybees housed in this hive will build comb, rather than relying on removable frames as in frame hives. Considerable effort has been made in the past two decades to introduce frame hives into Jordan. In 2005 over 98% of bees are kept in frame hives, while 2% are
Local-style clay hives Orel -selelay
Hobby beekeeper Part-time beekeeper Full-time beekeeper
Number of colonies Less than 10
10 -25
25-100 101-1000
Professional beekeeper Large-scale professional beekeeper with shop and employees More than 1000
