Bees for Development Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
JOURNAL
No 138 APRIL 2021
• TOP-BAR STARTERS • EXCELLENT DEVELOPMENT • BEE SHEPHERD • TREATMENT-FREE BEEKEEPING
The Journal for sustainable beekeeping 1
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
Dear friends Welcome to this first edition of Bees for Development Journal that comes to you in digital reader format. Let us know how you find it.
and we need to address them fast. It seems hard for people to know how each might help address gigantic problems – in fact, readers of this Journal know that our bees provide a wonderful way to help people and at the same time help to address these tremendous challenges ahead.
We bring you an example of truly excellent beekeeping development work underway in Ghana – this is exactly what a good beekeeping project should look like. And we bring you beekeepers’ views: – commercial beekeeper David Wainwright likens his highly successful apiaries here in UK and in Africa, to being like a shepherd of the bees. David Heaf – who, by translating Abbé Warré’s book into English, made Warré’s People’s hive well known and widely used beyond francophone nations, presents the reasons why treatment-free beekeeping has to be the way forward.
It is time to widen our view of bees, and of beekeepers, beyond producers of honey, and consider bees and their keepers as ecosystem restoration agents. Honey is simply a delicious and valuable by-product created as bees help to recreate ecosystems and remove carbon – can you think of anything more sustainable and life enhancing than beekeeping? All the beekeepers featured in this edition will agree! Scroll on to find all our usual beekeeping news worldwide and book reviews. And do get in touch if you would like to comment on anything you read here.
We are at the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: an urgent call from the UN for recovery. The aim is to restore 350 million hectares of land by the end of the decade – which would remove between 13 and 26 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere.
All the best to you and your ecosystem restoration workers!
A year ago, we saw the pandemic coming, yet could not imagine what it would mean for each of us. So we do need now to be far more imaginative – climate change and loss of biodiversity are already arriving
Nicola Bradbear, Director, Bees for Development
April 2021
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Practical Beekeeping – A simple way to make starter strips for top-bars ................... 3
Bees for Development Works to assist beekeepers in developing countries.
In this issue
page
Successful beekeeping development – beekeeping brings hope near Digya National Park in Ghana ........... 5 The Shepherds of the Bees...... 8 Sweetness of Sidr ...................10 Uses of chemicals and why we stop using them ................11 News ......................................15 Look Ahead............................16 Book Shelf ..............................17 Bee Connect ..........................18 Bees for Development Journal Produced quarterly and sent to readers in over 130 countries Editor: Nicola Bradbear PhD Co-ordinator: Helen Jackson BSc Subscriptions cost £30 per year – see page 17 for ways to pay
Bees for Development Trust gratefully acknowledge: Alan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust, Artemis Charitable Trust, Bees for Development North America, Briogeo, Charles Hayward Foundation, Didymus Charity, E H Thorne (Beehives) Ltd, Ethiopiaid, Euromonitor International, Healing Herbs, Hiscox Foundation, National Lottery Community Fund UK, Neal’s Yard Remedies, Nelsons Homeopathic Pharmacy, NPT Transatlantic, Rowse Honey Ltd, UK Aid Direct, Wales and Africa, Waterloo Foundation, Welsh Government,Yasaeng Beekeeping Supplies and many other generous organisations and individuals. Copyright: You are welcome to translate and/or reproduce items appearing in Bees for Development Journal as part of our Information Service. Permission is given on the understanding that the Journal and author(s) are acknowledged, our contact details are provided in full, and you send us a copy of the item or the website address where it is used.
Bees for Development
Image © Milan Wiercx van Rhijn
Issue 138
Cover picture: A honey bee collects pollen from Prunus sp in France. This is one of the early blooms – when the wind rushes past it blows the blossoms away and it looks like it is snowing.
1 Agincourt Street, Monmouth NP25 3DZ, UK Tel: +44 (0)1600 714848 info@beesfordevelopment.org www.beesfordevelopment.org 2
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING
A simple way to make beeswax starter strips for top-bars Janet Lowore, Programme Manager, Bees for Development Top-bar bee hives are designed to be bee hives in which the beekeeper can lift the bees’ combs from the hive and replace them, i.e. they are moveable-comb hives. It is ideal if the combs within a top-bar hive can be handled individually, without causing them to break. However, as anyone who has used top-bar hives knows, this is not always the case. Sometimes bees build their combs in a curve or in a wavy pattern and once they start doing that – it is hard to correct. There are several tips and tricks which beekeepers can employ to
encourage bees to build straight combs, with one comb on one bar. Making sure the width of the bar is correct is essential: this means 35mm wide for European Apis mellifera honey bees, and 32mm wide for African Apis mellifera honey bees. It is also useful to provide the bees with a guide down the middle of each bar: this can be a ridge, a groove, a point, or a starter strip of beeswax. In this article we demonstrate how to make a simple starter strip of beeswax on a top-bar, even if the bar itself has no guiding features.
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After soaking remove the guide bar from the water and align it, length-ways along a top-bar making a right angle all the way along. Hold the two pieces together very firmly with a slight tilt downwards and then rotate so that the guide piece is somewhere between vertical and horizontal.
Take a piece of wood, such as a spare top-bar, and soak it in a bucket of water. This is your guide bar.
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Take a pan of molten beeswax and carefully pour beeswax on to the wet guide piece and into the groove created where the two pieces meet.
Continue pouring until you have created a thin layer of beeswax all the way along the guide piece but touching the top-bar. 3
Photos © Bees for Development
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
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Wait for a few seconds for the beeswax to set. Note that sometimes the beeswax that settles where the two bars meet can take longer to harden. Do not be tempted to remove the guide bar until you are sure all the beeswax has hardened, otherwise the strip will come away from the top-bar.
Hold the bar very still and firmly with one hand. With the other hand gently pull the guide bar away from the beeswax strip. The two should separate quite easily leaving a beeswax strip protruding from the top bar.
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All done! Carefully put your bar with beeswax strip to one side and move on to the next one. When you have enough, take them to your hive and put them into position. If all goes to plan your bees will use the strip as a guide on which to build a nice straight comb.
The final stages are completed by the bees! As this image shows a starter strip can help ensure you end up with straight combs
All images were taken in the UK using European top-bar dimensions and British Apis mellifera honey bees. The method can be replicated anywhere.
Protecting remaining tropical rainforest is critical to mitigating climate change. Tropical rainforests are the most important ecosystems for mitigating climate change, yet they are increasingly destroyed for agricultural expansion. Of the world’s three largest tropical rainforests (the Amazon, Congo River basin and Southeast Asia) only the Congo rainforest has enough standing forest left to remain
a strong net carbon sink. This forest sequesters 600 million tonnes more carbon dioxide per year than it emits (equivalent to one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions from all transportation in the USA). Source www.wri.org/blog/2021/01 4
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
SUCCESSFUL BEEKEEPING DEVELOPMENT!
Beekeeping brings hope near Digya National Park in Ghana Kwame Aidoo, Director, Bees for Development Ghana; Giacomo Ciriello, Project Manager, Bees for Development and Isaac Mbroh, Apiculture Development Coordinator, Bees for Development Ghana One problem that dampens the potential for beekeeping to lift people out of poverty across rural Africa is that training is often delivered in the context of micro aid projects. These projects target community groups whose headcount is limited by how much money there is in the budget to purchase hives. They do not cast their net wide enough to engage nearby people who already have an interest in, and knowledge of honey bees. They commonly have inadequate resources and expertise, do not reach areas that can support extensive beekeeping, and rarely generate enough produce and momentum to build the sustainable value chains that deliver strong livelihoods and unlock opportunities. Yet the right people, in the right place, with the right knowledge and skills, can achieve great results – starting with as little as a bundle of green palm fronds. This is the story in Afram Plains in eastern Ghana. Here Photos © Isaac Mbroh and TSL Films
Gideon, a master beekeeper trained by BfD Ghana, carries a Borassus palm hive to its siting place (Abomasarefu)
Participants weaving a palm frond hive at the workshop in Hwanyanso 5
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
across 740 villages were displaced as the Volta basin flooded following the completion of the Akosombo Dam in 1965. A concerted but hurried effort was made to offer everyone a new home, developing the Afram Plains area.
Not suited for all
The settlements that were built did not suit everyone. People who depended on the river and surrounding forests had the hardest time adapting. Farmers were encouraged to embrace ‘modern’ high-input agriculture – which hardly ever lived up to its promises. Some families moved away from the dwellings assigned to them, and resettled closer to the lake, sometimes on the islands within it. The gazetting of the Digya National Park led to further forced evictions from the 1980s onwards, the latest of which were in 2006. During the first workshops we ran in the settlements on the fringes of the Park, we listened to personal stories of people who had to leave their homes and the difficulties they experienced people in accessing basic services and securing a living. Education, health services and commerce are concentrated in Donkorkrom. Markets for export commodities are fickle, and land converted to plantations is no longer available for local people to grow food. Young men leave the area to work as labourers elsewhere, but have returned after losing their jobs due to Covid-19. Cash is lacking, and people are ready to earn some in a way that is legal and wholesome – and which does not require cash input.
Grace Mensah hollowing out a Borassus palm trunk at the workshop in Nsogyaso we share encouraging news from the latest workshops on hive making and harvesting from bees in March 2021. Isaac Mbroh counted 202 people becoming involved. Some had come from as far as 30km away. Over the past two years, at least 586 new beekeepers across the district have been learning with Bees for Development (BfD) Ghana. They have woven or carved more than 1,000 beehives and many are already getting honey money - fixing their roof, and telling a friend. The word is spreading, and we have been asked to start our training courses in another nine locations.
We cannot say that people are just in it for the money. Those attending our Workshops know the value of honey and have seen many colonies of wild bees during their childhood.
Know how, bee hopeful
The experience here tells us something about the choice ingredients for stirring up a beekeeping movement that revitalises communities which have been pushed to the margins.
Honey hunters are often the best beekeeping trainees – they already know where the bees nest, on what plants they forage, and are very adept at making hives and tools out of natural materials available locally. They are not afraid of being stung and never have trouble selling honey – unless they get trouble from officers who suspect they obtained it illegally. People who already have experience with bees become independent beekeepers faster, and are more likely to mentor and help others who are starting out.
Life at the margins of Digya National Park There is a long history of conflict between authorities and local people accused of encroaching into the Park. BfD Ghana first came here in 2019 following reports of confrontations between Park rangers and honey hunters. Protecting what is in the Park, depends on supporting local people to make a good living, benefitting sustainably from natural resources.
Where there is an abundance of thriving bees,
Digya National Park was protected as a wildlife reserve in 1971 with the immediate purpose of stabilising Lake Volta and a long-term view to develop the area for tourism. The Park comprises many small islands in the lake and extends over 3,500km2 from its western shores into forests and savannah grasslands. It is a haven for biodiversity: over 300 species of birds, six species of primates plus elephants, gazelles, manatees, otters – and more still to discover. The only zoological survey conducted in the area during the early 1990s has been lost. The Park has not seen tourists or biologists over the past 50 years partly because of the troubled history of nearby human settlement. Lake Volta is the largest artificial reservoir in the world. At least 80,000 people
Kwame and Gideon, suited and booted, talk through their beekeeping work 6
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
Harvesting from a Borassus palm hive beekeeping can be as simple as providing safe nesting sites for them to move into, and harvesting honeycomb some months later. There is no need for regular inspections, feeding or treating. Kwame, Isaac and Gideon – the BfD Ghana team delivering the training sessions – focus at first on teaching people how to make fixed comb hives. Borassus palm is plentiful and hollowed sections of the trunk make very robust and thermally insulated cavities for bees to nest inside. Green palm fronds can also be used to weave cylindrical hives. Palm fibre makes excellent smoker fuel. If people master the skills needed to build their own hives, it is in their own hands to set up new apiaries and scale up their beekeeping. We provide only basic equipment to allow for safe and clean harvesting.
as a collection and sales centre in Donkorkrom. We are developing the traceability system with help from Max Rünzel, an expert in technological solutions for integrating smallholders in agricultural value chains. We know from experience that the single most important thing we must do to sustain the momentum and people’s enthusiasm is to ensure that there are people ready to buy honey. We also know from experience that it will take several iterations and more training workshops, over at least two years, before we can say supply chains are fully established and sustainable.
Forest guardians We are working so that Park rangers can join in helping people to start beekeeping, offering them alternatives to illegal livelihood activities. We have signed an agreement with the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, who have seconded wildlife officials to train with our staff, recognising the big contribution that beekeeping can make to conservation efforts. Beekeepers are forest guardians - they protect their bees from bushfires, and nurture trees that offer bees forage and habitat. Beekeepers are wealthier and healthier farmers – optimal pollination results in more and better crops and keeping bees incentivises organic, biodiversity-friendly practices. As this becomes recognised, people selling honey at Donkorkrom market are no longer being harassed under the assumption they hunted it illegally in the Park. This fills us with hope that this emerging beekeeping movement will help to mend relations between Park authorities and communities, securing a future where bees, trees and people’s chances in life grow together.
Buckets of honey Beyond hive making, learning about honey bee biology and nutrition is important to catch swarms and schedule harvests, and harvesting safely is also a key aspect for training. We must keep our word that there will be someone to buy the buckets of honeycomb stacking up. We are focusing on setting up bulking and processing facilities and building relationships with buyers. As we do, further training will be needed to ensure beekeepers have all the information they need to meet food safety and quality standards. Meanwhile we are gearing up to pilot an innovative, low-cost traceability system which will allow us to target our efforts and ensure consistent, efficient and sustainable supply chains. There is a lot of work to do, and we are fortunate that many people are rallying to help. Stella Adenyo already runs a successful business, trading organic natural products. She will rent us a place to function 7
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
The Shepherds of the Bees David Wainwright, Tropical Forest Products Ltd, Aberystwyth, UK In these three articles I will show that it is possible to produce good honey crops without invasive colony management if a good strong generation of young stock is produced every year. I will use production data from my own hives to demonstrate the results achieved. Although I am using frame hives these methods can be applied as well to fixed comb, local style hives with the same large honey crops harvested.
David Wainwright is a commercial beekeeper with over 1,500 colonies across 100 apiaries in the UK. In addition to beekeeping, David runs a highly successful business, marketing his own honey and hundreds of tonnes of honey and beeswax imported every year from Africa. David supplies this honey to Marks & Spencers and other major retailers in UK. David knows much about beekeeping in Africa, having lived and worked in Zambia since the 1980s, and has collaborated with Bees for Development on several projects over the years. David agrees with Bees for Development’s view that frame hives never function well in tropical Africa.
Well-made hives
I first started my bee farm in the UK in 1977 with a few old bee hives from under a thorn hedge that I managed to buy cheaply. It has grown to 1,500 honey bee colonies, still expanding every year, with all those old hives even now in use today - they were very wellmade!
This is the first of three articles in which David discusses his approach to making good business from beekeeping.
Over the years my methods have grown simpler as I have found that bees thrive best when left to manage themselves without beekeepers thinking they know best and interfering too much. With our simple methods we produce large crops of honey, compared to many other bee farmers using more intensive management techniques. We produce an average of 42kg honey from our colonies compared with the 20kg average1 for UK professional beekeepers. The average crop of the bee farmers participating in our Knowledge Exchange Group2 is 35kg. We think of our so-called ‘modern’ frame hive beekeeping as a rational and more productive improvement from the old fashioned, simple and apparently inefficient methods of previous generations. We assume that our ‘modern’ hives produce far larger crops than these previous generations with their simple fixed comb hives. But over the years I have come to doubt this assumption which seems to be based on little recorded evidence of the productivity of the earlier methods. Unfortunately, in Europe very little was recorded before the ancient straw skep hives were swept away to be replaced by frame hives.
Good yields
Photos © David Wainwright
The skep beekeepers were practical farmers, they were too busy to write books, with one exception: A. Pettigrew who recorded honey production from skeps in his Scottish village of Carluke around 1875, where colonies were producing on average about 43kg of liquid honey per year, with exceptional hives reaching 75kg. These crops would have been amongst the best achieved in those days I suspect, and there are few UK frame hive beekeepers today who exceed these figures. African beekeepers using large log hives in favoured locations, for example south-west Ethiopia, also produce around 40kg. It seems to me that the crop of honey is not related to the type of hive: similar good crops can be achieved from all types of hives, what is important is to nurture strong healthy colonies of bees. Production per frame hive managed by professional beekeepers currently in the UK is about 20kg per year: 8
An expert Ethiopian beekeeper. This large hive will support a colony with high bee numbers capable of building a large crop. The beekeeper can carefully crop part of the honeycombs several times a year: they work gently to minimise stress to the colony. They expect around 40kg per hive, similar to my frame hives in the UK
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
probably not a lot higher than from the old straw skeps. In addition, the health of the modern bee population is poor, the genetic diversity is low and the total number of colonies in the country has declined.
typically about three times per year. Avoiding stress is also important for cattle. For example, cattle stressed by poor handling will lose growth rate, while happy cows will produce more. So many farms now are incorporating features designed purely to reduce stress and give the cattle a feeling of wellbeing. I try to make sure that my young colonies (nucs) have everything that they need during their period of rapid growth in the first weeks of their life. The first weeks of a calf’s life are critical, it must have colostrum within six hours and if it grows fast it will grow to become a productive cow with a high milk yield. It will produce more milk over its lifetime than a cow that started life as a calf struggling to find food.
I have concluded that the ancient, fixed comb hives of Europe and Africa have some advantages over movable comb hives which can enable a healthy and vigorous stock of bee colonies to be established over successive years. This is not to do with the management of the bee colonies by the beekeeper: it is due to how the beekeeper provides the bees with the resources they need to grow unhindered and maintain their vitality. I have tried to incorporate these features into the management of my own bee farm. The results measured in kilograms of honey produced per hive have been encouraging: better than many highly managed colonies and less labour intensive.
If year after year the stock of bees is well cared for, in a way that minimises stress, then each successive generation starts from a slightly better position than the last and the improvements build upon each other, generation by generation. In this way a strong healthy stock of colonies is built up, well fitted to the management techniques of the beekeeper and the environment around them. I have noticed that each beekeeper has slightly different stocks of bees, even if they are using similar queens.
Well cared for will thrive In fixed comb hives the colony is not manipulated for routine examinations, swarm control, requeening etc, this avoids stress which can have long term detrimental effects on the colony. Instead, the beekeeper concentrates on providing the developing colonies with a secure home and plenty of food, like a shepherd caring for the new season’s lambs.
When I started out on my bee farming career I worked as an apprentice to a famous bee farmer, David Rowse and I read every book on the subject I could find. David Rowse and all the authors of the bee books aimed to keep every one of their colonies in a peak of honey gathering performance by managing the colony, which meant opening each colony every 10 days for an inspection, various manipulations to prevent swarming and replacing the queen every two years. In contrast I only open a colony three times a year and rely on harnessing the natural vigour of the bee colony when it is left alone to develop through its life cycle over 3-4 years.
There are many parallels between this approach to beekeeping and successful practices in livestock farming, which includes modern methods based on scientific studies as well as methods of bygone generations based on astute observation and experience. I try to reduce stress to my colonies by opening the hive only when it is necessary, which is
Bark hive beekeeper shepherds
I first started to question my beekeeping education when I worked in north-west Zambia in the 1980s. I had been sent there to train beekeepers in frame hive beekeeping, so I established several apiaries of frame hives. After a lot of effort transferring swarms out of bark hives I had about 100 colonies, but these bees failed to thrive and produced very little honey. To make sure forage was adequate I situated my hives in the villages where bark hive beekeepers were producing plenty of honey. The bees in the bark hives were thriving but the bees in the frame hives were struggling to survive. After a couple of years, I gave up on frame hives and concentrated on trying to understand what the bark hive beekeepers were doing right. What I found was that the bark hive beekeepers worked like “shepherds of bees”, they have a flock of hives which consists of young growing stock in their first year and productive stock in their second and third year which will be cropped at the end of the season. The young ones, which are growing rapidly, will be next year’s honey producers. Second and third year hives are the productive stock which will be cropped this season. These beekeepers did little to manage individual hives, but they managed their whole flock
Jaam Mamayami with honey from his bark hives. I have imported this honey from the same Zambian beekeepers and their descendants for over 30 years. It is sold throughout the UK and has won many awards for its outstanding taste, for example Great Taste Awards 3 Stars 9
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
Sweetness of Sidr According to the Qur’an a lone Sidr tree, Ziziphus spina-Christi or jujube, marks the highest boundary of heaven. On earth, amid the harshness of the Yemeni desert, the sweetness of Sidr honey is cherished as a symbol of perseverance. Yemen has long been renowned for producing some of the best honey in the world. Some of the highest quality comes from bees fed exclusively on the flowers of the Sidr, producing a pale coloured honey with a fiery, almost bitter aftertaste.
“It does not matter who is commanding a checkpoint. They see the beehives in the back of the truck, and we do not have to stop long. Even the Houthis are afraid of bees,” said Said al-Aulaqi. An estimated 100,000 small-scale beekeepers harvest 1,580 tonnes of honey a year, of which 840 tonnes is exported (2020 UN report). Sidr honey sells for up to US$500 (€420) a kilogram in neighbouring Gulf states. Honey connoisseurs maintain that Yemeni honey deserves a global market, but decades of political instability have meant turbulent growth and limited outside reach.
Keen to improve food stability and bring money into the country, the government has identified honey as a key sector for expansion. Aulaqi has kept bees for 10 years, after learning his trade from his uncle. He lost his entire livelihood in 2015, after the Houthis moved into Shabwa and blocked the road to neighbouring Abyan- his bees died after running out of water. It took two years to restart with 300 hives purchased for YER2m (US$8,000; €6,720). Today Aulaqi’s hives are scattered around Shabwa’s mountains, desert and coastal plain, depending on the season. Source www.theguardian.com/ world/2021
The Sidr tree Ziziphus spina-Christi
Photos © Dov Grobgeld (Wikipedia)
While the war has made travel difficult, closing off many roads, for beekeepers, life is much
the same: they are some of the only people in Yemen who can traverse frontlines with ease, moving around every few months searching flowers for their bees.
of hives, each hive in an age group would get the same treatment. They tried to utilise the vigour of a swarm that has newly occupied a hive and is building white comb at a phenomenal rate. There were very few colonies which stayed in hives for years, as a bark hive only lasts 4-5 years, so most colonies were starting in a clean fresh hive. This is very similar to how skep beekeeping was practised in the UK before the advent of the frame hive.
References
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1.
National Honey Monitoring Scheme, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. https://www.ceh.ac.uk/
2.
Knowledge Exchange Group (a UK Bee Farmers Association Initiative with seed funding from the Waterloo Foundation. Six bee farmers who agree to share performance data on a transparent and confidential basis, measuring and comparing farm outputs and costs, thereby learning from each other’s achievements and mistakes)
3.
Espregueira Themudo,G.; Rey-Iglesia,A.; Robles Tascón,L. et al. Declining genetic diversity of European honeybees along the twentieth century. Sci Rep 10, 10520 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67370-2
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
Uses of chemicals and why we stop using them
I have archived dozens of papers relating to this harm, with the possible intention of writing a review. With the inclusion of ‘plant protectants’, there seems to be more research done these days on bee poisoning than on their natural history, presumably due to the kind of projects that will get government and industry funding. But I recently found that the job of reviewing the deliberate poisoning by beekeepers has already been done for me by Erik Tihelka (2018) who reported on 140 scientific papers concerning the wide-ranging effects on bee health and behaviour of synthetic and organic acaricides. Some of these effects are more subtle, such as on learning behaviour, colony strength and longevity.
David Heaf, Criccieth, UK
The main idea behind my book Treatment-Free Beekeeping is that all chemicals aimed at poisoning the target organism, most commonly Varroa, circumvent natural selection, thereby postponing the coadaptation of the honey bee with that organism, a process involving natural selection. This is discussed in greater depth in the book.
Chemicals and microbiomes
Tihelka also includes effects on the bee gut microbiome. The gut microbiome overwhelmingly dominates the whole bee microbiome and plays a role in metabolism, immune function, growth and development, and protection against pathogens. The honey bee microbiome is stabilised by propolis , and the colony’s propolis envelope promotes beneficial bacteria in the bee’s mouthpart microbiome, reducing pathogenic or opportunistic microbes and promoting the proliferation of putatively beneficial microbes. In view of these findings, upsetting the hive’s chemical balance by inserting, spraying in or pouring in acaricides looks very much like throwing a spanner in the works. However, even without apicultural poisons, it appears that the honey bee microbiome is somewhat compromised in agricultural environments compared with pristine environments, an example of the latter being an Adriatic island.
Photo © David Heaf
Chemicals used as acaricides (miticides) are in various degrees damaging to bee health. This applies as much to the commonly used organic acids and essential oils as to synthetic compounds such as pyrethroids. Acaricides variously harm drones, queens and workers throughout their development. Over the past 10 years,
A Warré hive apiary in a field corner. Two untreated colonies; the one on the left is over 10 years old at the time of writing. (My colonies are never artificially requeened) 11
Photo © Rüdi Ritter
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
Ron Hoskins examining mesh floor debris for Varroa, damaged mites and pupal antennae. Ron has kept bees untreated for over 20 years, and selects for Varroa resistance with the help of the method illustrated Another feature of using chemicals is that pests and pathogens can develop metabolic pathways that detoxify the chemicals so that those organisms become resistant to them. As far as I know there is not yet any sign of Varroa resistance to thymol or organic acid acaricides, but resistance to the synthetic pyrethroids has long been documented. Also, with their short generation times, bacteria can rapidly develop antibiotic resistance.
boxes harvested from the top. I have seen only one case that was very likely due to Nosema, evidenced by bee faeces at the hive entrance, and that was in spring in a relatively weak colony in a National hive, which was the type I used before my switch to Warré hives in 2007. Oxytetracycline (Terramycin®) antibiotic is permitted for the treatment of American and European foul brood (EFB) in the USA, subject to the production of a veterinary feed directive, a legal authorisation for antibiotics to be given to animals in feed. It may be used in the UK for EFB, although its use is less common now that shook swarming of infected colonies has been found to be more effective in the long-term. Cultivating bacterial resistance to oxytetracycline through its use in apiculture risks reducing its usefulness in human medicine.
Increase in treatment
For Varroa, it is reported that the amount of treatment needed has increased steadily from 1980 onwards. Initially treatment (in the UK) was in winter only, then in late summer and possibly also in winter, then in late summer and definitely again in winter, and now spring, late summer and winter. These days, beekeepers are told to rotate use of acaricides, even reverting to synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphorus compounds, to keep ahead of Varroa, which, due to its short generation time, can rapidly develop resistance.
Chalkbrood
A common brood disease that probably every beekeeper has seen is chalkbrood, caused by the fungus Ascosphera apis. There is no chemical treatment for it. In my experience, when it comes it goes rather quickly, especially in spring, and never seriously impacts my colonies. A warm, dry and sunny hive site and good nutrition should help avoid it. In bad cases the advised treatment is requeening.
For the treatment of Nosema, the antibiotic Fumidil-B is available in the USA, but its use is not permitted in most of the EU or UK, very likely due to its genotoxicity in cytogenetic tests in vitro and in vivo. Some nonchemical ways of minimising the risk of Nosema, include a sheltered, dry and sunny hive site with a south facing entrance, minimising sugar syrup feeding, and ensuring a good rate of comb replacement should help avoid this disease of adult bees. Comb replacement is built-in to Warré hive management because new boxes are nadired* under the brood nest and honey
The honey bee tracheal mite Acarapis woodi was once a serious threat to apiculture in the UK, but the infestation rapidly receded to the extent that it no longer required treatments. It spread to the USA from 1980 onwards, but has since subsided considerably there too, possibly partly due to the use of acaricides for Varroa. However, it could return, especially if Varroa treatment with organic acids is stopped. The approved chemicals for
* Nadiring means placing empty boxes under the brood nest 12
Photo © David Heaf
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
David Junker’s trough (horizontal) hives made of bentwood and reeds. David is a treatment-free beekeeper in southern Germany. He can be contacted via his website: kleine-holzbiegerei.de treating it are based on formic acid or menthol. The sudden upsurge of heavy colony losses in the UK at the beginning of the 20th century attributed to Acarapis, followed by the rapid decline in losses, suggests that honey bees can quickly develop resistance to mites. After the appearance of naturally Varroa-resistant honey bee populations around the world, the same appears to apply to Varroa.
ingredient of mothballs, to protect my supers’ combs during winter storage. I bought a kilo from my beekeeping equipment supplier and stored it in the plastic bag in which it came, inside a metal tin with a not very tight-fitting lid. But I was discouraged from using it by its unpleasant smell, and therefore doubted it would be good for comb intended to store honey. Therefore, it sat in its tin for decades until one day I came upon the tin, empty but for a sealed polythene bag with a paradichlorobenzene label on it. Over the years, the entire kilo had sublimed through the bag! Later I realised that wax moth does not bother with combs that have not had brood in and are stored outdoors, accessible to spiders but not to mice. As regards empty brood combs left unprotected, for example not deep frozen for 48 hours to kill the moth’s eggs and then stored in a sealed bag, the moth is the organism that ends the natural cycle of the honey bee nest, reducing it to dust somewhat like compost, and freeing up the enclosure for re-occupancy and new build by a swarm.
Small hive beetle
As control of the small hive beetle (SHB) Aethina tumida is largely ineffective with chemicals, the matter of doing without poisoning them hardly arises. Colony management, cultural practices such as minimising hive opening to avoid attracting the beetle, beetle traps integrated into the hive floor (for example Beetletra), and hive entrance devices, will all help healthy colonies control the beetle. The trap can contain oil to stop the trapped beetles escaping. As with wax moth, combs that are not fully ‘policed’ by the bees, can offer a breeding environment for the beetle, so a high bee-tocomb ratio is clearly advantageous. Several excellent publications exist on dealing with SHB, a pest which at the time of writing had not reached the UK but had already spread as far as southern Italy. Australian endemic bees have fascinating defence behaviours against SHB. There is some evidence that Apis mellifera also has such abilities and can entomb SHB. Choice of hive type may also help minimise SHB proliferation. For example, the Warré hive, due to its lack of frames, has a very reduced content of internal woodenware, and therefore offers fewer places for the beetle to hide.
Medication accumulation
Another matter of concern regarding hive medications is their accumulation in beeswax, honey and other hive products. Beekeepers seem to be their own worst enemy in this respect, although even if they stopped putting chemicals in their hives, there would still be the problem of the agrochemical residues which turn up in beeswax. A further factor to consider is the ecological footprint of treating with chemicals, and their possible environmental impact. Chemicals must be manufactured in factories and distributed. Taking as an example Germany, a country in which colony
When I started beekeeping, I was advised by my mentor to get some paradichlorobenzene, an 13
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
References
registration and treatment of Varroa infestation are compulsory, there is estimated to be about one million colonies. If all were treated only once a year with a popular formic acid treatment for Varroa, namely MAQS (strips), based on the recommendation to use two strips per hive, each containing 68.2 g formic acid, that would amount to over 120 tonnes of formic acid, a contributor to acid rain, being released into the atmosphere each year in Germany. Comparing that figure with the estimated global release of formic acid from formicine ants of 600,000 tonnes, happily the contribution from German apiculture seems small, although the contribution from apiculture globally might be more significant. Added to that is the use of oxalic acid in winter, and there is the considerable weight of plastic packaging that must be disposed of.
1.
Heaf, D. (2021) Treatment-Free Beekeeping. Northern Bee Books, Mytholmroyd, UK.
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Tihelka, E. (2018) Effects of synthetic and organic acaricides on honeybee health: A review. Slov Vet Res 55(2): 119-40. DOI 10.26873/SVR-422-2017.
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Raymann K. & Moran, N. A. (2018) The role of the gut microbiome in health and disease of adult honey bee workers. Curr Opin Insect Sci. April; 26: 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2018.02.012.
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Saelao, P., Borba, R. S., Ricigliano, V., Spivak, M. & Simone-Finstrom M. (2020) Honeybee microbiome is stabilized in the presence of propolis. Biol. Lett. 16: 20200003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0003.
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Dalenberg, H., Maes, P., Mott, B., Anderson, K. E. & Spivak, M. (2020) Propolis Envelope Promotes Beneficial Bacteria in the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Mouthpart Microbiome. Insects 11, 453. DOI:10.3390/insects11070453.
6. in honey bee bacterial diversity and composition in agricultural and pristine environments – a field study. Apidologie https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-020-00779-w 7.
Finally, the economic incentive not to treat with chemicals is worth considering. Firstly, there is the time spent treating, and therefore a cost of labour. The hobby beekeeper would be unlikely to cost this in to their beekeeping, but the sideliner, the beekeeper who earns part of their total income through beekeeping, might do so.
(Apis mellifera L). Apidologie 26, 291-296. https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:19950403. 8.
9.
the Bees’ conference, Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria, April. https:// youtu.be/VSyZzD7itdo. Slides: https://www.global2000.at/sites/global/files/ Pr%C3%A4sentation%20-%20Dr.%20Wolfgang%20RITTER.pdf. https://www.mannlakeltd.com/Fumidil-B-25-g?list=Category%20Listing.
10. https://britishbeevets.com/nosema/.
From Chapter 1 of Treatment Free Beekeeping by David Heaf. Published by IBRA and NBB (2021)
11. http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=9837_ VM0139_EVID_4_final_report.pdf. 12. https://britishbeevets.com/foulbrood/. 13.
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Gone? But not for Good. https://bee-health.extension.org/honey-bee-trachealmites-gone-but-not-for-good/. Biology, Testing and Propagation. BBKA News Special Issue Series August 2020.
15. Managing Small Hive Beetles (2019) Bee Health. https://bee-health.extension.org/managing-small-hive-beetles/ 16. Halcroft, M., Spooner-Hart, R., Neumann, P. (2011) Behavioral defense strategies of the stingless bee, Austroplebeia australis, against the small hive beetle. Insectes Sociaux 58: 245-253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-0100142-x. http://www.aussiebee.com.au/abol-012.html. 17. Simone-Finstrom, M. & Spivak, M. (2010) Propolis and bee health: the natural history and significance of resin use by honey bees. Apidologie 41 295–311. DOI:10.1051/apido/2010016. 18. Malfroy, T. email to warrebeekeeping@yahoogroups.co.uk, 18 August 2010. 19.
Also by David Heaf: Natural beekeeping with the Warré hive and The Bee Friendly Beekeeper: a sustainable approach
Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9754. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0009754. http://www. plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0009754. 20. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bienseuchv/__15.html#Seitenanfang.
Translated by David Heaf: Beekeeping for all (Warré)
21. NOD Apiary Ireland Limited, MAQS Formic Acid 68.2g Beehive Strips for Honey Bees. Instruction leaflet.
All four of these books are available for purchase at our webstore www.shop.beesfordevelopment.org
22. Graedel, T. E. & Eisner, T. (1988) Atmospheric formic acid from formicine ants: a preliminary assessment. Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 40:5, 335-339. DOI:10.3402/tellusb.v40i5.15995.
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Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
NEWS PAKISTAN When Ameer Ahmed set up his bee farm as a part-time business with 30 hives in 2020, the 22-yearold university student did not expect to turn the trade into a fulltime job making hefty profits! Today he has 100 hives on his farmland in Chakwal area of Punjab Province, and is earning US$13,000-16,000 (€11,000 – 13,500) annually, exporting honey to the Middle East. Ahmed is among a growing legion of unskilled labourers, students and farmers in remote areas of the country who are turning to beekeeping as a profitable source of income - as it requires little capital. Ahmed says: “This is an easy and profitable business to start without formal skills and education: I encourage my friends to get into beekeeping.” Ahmed has recruited two workers to help look after his growing business. Beekeeping is becoming a thriving business in Pakistan’s rural areas, providing new job opportunities for many, and helping the country earn foreign exchange through trade exports.
Pakistan produces over 12,000 tonnes of honey annually (www.dawn.com – June 2019), with over 8,000 beekeepers according to the Honeybee Research Institute (HRI) in Islamabad. Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the “Billion Tree Honey Initiative” in December 2020 to increase honey production to 70,000 tonnes a year. The government estimates the project will help generate around 43 billion rupees (US$268 million; €225 million) for the national economy and provide 87,000 ‘green’ jobs. Under the programme the government has pledged to increase planting of specific trees and flora to improve honey production and quality and grant interest-free loans to traders. In 2018-2019 Pakistan exported honey worth 966 million rupees (US$5.8 million; €4.9 million), 260 million rupees more than the year before. About US$6 million (€5 million) is earned each year through honey exports to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Industry insiders predict the numbers will keep increasing as the country’s beekeepers benefit
TANZANIA I arranged a training day for police cadets interested in starting beekeeping at Kidatu Kilombero College in Morogoro. I put the digital training modules sent by Bees for Development to good use during the training. John Mlulu, Ifakara, Morogoro Tanzania
Front, from left, Beekeeping Officer and Trainer John Mlulu, Community Officer Celinna Mosha, Outreach Park Conservator of Udzungwa National Park Mr Naivasha, College Principal Mr F Kashai with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, and cadets on the course 15
from Pakistan’s push to reforest land under its “10 Billion Tree Tsunami” project, launched in 2018. “Our honey is unique in the world for its natural taste, colour and texture. Demand abroad is growing fast. The government should strengthen certification and quality standards of the honey so that we can also export to the EU”, Khan said, urging the government to provide more incentives to boost the business and grant industry status to commercial beekeeping. In Pakistan, experts say that honey production can increase only if the government takes strict measures to curb deforestation and pesticide use in agriculture. Noor Islam, senior scientific officer at the HRI, said pesticide and antibiotic residues in honey were major obstacles in export to the EU and USA. Lack of capacity and tools to gauge pesticide residue in honey restricts exports from Pakistan to the Middle Eastern countries alone.
Source: www.arabnews.com
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
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Forests for human health and well-being Strengthening the forest–health–nutrition nexus FAO, 2020, 84 pages Forests provide important health benefits for people – those whose lives are closely intertwined with forest ecosystems, as well as those urban population living far from forests. Forests provide a wide range of benefits to human health and well-being beyond those generally associated with food security and nutrition. This publication examines the many linkages of forests and human health and offers recommendations for creating an enabling environment in which people can benefit from them. Designed for practitioners and policy-makers – from forestry to food security, from nutrition and health to land-use and urban planning – it aims to unlock the full potential of forests’ contributions to greater human well-being. Citation www.doi.org/10.4060/cb1468en
Download at www.fao.org/3/cb1468en/CB1468EN.pdf 16
Bees for Development Journal 138 April 2021
BOOKSHELF Pollination - the enduring relationship between plant and pollinator Timothy Walker 2020 223 pages Hardcover Every page of this stunning book bursts with colour and detail, displaying one of the most astonishing marvels of the natural world in all its glory. Pollination is essential to the survival of most plants on earth, and without it the world would revert to the state it was in 350 million years ago. Whoever picks up this book will be drawn in by the beauty of the phenomenon, astonished by the variety of its manifestations and inspired to do all they can to safeguard it. While this is pitched as an introduction to the subject, and it is an excellent one, you should not overlook it even if you do know a thing or two about how plants enrol animals to achieve sexual reproduction. Timothy Walker writes with passion and clarity, and his wide-ranging knowledge means that on each page there is probably something that you did not know - even if you consider yourself an expert. Giacomo Ciriello
Italian Apiculture: A Journey Through History and Honey Diversity Edited by Ignazio Floris 2020 463 pages Hardcover (In Italian) Across many regions of Italy long-used styles of beekeeping persisted well into the 20th century, side-by-side with some of the world’s most innovative beekeeping firms whose influence (and bees!) would transform beekeeping well beyond the ‘Bel Paese’. Collecting contributions from academic beekeepers across the country, this hefty tome beautifully illustrates some of the richness and diversity of apiculture in Italy. It focuses on its history and honey varieties, setting out to complement two of the most revered classic reference books of the late Eva Crane, whose visit to Turin in 1986 is fondly remembered. Chapters on how the honey bee featured in Roman and Pre-Roman cultures give way to region-byregion retrospectives. Mountains of information about techniques and customs, innovative beekeepers and projects, bee products and their uses are accompanied by an expansive gallery of photos that bring it all to life. The 19 beekeeping museums across the country are briefly described, and all beekeeping journals and magazines published since 1868 are listed. The final 100+ pages are dedicated to descriptions of monofloral and polyfloral honey varieties characteristic of different areas, including melissopalynological spectra pictures. Despite there being so much in this book, it is clear the many contributors had much more to say and quite possibly this will become a first edition – with even more comprehensive ones to follow. Giacomo Ciriello
Plant Trees, Sow Seeds, Save The Bees: Simple ways to bee-friendly Nicola Bradbear 2021 166 pages Softcover Loss of biodiversity is a crisis we have to address. This book offers guidelines to enable everyone to begin to make life choices to support insect populations, to differentiate between the stripey insects that they see, and to take steps to feed and protect them. Available on our webstore: www.shop.beesfordevelopment.org
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Attention – trainers in development nations Due to the impact of Covid-19 on international mail services, distribution of our Resource Boxes and printed materials has been severely restricted. We will restart distribution as soon as possible. Resources available in pdf format/digital download are: • Beekeeping Training Modules: African honey bees, Harvesting and processing honey, Processing beeswax • Beekeeping training posters • Past issues of Bees for Development Journal If you are planning a training event, contact us for free access to these resources info@beesfordevelopment.org
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