mize these problems. ey
FOMENTA APICOLA will establish a
laboratory at Muyurina to produce nucleus colonies, manufacture wax foundation, provide honey processing facilities, and give education and advice to beekeepers, and in addition, 40 beekeep-
WORLD ~4 44
24444
BERMUDA Honeybees are normally man’s best friend in the insect world. For one Island resident that relationship turned very sour recently when a swarm of honeybees killed 17 exotic birds in a private aviary in Bermuda. The owner fed and watered the birds as usual at 10.30 a.m. on July 20th. Everything appeared to be normal with his parakeets and cockatiels in their six large, outdoor cages. Two hours later, after being alerted by his son, he returned to find a horrible scene of dead and dying birds amidst a cloud of honeybees. Seven birds were already dead, ten more would die from their stings, and four others were stung but eventually recovered. As the Government Bee Inspector I visited the scene in an attempt to unravel the cause of this unfortunate incident and to determine if anything could be done to prevent it from happening again. Swarming is a normal part of honeybee biology in which an overcrowded colony divides itself in half and sends out several thousand bees to start a new colony in a new home. A large percentage of Bermuda’s five hundred managed colonies and probably most of our wild colonies send out a swarm every year during the months of May to July. Beekeepers capture many of these swarms and reintroduce them into hive boxes so that they can be managed for honey production. Many of the rest take up residence in hollow trees or similar cavities, sometimes including air vents in houses and other buildings. Except for the anxiety they cause home-owners, honeybee swarms are generally harmless. The bees have no brood and no honey stores to defend and are therefore reluctant to
sting. In this instance, a honeybee swarm decided to move into a bird’s nestbox. Made from a hollow cedar stump the nestbox was suspended six feet off the ground inside one of the cages in the aviary. The birds in the cage must have
4
become excited and, in their attempts to escape, set off a chain reaction in which the actions of the frantic birds excited and frightened the bees. Eventually birds in four adjacent cages were affected. Interestingly, the owner was able to enter the cages and remove injured birds without being stung himself. The swarm was eventually killed by spraying household Baygon into the nestbox. This incident does not indicate Bermuda has been invaded by the African race of honeybee (the so-called ‘‘killer bee’) which is now established in Central and South America. It was simply a freak occurrence in which bees chose a nesting site inside an aviary and were unable to avoid contact with the birds due to the confines of the cage. Though a reoccurrence would seem unlikely it could happen again and owners of valuable birds are advised to remove nestboxes from outdoor cages after the nesting season is over. (Daniel Hilburn, Monthly Bulletin of Department of Agriculture and Fisheries September 1986, Vol. 57 No. 9).
BOLIVIA A new beekeeping project, FOMENTA APICOLA has been started in Bolivia
this year, funded by the Santa Cruz
Development Corporation (CORDECRUZ) and Muyurina Agricultural College. Africanized bees have been present in Bolivia for many years and one of the main objectives of this project is to provide a continual supply of pure Italian and Caucasian queen bees to beekeepers to maintain populations of honeybees with Italian/Caucasian characteristics. These Italian/Caucasian bees living in an ‘Africanized’ subtropical environment may be susceptible to high Varroa infestation, elevated levels of robbing by wasps and Africanized bees, and ‘piracy’ i.e. the invasion of hives by Africanized swarms. The project plans to develop and adapt management techniques to mini-
ing subcentres will be established throughout the Santa Cruz Department. (C. J. H. Pruett, Britanica Cordecruz).
INDIA Thai sacbrood disease of the Asian hive bee Apis cerana, caused by Thai sacbrood
virus, appeared in the Jammu region of the State of Jammu and Kashmir early during 1985. By the end of 1985 the disease had reached all beekeeping pockets of the region, killing around 99% of all Apis cerana colonies. Apis mellifera colonies were not infected. The first incidence of the disease in Kashmir was in the Anantage valley in May 1986, and it has since been detected at Srinagar. The identity of the Thai sacbrood virus has been confirmed by Dr Brenda Ball of Rothamsted Experimental Station, UK. (F. A. Shah, Kashmir).
INDIA Successful establishment of the Western hive bee, Apis mellifera, in Northern India has given a boost to apicultural development in the country. Nevertheless, information on melliferous forage is lacking. Keeping this in view, scientists of the Horticulture and Forestry University in Himachal Pradesh at Solan, India have started extensive work on nectar sugar evaluation of bee forage and pollination of horticultural crops. Many melliferous species have already been evaluated for their honey potential. Autumn is generally a dearth period in plain areas but in submountaneous regions a second honey crop can be harvested from Plectranthus and wild cherry, Prunus puddum. Plectranthus (Fam. labiatae) was earlier reported not to be used by A. mellifera but now it has been unequivocally proved that A. mellifera gathers good amounts of nectar from this source. Very recently, private beekeepers who migrated their colonies to be near Plectranthus have harvested an average 45Kg of white honey per colony with a maximum of
110Kg per colony. (Jitender Kumar Gupta).
PAKISTAN A
beekeeping project for Afghan refugees has been underway in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan since September 1983. The scheme is run with
