PRACTICAL BEEEKEEPING/HONEY LEGISLATION
EU HONEY
PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING
LEGISLATION THIRD COUNTRIES UPDATE The latest list of so-called ‘third’ countries -
those authorised fo import honey into the EU issued on 7 March 2006 is as follows:
Argentina, Australia, Belize, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemaia, India, !srael, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Montenegro, New
Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Pitcairn Islands, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Vietnam and Zambia.
See BIDS 59, 63 and 72 and our Website Information Centre for more details
EU SUSPENDS IMPORT OF
BRAZILIAN HONEY
TOP-BAR TIPS
My first attempt was with bars 3.5 cm wide, and this was successful in the UK. understand that
Browsing through the new on-line BID brochure
African bees are smaller and need narrower topbars. By way of experiment am now using a
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(see below) paused at the pages showing Senegalese beekeepers making top-bar hives. |
They appear to be using narrow bars with gaps in between, kept in position by castellated spacers (see picture above). for doing it this way?
Is there a particular reason
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graduated range of bar widths from 3.175 cm at the front to 5.0 cm at the rear. shall monitor |
how the bees get on and shall measure the cell size to See if they adjust it to match the bar
spacing.
My own experience with the top-bar hive is that having the bars fitting closely together works
Last autumn, in order to produce a small harvest of extra propolis, took one top-bar out
well. The bees are always very calm, far more so than in hives with conventionally spaced frames,
temporarily and eased all the others apart slightly. A few weeks later was able to use a
where there are gaps to defend when the beekeeper takes the roof off, light floods, in and
hive tool to scrape off enough propolis to fill a tobacco tin. Some of this is now being made
warm air rushes out. This alerts the bees to the
into a tincture and the rest is being eaten raw.
fact that they are being threatened and they may be inclined to do something about it. With close-
Chris Slade, UK
fitting top-bars there is only one gap at a time and, if you work gently, the bees hardly know that
you are there. On the odd occasion when the roof has blown off, the colony has still had a
solid ceiling and come to no harm.
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More on top-bar hives at our Website Information Centre. If you have any top-bar
tips or questions, do send them in contact details on page 2.
E H Thorne (Beehives) Ltd have added top-bar hives to their range of equipment for sale. Available as flat pack or ready built, order from www.thorne.co.uk For every top-bar hive sold, Thornes are donating 10
to Bees for Development Trust.
BEES FOR DEVELOPMENT BROCHURE
Since 7 March 2006, Brazil has not been allowed to export honey to the EU. The Commission says Brazil needs to perform further quality control analysis on the product. Director of Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Issues of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Odilson Ribeiro said that the EU gave
the Ministry a six-month deadline for restructuring its National Programme of
Residue Control in order to adapt to the EU export norms. The Director explains that analysis of the product for antibiotics and heavy metals will be done. According to Ribeiro, a plan containing information on the quality of the product has already been
developed and is being implemented. The EU considers this information should have been sent to them earlier, however, Ribeiro emphasises, the EU has never found any problem in its analysis of Brazilian honey. Honey from the northeast region of Brazil is produced without any risk of antibiotic contamination. Ribeiro added that producers from the States of Ceara and Piaui would be most affected by the EU decision. In order to minimise future problems, the Ministry of Agriculture intends to establish some new measures, for example to look for new markets as alternatives to Europe: implement promotions of Brazilian honey; encourage the product's organic certification: give support to the associations of honey producers; and verify sanitary education
A new Brochure is available describing the work of Bees for Development, and Bees for Development Trust. The Brochure has been created by Kirsten and Michael Traynor, beekeepers in Maryland, USA. View the
programmes. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the honey exported before this embargo will face no problems in the EU
brochure or download a printable copy af
US$18,900,000 (€14,725,000).
www. beesfordevelopment.org
Patricia Landim, Agencia Brasil, www. internacional.radiobras.gov.br
market. In 2005, Brazil exported 14,400 tonnes of honey to the EU, of value
