The need for appropriate beekeeping without fear: coping with the persistant problem of the “aggressiveness” of African honeybees

by BERNHARD CLAUSS

Bernhard Clauss has worked for many years with beekeepers in Botswana where a very calm and gentle approach to bees is adopted. This method of beekeeping is described in the following article which was prompted after Bernhard visited various African beekeepers after last year’s Conference on Apiculture in Tropical Climates. Bernhard Clauss is the author of The Beekeeping Handbook, an excellent guide to the successful beekeeping which can be achieved with A. m. adansonii using simple equipment made from locally available materials, and adopting the approach to the bees described in this article. Photographs by B. Clauss and L. Tiernan*.

After visiting several Kenya top-bar hive beekeeping sites, I would like to once more emphasise the importance of the philosophy of Botswana beekeepers. Their top priority in manipulating bees is to use a gentle and fearless, but respectful attitude.

Beekeepers ought to know that like any other creature, bees of every different strain and race are primarily docile when their colonies are left in peace; aggression comes to them from outside, and this triggers their most efficient defensive behaviour.

The better we know how to identify the possible causes of defensive reactions the better we know we will be able to avoid them, or cope with them, and eventually adapt to them.

Sometimes people do not realise that several causes can sum up to aggravate already dangerous situations.

In Botswana we observed strange reactions by colonies which had been under persistent stress from various interacting disturbances: bees rushed out of the entrance holes after the first puff of smoke and attacked everything in the vicinity, even the smokers...

YOU CAN PREVENT EXCESSIVE DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR BY BEES BY:

1. Inspecting hives only during the right time of day, when the weather is calm and it is not too hot or too moist and hot. This is especially important in coastal areas.

2. Making sure that hives are well shaded. Lack of insulating material on the lid can cause bees to cluster outside wherever they find holes, gaps and cracks in the hive.

3. Watching for a sudden decrease in the honey flow, which can cause bees to idle, and show highly defensive behaviour.

4. Preventing ants from molesting colonies by hanging hives from trees, or if the hive is supported by a stand, by placing its legs in tins filled with a mixture of old engine oil, or smearing them with a mixture of grease and creosote.

5. Preventing people and animals from knocking into hives.

6. Keeping hives in good condition e.g. watch out for broken suspension, hives with cracks or other additional holes, and gaps left between top-bars because of hasty relocation.

7. Preventing irritating smells such as pheromones or bee venom accumulated on protective clothing like gloves and overalls or from crushed bees, sweat under heavy protectives, smells of enclosed domestic animals, and smells of certain aromatic plants like Lantana camera or Tagetes minuta (‘Khaki weed’).

8. Not using offensive kinds of smoke. Cow dung is a good smoker fuel as it gives mild smoke. Do not let the fuel burst into flames; the aim is to have a constant supply of cool, white smoke.

9. Preventing careless smoking caused by ignorance or impatience.

10. Making sure that smoke reaches all parts of the colony. Even with patient smoking you must take care, for example when the entrance holes are on the narrow side of top-bar hives, or when bees are clustering outside cracks and gaps.

11. Not manipulating more than 2 colonies per apiary per day.

12. Smoking neighbouring hives before a colony is opened for a lengthy inspection or harvest.

13. Not leaving honey combs exposed or spilled honey; robbing builds up uncontrollable viciousness!

14. Not having too many colonies at one site e.g. more than 3 hives per apiary in areas with hot and moist climates.

15. Not being nervous or hasty or showing panicky behaviour.

16. Not wearing dark clothing when working with bees who are already irritated.

African honey hunters and traditional beekeepers have been handling bees without protective clothing for centuries.

Having seen the traditional honey hunters in the north of Botswana I understand that they had no other choice but to manipulate the bees the gentle and cool-headed way.

Now as colonies in modern (Kenya) top-bar hives are so much easier to handle it is ironic that together with heavy and sophisticated protective equipment, we have also introduced fear of bees which in many cases leads to a vicious circle of reactions and counter-reactions. Every beginner should gain confidence during an initial period of training in tight but light daily clothes, a hat, and at most with a self-made veil, but without an overall, gloves, and rubber boots.

All this means that a fearless, sensible and understanding beekeeper needs only a minimum of protective equipment which he or she can rely on at any time. Equipment must be as simple and cheap as possible, preferably homemade.

THERE ARE GOOD REASONS FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF A MODEST APPROACH TO BEEKEEPING:

• Poor rural beekeepers will hardly use overalls or rubber boots exclusively for a few beekeeping activities. What happens when these items are torn after a short while because they have been worn for other jobs?

• A small set of unsophisticated protectives can be in every beekeeper’s house—above all simple tin smokers. ‘This is essential when unexpected and urgent problems caused to bees by external interference and carelessness need cool-headed actions.

• The beekeeper will be more independent of the visits of beekeeping extension personnel and their equipment. This independence can help to develop self-confidence and co-operation between beekeepers, and can greatly help to spread the idea of beekeeping in rural areas.

• With little special protective clothing the beekeeper will notice each single sting and will try by all means to minimise the danger of irritated colonies. There will be hardly any accumulation of defensive pheromones on his or her daily clothes, as they are washed regularly, unlike bee overalls and gloves.

• All this can be of benefit to neighbouring people and domestic animals.

• Colonies inspected and harvested in an unaggressive and adapted way will return to normal efficiency sooner than those which have been made upset.

* Please see the original journal article to see the photographs.