30th International Beekeeping Congress

The scientific programme at the Apimondia Congress was opened by Professor Ichiji Okada, founder of bee research at Tamagawa University. Prof. Okada concluded his paper by showing this colony of Apis cerana japonica in happy coexistence with Buddha: “an emblem of mutual prosperity”.

The 30th International Beekeeping Congress took place in Nagoya, Japan in October 1985. Apimondia is the International Federation of 65 Beekeeping Associations, and the Congress which it organises every two years is the largest international gathering of people concerned with beekeeping. The Congress is attended by beekeepers, scientists, manufacturers of equipment and those involved in trade of honey, wax and other hive products. The Congress therefore provides an excellent forum for the exchange of information within and between these groups.

This was the first time that the Congress had been held in Asia, and 1781 delegates attended the scientific venue of the Congress, 877 of these from countries other than Japan, while many more than this attended the Congress to participate in Apiexpo 85, the exhibition of beekeeping materials and a traditional meeting place for importers and exporters of the products of the honeybee.

The various aspects of apiculture have traditionally been represented at this Congress by six standing Commissions. These are Beekeeping Economy, Bee Biology, Bee Pathology, Melliferous Flora and Pollination, Beekeeping Technology and Equipment, and Apitherapy.

Of particular interest to Newsletter readers is that at the last Congress in 1983, a resolution was passed that a seventh Commission should be created, to deal specifically with apiculture in developing countries.

Japan was therefore the first Apimondia Congress at which a session was devoted entirely to beekeeping in developing countries. Papers describing a great range of experience of tropical beekeeping in Africa, Asia, South America and the Pacific were given at this session held on the final day of the Congress. It is hoped that this session will continue to grow in strength in subsequent years. Mr Bambang Sukartiko from Indonesia is the President of the Commission and other members include experts from Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Korea, Pakistan, Thailand and Tunisia, a representative from IBRA (myself), and a representative from FAO (Mr Paltrinieri).

Lectures

Because of the large number of papers submitted to the Congress, two sessions were run simultaneously throughout. The papers presented underlined many of the difficulties facing beekeeping today. Bee disease is of course one of the major problems, and this was reflected by the fact that the greatest number of papers were presented at the sessions concerned with bee pathology; 21 of these were alone concerned with Varroa disease. Of concern in some tropical countries is the greatly increased destruction of Apis dorsata colonies by honey hunters. Mr Sukartiko from Indonesia stated that this is a particular problem in his country, and described his work in promoting beekeeping with Apis cerana in hives. In the session on Beekeeping Economy, the modernization of methods of beekeeping for pollination were discussed, and beekeepers agreed that the value of beekeeping as employment-creating work is still underestimated in many countries. However, Japan represents one country in which the economic value of bees as pollinators and as honey producers is certainly well recognized. Each year over 100 000 colonies of Apis mellifera are used by Japanese farmers for pollination purposes alone. 75% of colonies used for pollination are for strawberry production in greenhouses; the introduction of honeybee colonies to greenhouses allows the strawberry season to commence in March rather than the traditional time of May. Apitherapy is always a popular subject at Apimondia Congresses, and in Japan there was much discussion of treatments combining apitherapy with acupuncture.

Beekeeping in Japan

The hive bee native to Japan is Apis cerana, but commercial beekeeping in Japan is with the introduced, western hive bee, Apis mellifera. Because both A. cerana and A. mellifera are present in Japan and because A. cerana is the native host of the mite Varroa jacobsoni, A. mellifera colonies in Japan are also infested with the mite. Japanese beekeepers routinely use both fumigation and smoke treatments to control the level of Varroa disease in A. mellifera. Japan has an intensive agriculture industry, and (as mentioned above) each year, in addition to honey production, many colonies are used for pollination purposes.

Hive used in Japan for Apis mellifera*. The construction on the front of the hive is to protect honeybees in the autumn from attacks by the giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia. Twenty hornets can seriously damage a colony of honeybees within two or three hours.

* Please see the original journal for images of hives used in Japan.