Letters

Hybrid excellence

I am writing from the island of Rodrigues, a tiny spot on the map 560 km northeast of Mauritius. I am hoping to help queen improvement. Now that DNA tests have disclosed the fact that inbreeding can lead to poor brood patterns, it is useful to look into arrangements for ensuring that mating hives are situated where drones are not siblings of the virgins to be mated. It is often assumed that the 'pepper pot' appearance of a slab of brood indicates that the queen has missed a cell here and there while on her endless quest for cells which the nurse bees carefully prepare for her. The reason for these gaps in the brood pattern can be due to sibling matings which have reduced the number of genes available. The nurse bees, aware that a particular egg will not develop into a satisfactory worker bee, sense this and destroy the egg, but are of course unable to replace it.

Although only 13 x 3 km, Rodrigues' surface area is considerably increased due to its hilly, almost mountainous nature. From the aspect of beekeeping, not only are the bees remarkably docile and inclined to supersede rather than swarm, but they are free of Varroa! Langstroth frame hives are widely used and the very excellent honey produced has won prizes in international shows.

To maximise the number of matings, while not taking large frames out of honey production, half-sized Langstroth shallow supers (20 to a box) are put five at a time into small boxes with room for a top feeder. Then they are filled with bees, using a funnel, and a virgin queen is run in, or this can be done on arrival at the new site. To avoid losing bees or even being robbed out, the boxes are taken well away to another part of the island where there is a good chance that drones which are not siblings will compete for the matings. It might be thought that as drones can fly many miles it would be unimportant as to where the mating hives were placed, but after a few km flight a drone is not likely to out fly a local bee in the nuptial challenge.

To import Varroa by getting queens from abroad would be sacrilege, especially as the robust Rodriguan bees have so many very good characteristics.

Ken Stevens, UK

FURTHER READING

Zooming in on Rodrigues - Bees for Development Journal 31: 13

Craft Aid in Rodrigues - Bees for Development Journal 58: 6-7

Would you be interested to work with the beekeepers of Rodrigues? See Notice Board, page 10

Important point on feeding pollen

I am writing regarding the article on pollen substitutes in BfDJ 77. One way in which the dry powder can be fed to bees in top-bar hives, or frame hives, is to take out an empty comb, lay it flat, pour on a handful of the pollen or substitute and rub it into the cells. The pollen-laden comb must then be placed in the hive. It is most important that it is placed immediately next to the brood where it is to be used.

Chris Slade, UK

Cementing ideas

In BfDJ 75 and 76, beekeepers from India and The Gambia described their experiences with the construction and use of cement hives. The debate is not entirely new as some others have documented their experience in earlier editions, for example the Vautier hive in BfDJ 51. However it will be good to look at this debate from another perspective. Based on my experiences in Nigeria, I hold the opinion that cement hives are not to be recommended, for the following reasons:

1. Excessive heat during hot weather, or in hot areas, and dampness or humidity during cold weather, or in cold areas, would affect the bees negatively.

2. Digging the ground could be extremely hard during the dry season, or in stony/gravely soil types.

3. Erosion or soil wash may result from massive disturbance of the soil when a large number of hives have to be constructed.

4. The heavy weight of cement hives makes their transportation very cumbersome and expensive.

5. It is highly improbable that bees will prefer cement to wood: it is known that some species of wood do have an aroma that attracts bees.

6. Cost-wise, wood hives are much cheaper and more versatile in Nigeria than concrete or cement hives.

7. Whatever advantage the cement hive may have in conserving the forest is easily cancelled by its potential to destroy the soil. Which comes first, the soil or the forest?

8. Consideration for human health should over-ride economic consideration in terms of cost construction of hives. In an age where organic food is fast becoming the vogue, it sounds rather strange that anyone could be canvassing the use of a substance like cement in honey production. Looking at the issue from an environmental perspective, I will not touch the honey produced from cement hives with the longest spoon in the world!

It seems to me that beekeeping may not be an 'all comers' affair after all. Certainly not all countries have the 'comparative advantage'. This write-up is a professional exercise to contribute to the body of knowledge. There is no intention whatsoever to imperil the trade, or belittle the contribution of the beekeepers in the countries concerned.

Bola Adepoju, The Bridge Apiaries, Abeokuta, Nigeria

Wax extraction information

Ian Friend's letter in BfDJ 77 concerning Tanzania's Beekeeping Past is interesting. However I would like to ask if it is possible to render beeswax without contact with metals? Secondly, is F G Smith's book Beekeeping in the Tropics still in print? Thanks for your help.

Makinde Festus, Epe-Makinde Beekeepers, Ondo, Nigeria

Ian Friend replies

The method used to avoid contact with metal is described on page 227 of Beekeeping in the Tropics, Smith called it 'The Tanganyika method'. To repeat his first paragraph: "This is a very efficient method of extracting the wax from all kinds of comb, including all brood combs, and it involves the use of only such utensils as are normally found in an African household. Further, the quality of the wax obtained is extremely good as it is not damaged by overheating or reaction with iron or zinc".

All the melting of the wax is done in water in an earthenware cooking pot. It is then strained through a beer strainer (made of woven rush) into another cooking pot and heated up again in more clean water. When it is melted properly it is again strained through coarse cotton cloth into an enamelled bowl. Although the bowl is metal, the enamel prevents contact with the wax. Before straining into the bowl the inside surface of the bowl is smeared with soap and water: this is to prevent the wax cake sticking to the bowl. The soap does no harm at all but you must not use fat or oil. The bowls are covered to keep out dust and left in a corner of the hut to cool slowly. You could use aluminum saucepans or tinned-steel kerosene or petrol tins as tin also does not react with wax. However, most African households use earthenware pots and enamelled bowls. Once you get into using metal utensils you need to be sure of the identity of the metal.

Incidentally, Brylcreem used to buy nearly half of the beeswax crop, not all of it. Beeswax has very many uses and it cannot be synthesised. Also it was not the design of the hives in the bee houses which revolutionised handling of the African bees, the hives were standard American Modified Dadant hives. There were two main reasons for the success:

(i) The concrete bee houses kept the bees relatively cool and safe from pests and grass fires.

(ii) The hive entrances were all pressed against the inside wall and the bees exited the hive via a hole in the wall and a pipe which poked through the wall to the outside. The guard bees would always be guarding the end of their pipe entrance, and no bee was able to fly around inside the bee house until you opened the hive. Any bees which did fly out of the hive into the room were not likely to be guard bees and would instinctively fly to the bright light of any of the windows. The windows were of metal mosquito gauze, not glass, and when bees alight on a vertical surface they always run upwards. At the top of each window was a baffle which allowed these lost and confused workers to fly out of the building. Once they had reoriented themselves they could enter their hive again via the pipe where their guards are on duty.

When working on one of these hives we were never attacked because the guard bees could not realise where we were: they would fly around the outside of the building without finding us. Although an attack involves many of the workers in the hive it has to be led by the guard bees who are young workers of such an age that their poison glands are well developed and their guarding instincts sharpened.

Beekeeping in the Tropics by F G Smith is available on our website store www.beesfordevelopment.org or see page 15 for how to order.

Queens

In the UK I have been highlighting a problem I had in getting queen bees mated and laying properly. Since I have detailed the symptoms I have experienced, I received much correspondence from other beekeepers in the UK, who have had unexpected problems similar to the ones I have listed. The cause is unknown and often the writer thought it was something they were doing wrong - one e-mail from an experienced beekeeper told me that all of his 11 colonies have superseded their queens in 2005.

I am also hearing from beekeepers in other countries telling me they have experienced similar problems. It is becoming clear that it may be an international problem, and I am seeking your help in raising awareness of this issue, which is beginning to look very serious.

Log onto www.bbka.org.uk, look for 'News from the BBKA' and view 'Queen Problems Update'.

Roger Patterson, UK