CAUCASIAN HONEYBEE WORKSHOP
Bees/vu1 Development
Journal 80
CAUCASIAN HONEY BEE WORKSHOP In
RPAN KANDEMIR
July 14-23 2006, Camili, Artvin, Turkey the Caucasus Region of North-east
Turkey, a remarkable project has been taking place. It has been planned to
PECTS)
conserve precious stocks of Caucasian honey bees (Apis mellifera caucasica). to provide people in this remote
northeast corner of Turkey with an excellent livelincod, and to support
held in Camiti
villagein Artvin, Turkey, in to consider the project and
its approach.
Apis mellifera caucasica: A caucasian queen with worker honey bees
Jorkshop began with field visits to Eastern Anatolia beekeeping sites, and the lectures and discussions were held in Macahel (Camili) village of Artvin Province. The honey bee selection, breeding and queen rearing programme has been carried out in Macahel since 1998.
Beekeeping in Turkey There are approximately 4.5 million bee colonies, 38,000 beekeepers and an annual honey production of 65,000 tonnes. Average honey production per colony is 17 kilograms. 75% of the colonies are owned by beekeepers that move colonies from one place to another as different plants come into flower. The queens of these colonies mate with local
drones, yielding natural cross-breeds of various kinds. The current commercial production of queen bees in Turkey is around 200,000 per year, however, the quality and the quantity of this production is insufficient. Before the advent of migratory beekeeping, regional honey bee races such as Apis mellifera anatolica, A. m. caucasica, A. m. syriaca, A. m. meda and A. m. carnica retained their original status. In addition, there were several local races depending on the floral diversity, such as Mug/a in the
specification
of
continues all summer, due to the
Social and economic structure
“
Region. The
in March and
300 families live
a
an
densely forested and abundant in nectar-rich, flowering plants. The mountains reach a summit of 3,415 m, and the lowest elevation is around different elevations: the most important honey plants are species of Castanea, Rhododenaron, Ribes, Salvia, Taraxacum, Tilia, and Trifolium.
outputs are proving successful. Researchers from several other countries were brought together at Workshop,
diseiiss
Camili Valley is 27,000 hectares in the north-eastern, mountainous region, close to Georgia. It is accessible only during summer months, as the roads are closed in winter because of avalanche danger. The land is
400 m. Flowering starts
beekeeping throughout Turkey by provision of queen bees. All three
July 2006,
The Artvin/Borgka/Camili Rural Development Project
those
isolated
veal
races
is still not
other hand, due to the high honey yield, migratory hoskoaners are now moving their colonies to those remote areas, thus resulting in
hybridization and even loss of those unique local races. Some of the commercially produced queen bees on the market are known as Apis mellifera caucasica although they are produced in the Mediterranean and Central Anatolia. The colonies used as mother colonies for grafting and the mating nucs are established for mating in areas where Apis mellifera caucasica \s not present, so the resultant queens are not pure Caucasian because the drones are coming from the surrounding region - which are not Caucasus honey bees.
Beekeeping on a large scale in the isolated Turkish valleys
in six villages within the valley. They have typically 0.5-1 hectare of land, one or two cows, and walnut, apple, pear and cherry trees to provide their home consumption. The average annual
income for a family here is $1,000.
Local style beekeeping In 1998, there were approximately 2,400 honey bee colonies within the valley. 50% of these were housed in local style, log hives made from the trunks of Linden trees (Tilia spp.) These hives were installed at the top of
trees to protect them from bears and other possible damage. The honey was harvested by climbing the trees. The other 50% of the colonies were kept beside the village houses. Some of these colonies are in local-style log hives. The average annual honey production from colonies in these
hives was approximately 25-30 kg. Currently, some exceptional colonies are producing annually
80-100 kg of honey.
Developing isolation During a study by Ahmet Inci in 1998, it was discovered that all colonies in the valley were of the pure Caucasian line, indicating that it is possible to produce and maintain pure line queens with natural mating in this area, and making a necessity to protect these pure colonies from
crossbreeding. A number of other researchers have proved the identity of these bees. In the surrounding areas, Caucasus honey bees were hybridized with the other races, due to the effect of migratory beekeeping. One reason why Camili valley is retaining its precious stocks is its isolation, preventing honey bee colony movements by man. Also, the
geographical barriers do not allow bees to fly over the high mountains to reach the valley. It was determined that the closest honey bee colonies on the Georgian side were more than 30 km away, so that it is unlikely that bees will reach this valley from Georgia. There was urgent necessity for conservation of this region for the sake of Turkey and for the
beekeepers. The TEMA Foundation began to take action to protect both the pure ine Caucasian bees and to protect other natural surroundings and habitats. It is now prohibited to either bring in or remove any bees or other biological materials from this valley.
