News

ANTIGUA

Meals for Millions/Freedom from Hunger Foundation has been instrumental in providing technical and financial assistance to develop a small scale but commercially viable beekeeping project on the island. Mr. Eustace Samuel is the key beekeeper and manages over 80 hives, and there are other beekeepers with smaller numbers of hives. These are kept in the southern portion of the island—at Orange Valley and Christian Valley where nectar and floral sources are most abundant. The honey is sold in local stores and supermarkets where there is a strong demand for local honey. There are plans to increase the operation to 300 hives in the near future.

(Ruth Spencer, Program Advisor, Meals for Millions)

ETHIOPIA

Mr. Alemayehu Wolde Senbet is in charge of a Beekeeping Development Project. Mr. Wolde Senbet writes: In some parts of Ethiopia many peasants are involved with beekeeping. Modern beekeeping started some years ago but development did not reach many rural areas. Some beekeepers are only achieving low yields because of problems with disease, insect pests, wind and lack of knowledge about bee management. Honey is highly valued throughout the country by both urban and rural people; some prepare a drink from honey, but many eat honey and use it for treatments. The main objects of the Beekeeping Programme in Wolayita are to test adapted techniques at peasant level, to organise demonstration and training programmes and to improve bee product marketing. Beekeeping is a good way of development for Wolayita people who are living in very small land areas and whose farms cannot provide enough crops.

GHANA

85 people attended a five-day beekeeping workshop held in Accra, in November 1984. The workshop was organised by the Technology Consultancy Centre of the University of Science and Technology, and this, the seventh such workshop, was sponsored by the Ministry of Industries, Science and Technology. Mr. Kwame Akrofi, undersecretary for the Ministry, described the potential of beekeeping as a desirable form of industry, encouraging people away from constantly importing goods and towards the development of local materials, especially for the production of beeswax urgently needed by many manufacturing industries. Mr. Nyamekye of Densu Industries Ltd, Accra, provided financial support for participants attending the workshop. Topics included beekeeping in Ghana, anatomy and physiology of the bee, traditional and Kenyan top-bar hives, apiary siting and selection, obtaining and safe-handling of bees, bee foraging and crop pollination, factors militating against the bee industry in Ghana, honey and beeswax processing, apiary management and demonstrations of honey harvesting and beeswax extraction.

(Mr. Stephen Adjare, Ghana Bee News)

GUYANA

Mr. Ahnand Rajkumar writes: “The honey industry in Guyana has declined since the arrival of Africanized bees. Africanized bees were first noticed in the Rupununi district (bordering with Brazil) in 1974, and by 1976 they were found throughout the country. Some efforts were made to sustain honey production by the importation of mated Italian queen bees from the United States but this was not followed through. As a result, colonies became Africanized and beekeepers abandoned them. Other factors responsible for the slump in honey production were:

(a) Beekeepers were not aware of the management techniques required for Africanized bees, and hence they did not know how to cope with them.

(b) Before the arrival of Africanized bees, beekeeping was in most cases a secondary source of income, and was largely a backyard industry with members of the family assisting. Such apiaries have been done away with.

Last year, the Beekeepers Association founded in 1932, was reactivated after nearly four years dormancy, and many new faces were present.”

Mr. Rajkumar goes on to say “although I belong to a beekeeping family, I only became interested in beekeeping after the arrival of Africanized bees. Then and now I find it a pleasure to capture swarms or established colonies of Africanized bees. There is an old saying that once you have been stung you cannot be cured. Bees are now an inseparable part of me and I have grown to love and learn a lot from them”.

INDIA

Apis mellifera in India. Many workers in India have attempted several times to import and establish the exotic species, Apis mellifera in the country. But successful introduction and establishment of this exotic bee dates to 1962-64 in Himachal Pradesh. Beekeeping with A. cerana indica was practically unknown in the adjoining states of Punjab and Haryana until such times as colonies of A, mellifera were introduced to these states from Himachal Pradesh. During the last decade many tree plantation programmes have caught up and large scale plantations of trees (e.g. Eucalyptus) have provided plentiful forage for bees. Honey yields as high as 80kg per colony are being obtained from A. mellifera in the northern states.

There are many large areas with conditions similar to Punjab and Haryana which offer great potential for the success of apiculture. Extension of A. was mellifera was purposefully kept slow for fear of spreading bee diseases hitherto unknown in India. But constant vigil and surveillance revealed no new bee diseases during the last two decades. A widespread consensus has been developed and it has now been decided at the 2nd annual workshop of All India Co-ordinated Project on Honeybee Research and Training that A. mellifera should be allowed to spread to other states.

(Dr. R. C. Mishra, Dept of Entomology & Apiculture, Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University)

Trials with Apis mellifera outside Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, can be undertaken only by ICAR and CBRI research units and not by any private individual. Keeping these colonies by private beekeepers endangers the beekeeping industry.

(Bee Science News, July 1985)

MOZAMBIQUE

Stamps featuring bees and beekeeping provide a good way of increasing the public’s awareness of the subject. Four excellent stamps have been issued in Mozambique this year, and they feature a worker bee, a drone bee, a queen bee, and a beekeeper smoking a hive entrance. The stamps are illustrated.

* Please see the original journal article to see some images of the stamps.

NICARAGUA

Under the national plan for expanding beekeeping, 20 Nicaraguan beekeepers were sent to Panama, Costa Rica and Brazil to study ways of keeping African bees. At the same time 180 qualified beekeepers and 60 technicians familiar with these new bees were being trained.

Advice has also been sought from France about setting up agricultural cooperatives where the members will have apiaries.

Under the plan of growth (up to 1986) the number of colonies is to go up to 266,000 and honey production to 400 tonnes, some of which may be exported, though honey has to be imported to meet demand. Apart from honey production, experiments in Colombia and Panama have shown that Africanized bees are very good for pollination of coffee plantations and vegetable and bean-fields.

(A. Stroev, Pchelovodstvo, 3, 1985, Translated by D. Galton)

UGANDA

A promotion programme has been started to introduce more effective methods of beekeeping throughout Uganda. This is a joint venture by the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Animal Industry and Fisheries, the Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere (CARE) Uganda Ltd., the Uganda Red Cross and Uganda YMCA.

A three day beekeeping seminar attended by over sixty participants representing the various Red Cross and YMCA Clubs throughout Uganda, was recently conducted at YMCA headquarters in Kampala. Commenting on the success of the Seminar, a YMCA official, Mr. Wabwire Muwesa, said that the introduction of small scale industries which can easily be embarked upon by the ordinary Ugandan, will go a long way in helping to uplift the rural areas. It will also help to utilise unused land that is abundant up-country. Mr. Muwesa said that the Seminar was particularly important in motivating the participants who will in turn motivate the clubs members whom they represent. The YMCA is using its club system to mobilise the masses in small scale industries such as beekeeping, which require little capital. This venture to promote beekeeping is intended to enable Uganda to become self-sufficient in honey as food and to sell beeswax and honey to earn foreign exchange. Efforts have been made through the relevant ministries to acquire financial and technical aid from CARE, which has given technical assistance and modern equipment.

Four major honey refinery plants have been set up at Nakasongola, Nalukolonga, Mbale and Soroti, and apiary demonstration firms are being established in Gulu, Lira, Arua, Nebbi, Kumi, Kitgum, Kasambya, Mbarara, Namanve, Masaka, Kamuli, Apach, Amuria and Tororo. CARE has established a central workshop at Njeru, Jinja to manufacture beehives and these will be obtainable through district veterinary officers and apiary extension workers.

(Elias Wabwire Muwesa, YMCA, Kampala)