Eco-friendly harvesting of rock bees

G N Paliwal, Sunita Paliwal and D B Tembhare, Centre for Bee Development, Wardha, India

Distribution

The rock bee, Apis dorsata is an astonishing bee species. It amazes humans due to its unique nesting pattern, migration, ferociousness and huge deposits of honey. It is an indigenous species of south-east Asian countries. In India, noticeable rock bee wealth occurs in many states including Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttaranchal and West Bengal.

Enforced relocation

The ample nectar and pollen of wild plants during March to June lure thousands of colonies to nest on inaccessible trees and steep cliffs near the lakes, streams and rivers in forest and hilly areas. The same phenomenon is observed in the plains in the cropping season of October to December. During these periods, rock bees take care of their brood and store honey from the abundance of blooming vegetation in their areas. Due to scant rains and unwarranted human interventions in the last decade, our native forests and plains no longer offer safe homes for rock bees. For better shelter the victimised colonies relocate from their original grounds to new places. Here they may occupy religiously protected trees like Ficus religiosa and Ficus bengalensis or man-made structures including water-tanks, bridges, buildings or factories in villages and other populated localities.

Honey and wax from rock bees

For many years tribal people have been harvesting rock bees using destructive methods. Squeezed honey is sold in jocal markets. The income gives each harvester a Seasonal livelihood of US$30-40 per year. This honey is known as ‘forest honey’ and is a major contributor to the Indian honey market (Atwal, 2000).

To harness the natural potential of rock bee wealth in a scientific manner, we felt a need to harmonise the production system by analysing conventional and earlier scientific efforts (Mahindre, 1983; Ghatge, 1988). We conducted the necessary research and field trials in central India between 1994 and 1996. We named the system Sewagram Nisarg Technique of Rock bee Management ot SNTRM. It has proved simple, appropriate, easy to adopt, feasible, low-cost and eco-friendly. Adopting it, the artisans gather plenty of good quality honey and gain a sustainable livelihood

(Paliwal, 2003).

New system

A simple kit consisting of three sets of bee suits (Figure 1)*, (denim jeans), gloves, knives, buckets, re-chargeable torch, a 36 m tape-rope, a 25 m rope ladder, string, sieve, tub and containers (Figure 2*) has been designed for handling rock bees. One set is provided to each group of 4-5 honey artisans. Darkness makes rock bees less active and reduces the nuisance of stinging. Therefore, our teams reach rock bee sites during the evening with the necessary kit. First, a thick rope is secured on the target tree bearing the rock bees. The nesting positions of all the accessible colonies are pinpointed carefully using the torch. The artisans wear the bee suits and climb up the tree with the help of a rope. In the case of cliffs, water tanks and buildings, a portable rope ladder is used. The socks, gloves and helmet are put on and the honey hunter moves nearer the nest. A bucket containing the sharp knife is pulled up on the rope and kept close at hand.

In rock bee nests, most of the honey is accumulated in a honey area, followed by the crescent-shaped pollen area and a widely-extended lower brood area. On closer study of both active and deserted rock bee nests we identified a unique feature. This is that the ripened honey ‘in bulk' (70-80% of the honey stock of each nest) lies in the sealed, elevated cells (5-11 cm in depth}, mostly at the corner sections, and in a few cases in the middle of the comb, extending for 20-28 cm. Unsealed flat cells, 2.5-5 cm in depth, containing unripe honey occur in the remaining part of the honey area length of 38-50 cm.

Here lies the real secret of our new concept. After climbing to the target place, the operation on the rock bee nest begins with a gentle clearance of the bees' curtain from the elevated area of honeycomb. The evacuated bees fly around and settle temporarily on the nearby leaves.

The evacuated portion is then smoothly cut (Figure 3*), detached, collected in a bucket and lowered. The whole process of bee evacuation and ‘honeycomb’ separation requires only two minutes. In the same manner, other accessible colonies are similarly ‘operated’ in the next one or two hours and window-like holes are formed due to the removal of the elevated area of honeycomb (Figures 4 and 5*).

These nests do not fall, as both the ends of their attachment remain intact with the substratum and all the evacuated bees settle back on their nests by the next morning. ‘Operated’ portions are rebuilt and refilled with honey in the next 25-30 days which enables subsequent harvests. In the second harvest 6-7 kg of honey is obtained per nest which is more than the first harvest of 2-3 kg. In each blooming season, two or three harvests may be arranged. Rock bee colonies nesting on terrestrial surfaces are harvested by the same procedure.

The teams return with the isolated 'honeycombs' packed in containers (Figure 6*). Harvested honeycombs are chopped into pieces along the mid-rib and are kept on a big sieve, allowing the honey to trickle to a lower pot. The de-honeyed combs on the sieve are melted, filtered and condensed in water to separate crude beeswax. The harvested honey and wax are marketed to local NGOs in order to protect the interests of the producers.

By adopting our SNTRM technique, rock bee nests are not destroyed in the middle of their development period. The parent colonies multiply safely to add new daughter colonies, which ultimately helps to enrich the forest eco-system.

Dissemination of knowledge

Efforts are being made to transfer this knowledge amongst the conventional groups of honey hunters in central India. The necessary training camps are arranged through local NGOs in each potential pocket. The low-cost facilities of proper storage of honey, processing, bottling, packaging and quality control are provided. To date, about 450 trained honey artisans are practising our method. They are collectively harvesting more than 55 tonnes of honey and wax and earning about US$58,000 (US$127 per artisan) per annum, 3-4 times more than they would obtain by using conventional methods.

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

References

ATWAL, A S (2000) Essentials of beekeeping and pollination. Kalyani Publishers, Ludhiyana, India.

GHATGE, A L (1988) Technology for scientific harvesting of the biggest honey source of India. Science for Villages (Feb-Mar) pp 5-7.

MAHINDRE, D B (1983) Handling rock bee colonies. Indian Bee Journal 45: 72 - 73.N

PALIWAL., G N (7003) Socio-economic development of tribal bee-hunters through safe handling of rock bees in Wardha District of Central India, in: International Workshop on Conservation and Management of Bees for Sustainable Development, Bangalore: pp 99-100.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Oxfam UK (India Trust), CAPART (New Delhi), MPCoST (MP), DRDA (Wardha, MS), KVIC-UNDP for financial support; Mr Mukund Uikey, a master trainer: Professor Sanjeev Gandhewar for going through the manuscript and Mr Sanjay Mashankar

(Anjali Arts) for the illustrations.