Dear friends

Haiti is a Caribbean nation of 9 million people, sharing the island of Hispaniola with neighbouring Dominican Republic. According to United Nations data, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. On 12 January this year, Haiti suffered a catastrophic earthquake of magnitude 7.0, with the epicentre in the most populated part of the country, 25 km (16 miles) west of the capital city Port-au-Prince. Around 100,000 people lost their lives, while countless more were made homeless.

Our cover picture shows bee hives made from the hollow trunks of palm trees, and this is the way that beekeepers house their bees in Haiti. They have been successfully keeping bees this way for a long time, perhaps since Spanish or French explorers first introduced bees 500 years ago. Today, Haiti’s bee populations are apparently healthy, with empty hives readily occupied by bees from the wild honey bee population. You can read more about them on page 10.

Many people have expressed interest to send support to Haiti’s beekeepers, and we are pleased to join forces with Apimondia, the World Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations, to appeal for your support. Any funds that you can give will be sent direct to beekeepers in Haiti, to support them as they rebuild their lives. Please donate at this website: http://www.justgiving.com/Haitibeekeepers

Natural beekeeping

On page 3, David Heaf begins his two part explanation of bee-friendly beekeeping using the Warré hive. Astute readers will notice the great similarity between this hive, and the Japanese ‘box pile hive’ for keeping Apis cerana that was described in our previous edition. In fact, the fundamental concept on which Warré based his hive was not new and Abbé Warré himself acknowledged this: people in France, Germany, Russia, Sweden and UK had already developed hives along similar principles. Perhaps John Gedde was first, publishing a book in 1677 that described a frame hive, comprising a stack of boxes that could be extended by nadiring, i.e. adding new boxes underneath. The top of each box was covered except for a 100 mm square hole in the cover for passage of bees from one box to the next.

If after reading David Heaf’s article you feel encouraged to try Warré beekeeping, do let us know how you get on.

Haiti forms the western half of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola

© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/PAWEL GAUL