Bees for Development Journal Issue 145 - January 2023

HELPING BEEKEEPERS KEEP BEES FOR OVER 100 YEARS

PACKAGING, QUEEN REARING, HEALTH & FEEDING, BOOKS, GIFTS, EDUCATION, CANDLEMAKING, AND MORE!

ON 25TH FEBRUARY WE WILL BE ATTENDING THE VERY FIRST

We will have a full range of equipment for you to browse.

As usual, you can order for collection from the show, including our sale items.

Make sure you render down your beeswax to bring to swap for fresh foundation - available from our lorry in the carpark!

FIND OUT MORE AT WWW.THEBEEKEEPINGSHOW.CO.UK

SHOP

The Top Bar hive is a single box with 24 top bars. Made from British cedar the top bar hive is the traditional way of keeping bees in some African and Caribbean countries. Became popular in the UK for non-invasive beekeepers.

Cover photo: Artwork from Under The Mango Tree Society, India.

John Phipps, Editor, Natural Bee Husbandy magazine

Whilst today the popularity of sustainable and bee-friendly beekeeping is widespread, I have often wondered how, where and when this particular trend really began, especially since both groups as well as individuals participate in this way of involving themselves with bees: it occurs in so many parts of the developed world.

My own beekeeping began over fifty years ago in a typical way; attending a course, buying bees from the company that provided free tuition over three days, and then following the management procedures I had learnt for a few years.

However, I soon became aware that so many of the practices I put in place were contrary to what the bees wanted - and ultimately it was the bees themselves that decided what to do.

Someone then told me to read less about managing bees and read books about bees. Not only did I do that, but enrolled in a correspondence course run by the BBKA, with Mildred Bindley as my course tutor. Through her I came to know the works of Butler, von Frisch, Ribband and Lindauer as well as Dade on anatomy, and since then I have studied the works of those who came after such prestigious people.

However, I wanted more from beekeeping than just producing honey. I can’t quite remember how it occurred, but it was through meeting Beowulf Cooper in the mid-seventies and then editing both BIBBA News and The Bee Breeder until the early eighties.

As part of Beowulf’s main concern, which was to raise the profile of the British Black bee, he made trips to Northern Germany as well as organizing conferences there, so that more could be learned about the old races of black European bees. These, despite people’s denials, still existed in small pockets in the UK and were very common too in Germany, especially amongst heather beekeepers.

Beowulf regularly sent me postcards from Germany, in which he wrote enthusiastically about skep beekeeping, seeing skeps as an important tool in re-establishing British bees. It had all the requirements; the right volume for native bees, excellent insulation, and was cheap and relatively easy to make. Out of this interest arose one of BIBBA’s most interesting publications of that time, ‘Make Your Own Skep - and Revive a Lost Art’ by Rev E Nobbs (this was reprinted in full in NBH No 11, May 2019).

Whilst Beowulf was keen on promoting skeps, at the same time Bill Bielby, the Beekeeping Advisor for North Yorkshire, produced the Catenary Hive, which embodies many of the principles of NBH today. It allowed bees to build combs freely on top bars, the shape and volume of the brood area allowed the bees to make nests similar to those that they could make in the wild, and the entrance was midway on the front of the hive and just a single round hole. The most notable disadvantage though was the thinness of the hive walls, though this could be easily be improved by using thicker timber and plenty of insulation. A full description of this hive is in Bielby’s book, ‘Home Honey Production’.

Bielby was a member of BIBBA and was delighted to have a native strain of bees in his apiary at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. I spent a fascinating day with Beowulf Cooper and Bill Bielby at Spurn Point on the Humber, when prepa-

rations were being made for an isolated queen breeding apiary for native bees.

The other main development also at that time was Ron Brown’s Kenyan Top Bar Hive, which he had first used during his time abroad, finding it to be an economic and easy way of keeping bees, with the advantage that honey bees could build their combs without the restriction of having to use frames in the hives. It is interesting that the top bar has become more prominent over the years, but I have yet to fully understand why so many beekeepers use long hives which need frames. I strongly believe, too, that all those who count themselves as ‘bee-friendly’ should ensure that the homes which they provide for bees should be made from natural, sustainable and fully-recyclable materials.

Having seen a naturally-built colony in a hedge, I have always believed that bees should not be confined to hives designed for beekeepers and not for the needs of bees.

Top: postcards from Germany sent to me by Beowulf Cooper; Left: my first sight of a swarm that had built its nest in a hedge; Right: meeting at Spurn Point on a wild autumn day. Left to right: Reg Birch, Beowulf Cooper, Bill Bielby and Don Appleton.

Nicola Bradbear, Bees for Development

Dear Friends

Bees for Development is thirty years old this year and we are celebrating! We are reflecting, too, on what we have achieved and what differences we have made, for bees, and for the people we have helped to care for them. When we set out (and there was just Helen and I in those days), we knew that beekeeping worked very well as a way for rural people to create food for their family and community, and income also. And in poor areas, people were keeping bees in the same ways that had been done for generations – with healthy bee populations and using skills and methods that had stood the test of time.

Bees for Development set to work in 1993 with dual aims: to reduce poverty, and to increase biodiversity. Back in those days, quite a few folk suggested that we should not use the word biodiversity, because ‘nobody knows what it means’. We used it anyway, because no other term adequately captures the concept of biological diversity: all the variety and variability of life on earth. Bees are of course our speciality, however we are using them as a means to interest and incentivise people to care for their surrounding habitat –because if they get that habitat right for their bees, they get it right for everything else.

Bees have moved up the human - interest agenda since 1993, and nowadays it’s not just bees but all insect pollinators that have gained public awareness. The climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are no longer treated as separate issues: it is now accepted that there is no viable route to limiting global warming to 1.5°C without protecting and restoring nature. Beekeeping remains a feasible way for many people to create income while doing their bit to restore their surrounding habitat too, and we are making even more effort to ensure that happens over our next thirty years!

About Bees for Development Journal

ISSN number 1477-6588

Bees for Development works to assist beekeepers in developing nations. Produced quarterly, we have readers in 128 countries.

Editor: Nicola Bradbear MBE PhD; Coordinator: Helen Jackson BSc. Subscriptions: £30 per year. Pay online at www.shop. beesfordevelopment.org or email info@beesfordevelopment.org

Bees for Development gratefully acknowledge: ADM, Bees for Development North America, Charles Hayward Foundation, E H Thorne (Beehives) Ltd, Healing Herbs, Hiscox Foundation, Incubeta, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Rowse Honey Ltd, Yasaeng Beekeeping Supplies and many other generous people and organisations.

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.

Address: Bees for Development, 1 Agincourt Street, Monmouth NP25 3DZ, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1600 714848

Email: info@beesfordevelopment.org

Web: www.beesfordevelopment.org

When pollination turns fatal

Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, yet we know so little of the amazing life that surrounds us. The famous Australian wildlife photographer, Rudie Kuiter, has permitted us to use his astounding photograph showing pollination turning fatal. The miner bee Lasioglossum lanarium was visiting the blue flowers of the great sun orchid Thelymitra aristata when she was caught by a green lynx spider (possibly the species Tharrhalea prasine). Note that the bee had made a previous visit to one of the orchid's flowers before it died, based on what she is carrying. You can see the orchid's pollinarium attached to the dorsal side of her abdomen. That is typical of pollination in most sun orchids with blue flowers. The column hood of the flower (not quite visible in this photo but upper left to spider's white abdomen) mimics a tuft of pollen-rich anthers, and the bee curls her abdomen around the hood to "shake out the pollen." When she unhooks her abdomen, it hits the viscidium on the rostellum lobe of the stigma. The bee yanks out the pollinarium and flies away with it attached to her butt. Note that one of the pollen sacs has started to rupture and is leaking pollen fragments.

Rudie gave us permission to share this photo which he took at Crib Point, a reserve in Victoria, Austrialia. Rudie Kuiter's fourth edition of Orchid Pollinators of Victoria is still in print.

Above: Our latest cover picture on Bees for Development Journal No. 145, perfectly illustrates the biodiversity we seek to maintain.

Nature-based Beekeepingissues arising

Janet Lowore PhD, Programme Manager at Bees for Development

Why does Bees for Development particularly advocate Nature-based Beekeeping in developing nations?

Put simply, Nature-based Beekeeping systems are accessible to many people who need to earn a living from bees, because Nature-based Beekeeping relies more strongly on freely available natural materials and natural processes, and less heavily on capital. For people living in poverty, lack of capital is a huge barrier to participation, both to beekeeping, as well as to many other potentially lucrative livelihood activities. However, our reasons are far more complicated than that!

In the previous joint edition of Bees for Development Journal and Natural Bee Husbandry Magazine, we presented our case for Nature-based Beekeeping. In addition to that article, we are preparing a short video explaining this approach. We are currently testing the video with a range of stakeholders, to gain their feedback, and in this and subsequent articles we will address some of the most interesting and challenging feedback points we have received, concerning our article and the video. Comments we have received:

Please explain why ‘modern’ hives do not work. You tell us about the advantages of traditional hives, but you do not explain why countries which rely most heavily on traditional hives are not amongst the top honey producers in the world.

Why do frame hives fail in remote areas?

How can local-style methods be improved?

Does the clay and cow dung mixture used to smear basket hives contaminate the honey and beeswax? Does honey harvested from local-style hives meet international quality standards?

I would like to see more evidence of Nature-based Beekeeping working at scale.

In this article, Janet will address the first feedback point, i.e., why we say that ‘modern’ hives do not work.

Let us first examine the wording of the comment. Use of the term modern for bee hives is inappropriate: no serious discussion about beekeeping technology should use the term ‘modern’, which is imprecise and subjective. It hints, imperfectly, at when a particular hive was invented rather than describing its design features. And when something was invented has little bearing on its suitability for the context. It is much better to describe a beehive by its design features. Please let us describe bee hives by their design (or designer). It is for these same reasons that we do not use the term traditional – as this term also refers to a time or culture, rather than design feature.

Why do ‘modern’ hives not work? Of course they do work – according to what beekeepers want in some places, yet they are not suitable for all bees or all situations.

All beehives – be they top-bar, frame, horizontal, vertical, made of sawn wood, hewn wood or straw – have pros and cons. There can be no such thing as the ‘perfect’ beehive because bees differ in their biology and behaviour and people have differing requirements, preferences and resources available to them.

Just think about the innovative Flow Hive – clever design yes, but not suitable for everyone, everywhere. The suitability of a beehive for any given situation – is determined by social, cultural, economic and ecological criteria, with some beehive types working best in some circumstances and some in others. Frame hives have been given, pushed, donated, promoted, sanctioned and encouraged across rural Africa – yet adoption rates remain low. There are multiple, interacting reasons for these low adoption rates and it would serve the industry well if we unravelled and understood these reasons, rather than blindly pushing a technology where it is ill-suited – and wasting a lot of money.

Frame hives are ingenious, yet they are not perfect in every circumstance. Think about other technologies. In some places radio is a better medium for transmitting information than TV, why? In some places motorbikes are better means of transport than saloon cars, why? In some places, solar-powered irrigation pumps are better than petrol engine powered irrigation pumps, why?

So, let us ask this question properly. Why, despite being donated in their millions in developing countries are frame hives not well adopted by beekeepers? The reasons are not the same everywhere and they intersect – so writing a simple list is just not possible. In this article we can only begin to answer:

Economic reasons

One simple explanation is that frame hives are too expensive. If a poor person has a spare US $50 they will have many more pressing and rationale expenditures to make than buying a frame hive. Poor people do not have the luxury of spending to accumulate – they need to buy food, school uniforms, medicines, fertiliser, to fix the roof, to pay taxes, to buy tools. And if they did have the luxury of spending to accumulate there are many more accessible, less risky and more profitable ways of spending US$ 50 than on a frame hive. Buying tomatoes where they are cheap and selling them in town, making and selling food on market day, becoming a mobile phone credit vendor or buying some tools and fixing bicycles. All easier ways of turning a profit on US$ 50. Spending money on frame hives is something rich people might do because they can afford it and can afford to take the risk. They might get their money back, they might not. A poor person just will not do this.

Please note that ‘not spending money on a frame hive’ is not the same as ‘not investing in beekeeping’. A poor person can very easily invest in beekeeping for nothing at all. By making their own hive using locally available cheap or free materials.

Some people have been spared the need to buy a frame hive by being given one – but in interests of reaching more people, most donor-funded projects would rather give one hive each to ten people, than ten hives to one person. We have seen countless examples of donor-funded projects trying hard to reach even more people by donating hives to groups –a group of twenty people being given ten hives. Not enough!!! One beehive (let alone half a beehive) is never enough.

The argument that a person can make enough money from their one donated hive to buy another one is flawed. It does not happen! If your average poor person (we will generalise for a moment) is given one frame hive and is fortunate enough to make US$ 50 profit in their first year of beekeeping – what are they going to spend this US$ 50 on? Those items mentioned above or many, many other alternatives before a frame hive. And this assumes that they make US$ 50. There are many reasons why this might not happen at all. So in summary most of the rural poor cannot afford to buy frame hives, and those that receive them in donations use them, and may or may not earn from them, but are extremely unlikely to buy another one. They are just too expensive given (a) there are other less risky things you can spend US$ 50 on and (b) there are cheaper way to invest in beekeeping. So frame hives are not widely adopted because of economic reasons.

Economic reasons are only the beginning of the story. In this article we touched on some further ideas and assumptions – we mentioned risk and we mentioned that a person who receives a frame hive as a donation, might not make much money from it at all. Why not?

I certainly agree with the comments above, understanding that an essential part of Bees for Development’s work is to aid the economy of the groups with which it is involved; however, there are other issues which they hope to address in future editions of the magazine. As for Natural Bee Husbandry’s aims, economy is not likely to be a problem. The focus is on supplying bees with sustainable homes that adequately meet the colony’s full needs as nature intended, and which since the dawn of time have allowed them to survive with little interference from man. This being the case, the hives adopted for use in the developed world have been influenced by several of those that have been promoted by Bees for Development in their programmes, as well, of course, those from previous centuries within each of their own geographic regions.

Some of the most important principles of sustainable and bee-friendly beekeeping

Bees able to build their combs in the most natural way as possible

Homes provided for bees are of the right volume, weatherproof, give protection from enemies, and well-insulated from extremes of heat and cold

Homes able to be made easily and cheaply from natural, sustainable materials, preferably found locally

Bees interfered with as little as possible

Bees not treated with chemical agents against pests and diseases

Plenty of natural stores are left for the colonies so that they can survive during droughts and winters

The first time I saw a colony in the wild with its beautifully constructed nest, I always considered it to be a shame that bees are confined within frames in modern hives and not allowed to build the nest in the ways they have for millennia.

Given a chance, a gap between frames, will allow the beekeepers see how well comb can be constructed when the bees are given the freedom to do so.

A skep: an ideal home for bees for thousands of years. If given shelter from adverse weather conditions, the colonies within them should thrive.

Top bar-hives allow the bees to produce beautiful combs which can also be removed easily from the hive if need be.

All photos John Phipps

The Scientist and the Beekeeper: The Tale of Varroa-resistance in Norway

Dr. Melissa Oddie

Part One

I remember first reading about Varroa destructor. It was portrayed as this apocalyptic plague that had descended on the world’s honey bees, spreading disease, and killing colonies at such a rate that beekeepers were throwing up their hands, walking away from a life-long passion because they could not take the crushing pressure. I read this, but I also read about the people fighting to control it: novel treatments, using mite predators, new management techniques, but the method that struck me the most was naturally-adapted mite resistance; using evolution to fight a problem that evolution had helped create.

My first trip to Norway was in 2015, about five months into my PhD. The work was on varroa resistance in European honeybees: resistance, in my mind, is the ability of honeybees to adapt and employ techniques to reduce mite population growth, rather than tolerate high loads. This method struck me because, like graduates of any Ecology and Evolution program, I had learned about the Red Queen Hypothesis: the arms race of adaption between two competing species. It seemed a self-adjusting strategy, to have bees adapt and manage the parasite. They would achieve a sort of dynamic equilibrium with it, living in a balanced push and pull for as long as nature saw fit. This would effectively prevent the catastrophic losses so many beekeepers were now fighting.

The roads were pitch black as I drove my rental, with no lights save my own, and the black silhouettes of the towering spruce crowding on both sides against a deep navy sky. It was about 10 pm one night in August and I was hopelessly lost; both geographically and apiculturally. Everything I had learned about bees up until that point, I had crammed in about four months, reading scientific papers and beekeeping blog - as many as I could.

Top: Terje and Melissa sit at the famous kitchen table discussing the results from the year 2021. Above: The experimental apiary used during the scientific studies from 2020-2022, set up by Terje and Melissa.

Prior to this, I knew no more than any non-bee-associated person would. So, when I was sent to investigate Terje Reinertsen’s alleged “varroa-surviving” Buckfast bees, I held a healthy level of skepticism in the claim. The literature said that European honeybees died of varroa, and that was that. I almost did not find the house. Terje and his wife, Anita, had graciously said that I could stay in their spare room while I ran my observations. As luck would have it, I stopped to ask for directions at the very house I was supposed to find! Anita opened the door, invited me inside, and so begins the story.

Terje Reinertsen is a very typical beekeeper outwardly, with greying hair, a snowy white beard, a back bent from work and the kindest smile you would ever see, but I only needed to speak with him on a few occasions to know that his powers of observation were extraordinary. Terje noticed things about the bees most others would not. Each morning we would rise at the same time, while his wife still slept, and we would share breakfast and a conversation. Then, he would start his bee work and I would drive to my host institution to prepare my experiments. The words we exchanged at

that kitchen table revolutionized my understanding of honey bees, because prior to that, they had been resigned to concepts of ink on paper, beyond the occasional forager that floated distantly past my office window. I did not know them, but Terje did.

Mornings became routine: Terje would share his theories on the bees, what they were doing and why, and I absorbed everything, cross-referencing it with the textbook learning I

had memorized before my trip. It gave me an appreciation for both perspectives, academic and experimental, and taught me the value of each: beekeepers observe, and they often do it well, so they catch things not yet described or explained by research, and research gives a crucial context to many of the beekeepers’ observations.

On days when there were no research tasks, I opted to shadow Terje as he worked with his bees, watching,

learning, and working firsthand. I quickly became aware that Terje had such a keen understanding of them that, even though it was difficult to communicate, he could be relied upon to an astounding accuracy: bees were all about balance. If something was off, they reacted, adjusting their behaviour to return the colony to their version of normal. They were absorbing information I could only guess at, but Terje seemed to know what each response meant and what had caused it: the brood pattern was off, or they were not building drones where they should. Everything at every time in the season had a different reason and I slowly realized that forty years was a rather tight time limit to learn what Terje seemed to know.

The first measurements I took, counting varroa on the bottom boards of the colonies told a very interestng story; indeed, it seemed that a good number of Terje’s colonies had a much lower drop rate than expected, consistently over several measurements, and this was in autumn, when varroa would notoriously take over. So, there was some evidence for the “surviving” claim, but I still wasn’t convinced. The next bit of evidence came in the brood - because I suspected the lack of mites would continue there, I did not use brood frames in which eggs had been laid and capped by Terje’s own bees, but frames from other colonies that had a measurable issue with the mites. Each of ten colonies were given two capped frames, one of which was set into one of Terje’s colonies, and one into a local Carniolan colony with no reported resistance, and very clear mite evidence. Each of the five receiver colonies of both population types (Terje’s or Carniolan) got two frames from different donor colonies. The frames were removed after about nine days and since the brood used was laid in a specific time window, I knew most of the cell occupants would be about nine days old after capping, the perfect time to measure reproductive success in the mites. Terje’s bees did not disappoint. In that nine-day window they seemingly managed to influence the varroa reproductive rates, reducing the reproductive success on average by 30%, despite the mites coming from the same donor colonies in an apiary over fifty km away.

Now, cell recapping is what I have published most on besides the ability of Terje’s bees to reduce the reproductive success of varroa. It is, simply put, a

Top: A capped brood frame in one of Terje's surviving colonies. Central in the photograph is a cell with an open cap to reveal the little hole made by the bees that has been capped back over with wax.

Above: From left to right: Terje, Frank, Roar and Melissa crowd into the small grafting room in Terje's workshop.

hygienic behaviour that exists in every colony, used to detect problems with and remove diseased brood. Where varroa is concerned, it seems highly associated with colonies that can reduce the population growth of the parasite. I did not discover this association in relation to varroa. I first read about it in one paper from the Baton Rouge lab in Louisiana: “Changes in Infestation, Cell Cap Condition, and Reproductive Status of Varroa destructor (Mesostigmata: Varroidae) in Brood Exposed to Honey Bees With Varroa Sensitive Hygiene” (1). It remarked that the bees opening a cell and capping back it over with wax was a by-product of complete brood removal in response to varroa invading and/or reproducing in brood cells. In the case of recapping, the brood is not removed, only the cell cap is opened, partly or completely, and then the hole is repaired, often by another bee. The brood remains undisturbed, to develop as it would normally. A simple recapping would not prevent the mite from reproducing, if it chose to remain in the cell, but it is possible that simply opening the cell may create enough of a disturbance to reduce the number of offspring a female is capable of rearing successfully, especially if the cell is opened more than once.

At this point, I had solid evidence that varroa numbers were lower and that their reproduction was being actively affected by something Terje’s bees were doing, but no method was yet apparent. I was tasked with measuring brood removal, or, VSH in my original experimental design that year, but to my chagrin, I found no difference between Terje’s bees and my controls in the number of brood cells missing from the test frames (which had been carefully photographed and

mapped before and after the nine-day rearing period). Nor did they seem to be grooming themselves at any higher rate, at least, not in the month-long time window I was given (2).

I still believe it is possible that the bees could have been changing their varroa management tactics across a year, and I simply missed them, so VSH and grooming may play a role in survivability, and re-capping may just be a by-product after all, but back then, sitting in the tiny lab late one cool, August night, with three weeks gone and no evidence of any real mechanism for the difference in varroa I was measuring, I was at a loss. It was then I began to question everything I had been doing; there was something there, I had missed it and by then it was far too late to re-design and run any more experiments.

That was when I noticed it: a small discolouration in the cell cap on one of the frames given to Terje’s bees, and I thought back to that paper. Carefully, I excised the cap like one would open a can and turned it over - the cell had been opened before, but not by me, by the bees. Now that I had seen it once, I found it everywhere; in some colonies the rates were modest, in some, nearly every infested cell had been tampered with, but the key thing was it was only in the brood that had been given to Terje’s bees. The control frames were lucky to have two re-capped cells in 200. This was something, perhaps my life choices could be salvaged! At that point in the night, I heard a loud bang, and suddenly the hallway was flooded with water. One of the pipes in the automated coffee machine had burst, sending a solid jet squirting straight out from the break corner. I spent the next ten minutes splashing about, trying to

find a wrench to shut the water off and then rescue my (now precious) brood samples from a soggy end.

I published a few times after that data. Terje’s colonies never disappointed me with their evidence of varroa survivability, no matter how many seasons of data I took. One notable publication in 2018 mentioned re-capping found in Norway and three other, scientifically-backed surviving honeybee populations in Europe (3). Since then, more researchers have begun to talk about re-capping, if not as an actual mechanism of varroa resistance, then at least an easily measurable proxy one can use to gauge a colony’s ability to survive. What happened concurrently in Norway was, in my mind, much more interesting. Terje and his ideas of breeding bees that did not require treatment was gaining traction, and my research served to support it. People were taking notice, they wanted to try it too and it was not long before national funding was granted to try and repeat Terje’s breeding efforts, but this time with a scientist heading and recording the process. They chose me.

To be continued in the next issue: May 2023.

References

(1) Harris J. W., Danka, R. G., & Villa, J. D. (2012). Changes in infestation, cell cap condition, and reproductive status of Varroa destructor (Mesostigmata: Varroidae) in brood exposed to honey bees with Varroa sensitive hygiene. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 105(3), 512-518.

(2) Oddie M. A., Dahle, B., & Neumann, P. (2017). Norwegian honey bees surviving Varroa destructor mite infestations by means of natural selection. PeerJ, 5, e3956. (3) Oddie, M., Büchler, R., Dahle, B., Kovacic, M., Le Conte, Y., Locke, B., ... & Neumann, P. (2018). Rapid parallel evolu.on overcomes global honey bee parasite. Scien.fic reports, 8(1), 1-9.

Beekeeping Today Podcast

Of Bees and Beyond: Stories from Under The Mango Tree Society, India

Debika Chatterjee, Senior Programme Manager, Under The Mango Tree Society - www.utmtsociety.org

Under The Mango Tree Society (UTMTS) is an award-winning not-for-profit organisation in India, that offers beekeeping with indigenous bees to tribal farmers for enhancing their agriculture through improved pollination. It started in 2009 with the vision of providing beekeeping as an agricultural input to small and marginal farmers*, to increase their crop yields and income, protecting and enhancing the local population of indigenous honey bees by creating awareness in the local communities about their role as ecosystem service providers, and encouraging beekeepers to adopt bee-friendly agriculture practices. The beekeeping programme of UTMT Society expanded over the years to include income enhancing opportunities along the beekeeping value chain, such as the setting up of micro enterprises that specialised in beekeeping inputs and enrolling local trainers and other service providers to support beekeepers. Since then, UTMT Society has received several awards and accolades, including the World Bank Award in 2013 and the HCL Foundation Award in 2020. Currently, it has presence in around 300 villages in 14 districts in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Even as the organisation has progressed in leaps and bounds, the Society is focussed on working with Indigenous Bees, primarily the Apis

cerana indica and stingless bees, to improve pollination cover for smallholder agriculture. Beekeeping with the local indigenous bee is well suited to the diversified farming systems found in tribal communities. Input costs are low because the bee is locally available (wild hives are domesticated) and resilient (little need for antibiotics). Since the bees are well adapted to the local environment, they subsist on existing flora without needing to migrate the boxes, as is required for A.mellifera. So, even when A.cerana is less productive in making honey than its European cousin, it is an excellent pollinator. Some of the key impacts of UTMT Society’s work have been:

1) Reduction in unsustainable honeyhunting practises

2) Increase in crop production

3) Creating other sources of livelihood generation

4) Diversified agriculture

5) Increased green-cover and biodiversity

Reduction in unsustainable honey-hunting

Honey-hunting is the method of extracting honey from bee hives found in the wild, and it mostly involves killing bees residing in colonies in the wild so as to obtain combs containing honey and brood (larvae & pupae). In

rural communities, honey hunting still remains an integral way of collecting honey, as the hunters are unaware of the consequences of destroying bees and their habitats. Through awareness programmes, UTMT Society informs and explains how bees help in pollination and how pollination is crucial for agriculture and maintaining the biodiversity of the surrounding forests.

“Being a traditional honey hunter, every year I used to destroy around 5-7 bee colonies for honey. I have stopped it completely now”, shares Prafulbhai Bagul, a 32-year-old beekeeper from the Dangs district in Gujarat. Now his perception has shifted from ‘bees for honey’ to ‘bees for pollination’. He also actively participates in sensitizing others in his community about bees, beekeeping and how it impacts our environment.

Similarly, Kaliram Rajbhopa, from the Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh, used to be a traditional honeyhunter. He says “I had no idea that Cerana bees can be domesticated, and unknowingly I have destroyed so many hives in the past. I was amazed to learn about the benefits of beekeeping during the beekeeping training”.

Increase in crop-production

Despite being life-long farmers, a lot of the small and marginal farmers do not understand the concept of pollination. One of the things that is explained in great detail during the two-day basic

Women beekeepers in a village in western India catching Cerana swarms

*Marginal Farmers are those who cultivate on less than 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of land by definition in India, and Small Farmers are those who cultivate on less than 2 hectares (5 acres) of land. They make up almost 85% of the farming community in India. They are mostly “subsistence farmers” and only if there is extra produce, they sell it in the local market.

beekeeping training offered by UTMT Society, is how bees pollinate flowers to form fruits. Before the training, most of the farmers link bees only to honey, but later there has been a sea change in their attitude towards bees and also towards the entire environment.

Ajaybhai Kokani, a 27-year-old beekeeper, from the Halmundi village in Tapi district of Gujarat, farms on two acres of agricultural land, which earns him an annual income of Rs 80,000. Trained in 2020, he currently has three filled bee boxes in his farm. He was pleasantly surprised to see the increase in the harvest quantity of Mango and Watermelon post beekeeping. Previously he used to harvest 1400 kg of Watermelon by sowing one kg of seeds, but after beekeeping he harvested 2000 kg of Watermelon. Bhabhut Kayda, a beekeeper from Charkheda village, in the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh is now keen to preserve indigenous bees and promote beekeeping among other villagers. He says “My work has helped me understand that conserving the bee population is a local solution to our ever-pressing problem of decline in agricultural productivity”. He thinks that the beekeeping training programme made it easy for farmers like him to bring the bees to their farms. He now correlates better produce with the greater number of bees in his farm. Bhabhut Kayda explains, “I was able to earn Rs 15,000 additionally from the sale of surpluses of Chickpeas and Peas this year, after I placed filled bee boxes on my agricultural land. Post placing the bee boxes, I was able to harvest 90 kg of Chickpea, which was only 40 kg before beekeeping, even though I used the same quantity of seeds and other inputs. Also, the size of grains of both Chickpeas and Peas were bigger, which fetched me good price when I sold in market locally. I am very happy that I am a beekeeper”.

Creating other sources of livelihood generation

UTMT Society also impacts the local community by developing micro-enterprises as part of the beekeeping input-supply chain, which in turn contributes to the livelihoods of local people. Micro-enterprises associated with beekeeping have led to new livelihoods, like womens’ Self Help Groups and local carpenters making and selling beekeeping-related inputs. The villagers trained in carpentry are taught how to make bee boxes within

the village, so that the beekeepers can purchase the resources directly from them and at a much lower price, since there is no transportation cost involved. It has also helped the local carpenter in generating extra income. For example, a carpenter from the Tuterkhed village, in Dharampur block in Valsad, Gujarat says, “The scope of carpentry work was limited in the village so we had to migrate outside for work as unskilled labourers in workshops as we lacked advanced skills and had no equipment. But with the establishment of the carpentry unit, a local avenue for livelihood has been created.”

Another such avenue of livelihood generation has been through bee-veil and swarm-bag Womens’ Self Help Groups (WSHGs), where women are trained in making bee-veils and swarmbags in tailoring workshops organised by the Society. In some places UTMT Society has helped the local women set up beeflora nursery WSHGs, where saplings of bee-friendly indigenous plants are grown and sold to the villagers.

Diversified agriculture

UTMT Society’s beekeeping programme has also encouraged farmers to not limit their agriculture to monsoon crops, but also take up winter cropping through its beeflora intervention (wherein the seeds and saplings are provided to farmers at 50% contribution). Some of the seeds commonly distributed are that of Chilli, Bottle gourd, Sponge gourd, Ladies finger, Sunhemp, Brinjal, Sesame, etc., which has resulted in a number of farmers expanding their agriculture beyond subsistence farming.

Increased green cover and biodiversity

Saplings of indigenous trees, planted as part of the beeflora initiative, improve the green cover of the area. Longterm trees, such as Jamun (Java plum), Drumstick, Apple Jujube, Indian Gooseberry, Litchi, Lemon and Guava provide nectar and pollen for the bees, while also improving the green cover of that area. Some of these flowers also serve as pasturage for other types of pollinators and flower visitors from various insect orders.

We can safely say that beekeeping is an activity that not only tackles hunger and poverty at grassroots level, but also addresses inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity enhancement. UTMT Society’s ‘Bees for Poverty Reduction’ (BPR) programme addresses ten of the twenty SDGs by offering beekeeping with indigenous bees and flora enhancement measures to tribal populations practicing agriculture in some of the most backward areas of the country.

Can you name the 10 SDGs we are talking about?

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A locally-made Cerana beebox

Top and above: Naturally occurring cerana colonies in the hollow of a tree and under an abandoned basket. Below: Colonies placed in hives made of mud which due to the climate are not very resilient.

Lack of trees

Summer in most of India lasts for 4 to 5 months and is very hot and dry. Drought-like conditions make crop production very difficult.

Building hives

Completed hives

Comb building

To prevent pests entering the hives the legs are placed in a tin of liquid

Examining hives & collecting swarms

Honey harvesting

Drought conditions make crop production difficult. Wells need to be very deep for water to be collected. All the water has to be carried from the well to the crops. Crops include: maize, beans and mangoes. The plants produce nectar and pollen for the bees, bees provide the pollination neccesary for seed and fruit production.

The state of Maharashtra faces drought like situation almost every year, because of climate change and fast depletion of ground water level.

Above left: Cashew, one of the key cash crops grown in Gujarat, gets greatly impacted by bees.

Above left: Kitchen garden planted during the summer months where the farmers use gray water for their plants. The produce is used for self-consumption. (Maharashtra); below left: Collecting data about agriculture production. (Gujarat)

Above: This is Warli painting, a form of tribal art done by the Warli people in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Warli culture is centered on the concept of Mother Nature and elements of nature are often focal points depicted in Warli painting.

Below: It is important that the bees are given appropriate shade during the hot season. One of the village UTMT training centres.

The young girl is holding indigenous variety of Brinjals.

Above: Beekeeping Resource Centre in a village in Maharashtra.

Another village training centre with educational posters and examples of tribal art.

Ensuring women benefit from bees

Isaac Mbroh, Apiculture Development Coordinator, Bees for Development Ghana

Organisations are increasingly advocating for gender mainstreaming to ensure that they respond effectively to the needs of all citizens. Until recently, the involvement of women in beekeeping in Ghana was not common, and Bees for Development Ghana (BfD Ghana) has been championing this cause. Since 2015 we have been working very hard to encourage women’s involvement in our work.

Gender gap

Women in rural areas of Ghana have high illiteracy compared with men, and more limited capacity to access and adopt improved technologies – and most are very poor. Women own less land, have fewer assets and have low access to cash and credit, adding to their food insecurity. World-wide, only 15% of Agricultural Extension Agents are women, yet women are crucial for achieving food security, sustainable agriculture and rural livelihoods. Of seventy extension advisors in Ghana, only ten are female.

The beekeeping sector is highly skewed against womens’ participation, with less than 1% of beekeeper trainers being women (Bees for Development).

BfD Ghana is rolling out a new project in February 2023 to address this gap. We will train women who are unemployed to become professional beekeepers and trainers and ‘Bee the voice’ for the vulnerable in the society.

BfD Ghana’s experience

BfD Ghana has tried hard to address the gender imbalance – concerning both those practising beekeeping, and those who are trainers, leaders and change agents. Whilst trying to understand the reasons for low participation of women in beekeeping, we found that women were afraid of bees and of working at night. They could not climb trees, and keeping bees was considered a ‘man’s occupation’. Traditional ways of restricting women to domestic activities close to the homestead also serve as a hindrance to engaging in beekeeping.

Our experience suggests that these reasons mirror those given for limited access of women who keep bees in other parts of the world. However, women commonly make value-added products from honey and beeswax, and these products offer unique opportunities for womens’ traditional skills. Where work and childcare commitments constrain women to remain within or near their homes, value-added products can be an ideal opportunity for income generation. Male beekeepers are often not interested in this field, so it is not challenging to the cultural status quo.

Top-bar hive beekeeping offers advantages for female beekeepers because it moves away from traditional methods that may be seen as more ‘male orientated’. In West Africa, beekeepers do not have to climb trees to install hives. They make hive stands or use fork-like tree branches to hold hives in position in an apiary. Fixed comb hives such as Borassus log hives and basket hives which are low-cost and affordable, are promoted by BfD Ghana and are well accepted by both men and women.

Training workshops and womens’ participation

We closely monitor and evaluate our project work, and this enables us to make alterations when needed. Interactions with women in the Afram Plains reveal that, especially those in the Muslim communities, they find it difficult (or uncomfortable) to participate in our usual mixed training sessions, and that sourcing materials for hive-making was also a major challenge for these vulnerable women as it involves the cutting and lifting of materials like Borassus logs.

As a result, we revised our approach to accommodate these concerns by holding separate training workshops for women. The first all-women-workshops welcomed thirty-three women participants who were provided with sixty wooden fixed comb hives – which are cheaper than top-bar hives. We intend to extend this to other communities in the Afram Plains.

Even where women received materials and training in basic beekeeping, some said they sometimes depend on assistance from men for colony management, especially at night.

Gender mainstreaming success stories

Since 2019, BfD Ghana has been training honey-hunting communities – with a considerable number of women, living on the fringes of Digya National Park, keeping bees using local style, fixed-comb hives.

The results are amazing: Hawa Issah, a fifty-two-year-old woman who lives in Kojorbator, a small village on the fringe of Digya National Park, was named Best Beekeeper in the Kwahu Afram Plains North Awards in December 2021 during the National Farmers’ Day celebration. Hawa sometimes works

Above: training for women beekeepers at Bondaso, Afram Plains. © Gideon Zegeh/BfD Ghana.

in her husband’s apiaries – doing colony management, harvesting and processing of honeycombs for honey and beeswax.

“Hawa is our star beekeeper” says BfD Ghana’s Director, Kwame Aidoo. We like her commitment and passion towards beekeeping.

Another success story is Lucy Benewaa, one of the many women supported to keep bees in their cashew orchards under BfD Ghana’s Cashew, Bees and Livelihoods Project. This leads to double benefits; farmers like

Lucy benefit from the pollinating activities of honey bees leading to increased cashew nut yields and from bee products - honey and beeswax.

Lucy is a sixty-four-year-old woman with five children who lives at Offuman in the Bono East Region. She started with two hives in 2017 and now has fifty. Lucy can select and prepare an apiary; make and bait hives, set them up in the apiary; manage colonies; harvest, process and sell honey and beeswax. She earned about GH₵8500 (US$800; €760) in 2021 and over GH₵10000 (US$943; €895) in 2022.

Lucy has benefited from keeping bees in the last five years — harvesting and selling more cashew nuts in addition to

Right: Hawa Issah with her beautiful beeswax. © Isaac Mbroh/BfD Ghana.

bees

Above: Lucy Benewaa and her husband with their beeswax.

Left: Lucy with one of her fifty hives. © Isaac Mbroh/BfD Ghana.

honey and the beeswax she gets from keeping bees from the same piece of land.

Sarah Fosua is doing well in the beekeeping industry. She started as an apprentice to one of BfD Ghana’s master beekeepers Stephen Adu. Currently, Sarah and her younger brother own fifteen hives, and all are occupied by bees. Sarah manages these fifteen colonies herself and has much passion for what she does.

Sarah does not see any barriers to beekeeping for women. She said, “To me, there are no barriers. Beekeeping is like any kind of work - once you make up your mind to do it you can. This is a normal, money-making venture and nothing can prevent me from keeping bees”. This is Sarah demonstrating her resilience to succeed in the beekeeping industry.

Naomi Ankomah, a forty-threeyear-old single mother with four children who lives in Bono Manso in the Bono East region, is another beneficiary of BfD Ghana’s Cashew, Bees and Livelihood project. Naomi manages five colonies. She harvests, processes, packages and sells her honey in 4.5 litre containers on the Techiman-Tamale highway, and also processes and sells beeswax. Naomi is a beekeeper in addition to her regular small-scale business of selling assorted food items by the roadside.

Although beekeeping is a ‘male dominated’ activity, men also face many management challenges, especially those who are beginner beekeepers. Both men and women can be equally afraid of bees.

Equal opportunity

BfD Ghana believes gender equality is necessary to ensure that women and men, and girls and boys have equal rights, opportunities, and respect.

We have gender-specific and disaggregated indicators for only women or only men that help them to measure differences between women and men in relation to each metric. This would not have been possible without efficient monitoring systems and dedicated staff who go to the field to measure these important indicators. The frequent evaluation of our programmes ensures that we are able to modify our work by closely monitoring their gender equality indicators that measure this directly or as a proxy for gender equality or equity.

BfD Ghana believes that by ensuring all the above, development organisations could be far more successful.

Women reached by BfD Ghana’s projects

Within the last six years, about one thousand people have benefited from BfD Ghana’s projects. Of this number, women who directly benefited are about 15%, from over forty communities across Ghana. According to the women who have participated, people have certain perceptions. People think that beekeeping is for men so why are women engaging in such a dangerous

References

and difficult livelihood activity? Despite the glaring challenges, we are resilient in championing this course and are resolved to make a huge impact.

Conclusion

We believe that there is much to be done to ensure gender and social inclusion, and in coming years we will be striving to increase the percentage of women who benefit directly from our work.

ADEBAYO,J.A.; WORTH,S.H. (2022). Women as Extension Advisors. Research in Globalization. 5. 100100. 10.1016/j. resglo.2022.100100; FAO (2008). International assessment of agricultural science and technology for development. https://www.grida.no/resources/6343; MANFRE,C.; RUBIN,D.;ALLEN,A.; SUMMERFIELD,G: COLVERSON,K.; AKEREDOLU,M. (2013). Reducing the gender gap in agricultural extension and advisory services: How to find the best fit for men and women farmers. Meas Brief, 2, 1-10; WORLD BANK. (2010). Gender and Governance in Rural Services. The World Bank.

Naomi bottling honey into 4.5L containers for sale. © Kwame Aidoo/BfD Ghana.

Sarah Fosua installing a new hive for another beekeeper. © Stephen Adu/BfD Ghana.

Beekeeping with stingless bees in Vietnam

Nguyen Huu Truc and Nguyen Quang Tan, Jichi Stingless Bee Farm (Trai Ong Du Jichi), City of Phan Rang - Thap Cham, Phan Rang Province, Vietnam. www.OngDuJichi.com

Stingless bees are less well known than honey bees in Vietnam, yet they have an important role in pollination and honey production, and in recent years people have been more interested in these bees.

In nature, stingless bees build their nests in cavities such as tree hollows, rocks, or house walls. At our Jichi Stingless Bee Farm, we produce stingless beehives made of wood, decorated and painted in different colours. The hives are usually multiple boxes and the volume of each box is one litre because in our experience, this kind of hive is convenient for taking care of bees, collecting honey and multiplying the colonies.

At our farm we produce queen bees and multiply the stingless bee colonies. We sell hives, honey, and stingless bee colonies, and in addition, we provide pollination services and care of colonies after they have been sold.

We place several hives on farmland or in gardens for pollination and/or honey production. In a café, shop, or the backyard of a house we place one or two colonies for decoration, hobby or interest.

Stingless bees have received more interest and attention from the public in our area because they have advantages:

The bees are stingless therefore people are not afraid of them!

No feeding of stingless bee colonies is necessary.

The colonies rarely abscond. Swarm colonies usually do not go far from the mother colony.

Honey from stingless bees is considered superior and the price of stingless bee honey is higher than honey bee honey.

Stingless bees are tiny and lovely. Stingless bees are not attracted by the light from bulbs at night.

1: a colony from which honey is about to be harvested.

2/3: all boxes are made by us from wood and painted in different colours.

4/5: we place several hives on farmland or in gardens for pollination and/or honey production. In a café, shop, or the backyard of a house we place one or two colonies for decoration, hobby or interest.

Beekeeping with stingless bees in Vietnam

The demand for honey and colonies of stingless bees in Vietnam is now growing. Currently, the price of honey is VND2,000,000 (US$80; €77) per litre and that of a double box bee colony is VND3,000,000 (US$120; €116). On average, a colony can provide one litre of honey per year and a colony can be multiplied into two colonies in one or two years.

With this article and pictures, we are happy to share the information of our stingless beekeeping and would like to hear about the knowledge and experience of colleagues in other parts of the world.

All images © Nguyen Quang Tan; except images 11–13 © Nguyen Huu Truc.

10: two boxes being separated; 11: stingless bee brood; 12: honey and pollen; 13: not afraid of getting stung because the bees are stingless!; 14: Nguyen Quang Tan and Nguyen Huu Truc

6–9: The hives are kept inside a bee house with the entrances on the outside. The entrances are painted different colours and have a plastic tube attached to them.

Diversity in Honey Bees

Jonathan Vincent, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

We had a great start to the seasonal rains here in Bulawayo in November 2022. The bees are busy, and all my colonies have swarmed and are building up again. I had some good harvests last year and if the weather is good, this year could be even better.

I managed to obtain cuttings of African Blue Basil, and from these I have produced hundreds of additional plants and distributed them at the local garden club and to all the people who host my hives. This plant is extraordinary in its ability to flower continuously in our subtropical climate. The bees find the blooms irresistible and are foraging on them constantly. Since the plant is a hybrid and does not produce seeds, it is easy to convince farmers that it will not become invasive.  It would be interesting to see articles on the plant and some figures on the suitability of this plant as a source of forage for bees.

It is Time to be Thinking About Bait Hives

Swarms Are Precious: Why Not Try a Bait Hive and See What Happens?

Ron Brown, MBE (BKQ 57 Spring 1999)

Every year there are many reports of swarms hiving themselves in empty brood boxes, or even in stacks of honey supers, and there is no doubt that boxes that other bees have lived in are most attractive to bees looking for a home. If you have an empty hive, with frames of used combs, in the garden, you may notice bees going in and out as if curious. Should the number of bees doing this increase considerably over two or three days, they are probably scout bees sent out to look for a home by a colony about to swarm. The scout bees may even come from a swarm of bees hanging unobserved in a tree up to half a mile away. Within 48 hours or less the swarm may arrive.

Why not prepare a bait hive and see what happens? You will need a brood box (preferably British National size) in any case, so get it ready as soon as

I have sent pictures of the colour variations I am seeing in my bees. After some research it appears that this is a good thing as it shows that my bees have good genetic diversity.  The pictures were taken on the same basil plant, same time, same day. Observation of hive entrances show I have black and yellow bees in the same hives. Since, as far as I am aware, we have only Apis mellifera scutellata here in Bulawayo this is a natural genetic variation. I am establishing hives in a local farming area on the Umguza River, and the first two hives are building up well. There are both large and small hive beetles in the area which can be a problem: small, low hive entrances are required. I have found that guinea fowl and hens can be a great help to keep down the beetles as they eat the larva and scratch around the hives.

possible and fit it out with ten frames of foundation and one frame of old but clean, dark brood comb (to attract the scout bees). Even better would be a secondhand four or five frame nucleus box with frames of combs that have been bred in, and a small entrance smeared around with wax and warmed propolis scraped from one of the old frames. Place well above the ground, about 5' - 6' (2m) up; this is then very likely to attract a swarm during June and July.

When occupied, the bees can be shaken into your 'proper hive' and the trap set up again. Transfer just one of the old combs plus bees and replace it in the nucleus with a frame of foundation.

What are the snags? If you leave any space in the the bait hive not occupied by frames, the bees will choose to fill it with new, wild combs, perhaps built at an awkward angle, rather than use the frames provided. There is also the risk that wax moths will get to work on any old frames of comb and make a horrible mess of them, but these risks have to be taken, for a few weeks only.

What are the ethics of this? In law bees are wild creatures temporarily housed, but when they escape from an apiary they are considered to have regained their freedom, unlike cattle or sheep, hens or geese which are domesticated. Among beekeepers themselves, ownership of a swarm is usually conceded if a

beekeeping neighbour says that he saw a swarm from one of his hives fly towards your premises, or if the queen is marked in a distinctive way. In practice this is rare, and a swarm may have come from a church steeple or a hollow tree.

(I see nothing at all wrong with putting up bait hives. It is a common practice in many countries (though illegal is some like Switzerland) and I remember a pleasant afternoon I spent with Job Pichon in Brittany doing the round of his baits. It took me some time to see them for they were often quite high up or hidden in the trees. Swarms are extremely valuable today - better that they end up in a bait hive of a beekeeper who is going to look after them and treat them rather than become a nuisance to the public should they enter a wall space and thus end up being destroyed. Editor.)

Images © Jonathan Vincent

Bait hive high up in a tree.

Waiting for the Bees

Simon Ferris

In February I attended an event to build a top bar hive, at Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset. The farm is owned by the Countryside Restoration Trust and there were six of us, I think, that attended a workshop and assembled hives in a day, under the guidance of Jim Binning. He is based in Bridport and known as "Jim the Bee". You may know of him; he is a kind man and patiently helped us all assemble our hives. The timber had been sourced locally (western red cedar, rough sawn but all pre-cut to size). Our workshop was held the day after storm Eustice. At least the barn where the workshop took place was still standing. I set my hive up in the garden and also put out an old national brood box - on a new stand and with a new roof (seconds, from Maisemore Apiaries).

On 27th and 28th May I scythed some of the long grass in our garden. Within a day or so, scout bees appeared at both the top bar hive and the national brood box. I was encouraged and for some days the scout bees kept visiting ... but then disappeared as quickly as they came. I didn't expect to see them back again, thinking they had found a home elsewhere.

Then on Sunday 12th June at 2:30pm Juliet, me and my sister were outside the house, having a cup of tea after a lunch at our favourite pub. As we sat with our tea, interrupting that quiet afternoon came a strange sound, almost as if out of nowhere. I said it sounded like a swarm of bees, but couldn't at first see anything, but then ... half way up our garden above the apple trees was this cloud of activity (and noise) - absolutely amazing! We watched for a time - of course I hoped the bees' plan was to go straight into my lovely (as I saw it, at least) new top bar hive and I would then sit back, knowing I was now a fully-fledged natural beekeeper. It didn't quite happen that way though.

The swarm drifted a little, more over our neighbours’s garden, to a high multi-stemmed ash tree. Earlier in the year some of the boughs of that tree had been taken off by a tree surgeon, but at its base is the remains of an old stem, now about 10 ft high, in which, on the far side, is an opening to a cavity. Well, after about ten minutes of the swarm having arrived, it seems the queen was in there pretty quickly, as the bees didn't cluster as such - there were many flying around of course, but within a couple of hours I would say they had all taken up residence.

Fortunately, our neighbours are ok with bees (the next neighbour over has gardeners who used to keep bees) and they will be left undisturbed. I'm hoping that maybe next spring that wild colony will swarm and find that the top bar hive is then acceptable. It may be that the wood was a little too damp still (I noticed that when assembling, the screws would squeeze damp from the timber) so this dry summer will hopefully have helped season the hive sufficiently.

I cannot help wondering if a) there is any connection between scything grass and bees appearing and b) whether the scout bees would have found their nearby natural home anyway, or whether the bait hives attracted the scouts to the area initially and then the natural home was found and preferred.

I know of other conventional beekeepers in nearby villages and there may be a swarm available next year via them, if I keep my ear to the ground. I've also joined the Hampshire Natural Bees group - a very helpful and friendly lot.

"My story - not that dramatic, but for me it was all very exciting!"

Above: Simon Ferris. Bottom left: the swarm preferred a cavity in a mature tree in my neighbour’s garden. Bottom right: I watched and waited hoping that they would choose my hive.

Aspects of Traditional Beekeeping - Yesterday and Today - in Lithuania

Simona

When I close my eyes, I see a flowering meadow. There are no flowering fields of rapeseed or phacelia. All that blooms are native, not alien plants. In the forest behind the stream, alder buckthorns, rowan trees, and elderberries are blooming. The bees hum quietly. At the edge of an area of a half-hectare, near a small round pine tree, a straw hive with wooden box for honeycombs is set on a table (Pic.1). This is my first populated hive! And I proudly have already giving a name of ‘apiary’ to my land with one beehive standing in it! And then I open my eyes, I see it is a green winter outside the window. Now I am in the Netherlands. Here I hope to start learning beekeeping from a famous skep beehive beekeeper in spring.

All my weaving activities started in a nature camp in the ancient Lithuanian apiary-museum in our own Dzūkija National Park.  There I learned how to weave a traditional unit of measure of volume and a container as well – gorčius (Pic. 2-6).

In the times of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, this container of the XIV -XVI centuries corresponded to the current of 5.6 liters, and from the XVI century - to 2.8 liters. Lithuanians measured volume by gorčius for a long time, differently than in

1: My wooden box of honeycomb with woven skep - already covered and plastered with a mix of clay, sand and lime.

2: On the right of the picture – two finished gorčiai and at the left – the starting phase of gorčius’ production.

3: The start of weaving gorčius. On the left it is made with freshly digged pine root out of earth, and on the right – the same root just kept in water for a long time (one month) adjusted for weaving.

4: Gorčius, the dark one and the light one.

5: The bottoms of gorčius.

6: Gorčiai in my hands.

Europe, Lithuanians didn’t start to measure by liter when it was introduced in XVIII century. Even until the beginning of the XX century we measured in gorčius. Although there were bees buzzing around the camp, I had never heard of woven beehives before. In Lithuania, bees have been raised in tree trunks and hollow hives for many centuries. Such beehives are also in the Musteika apiary-museum, you can scroll it on www.facebook.com/Ancient.beekeeping.

Weaving gradually turned from a hobby into my livelihood. I was often invited to various festivals and cultural centers to teach braid weaving. I remember how a woman came to one of them and asked if I made beehives and began telling me about her grandfather who lived in the region of Klaipeda and was a beekeeper in braided beehives. I even

gasped in surprise. In the winter of that year, I went to several of the largest Lithuanian museums to see the old Lithuanian beehives preserved in the museum funds. I photographed them all and measured them so that I would know how to make them. Knowing my new passion, an acquaintance sent me the contacts of a woman who sells braided beehives. This is how the first exhibits of my collection came about (Pic.7). The idea finally matured to allow me to weave my own first beehive (pic.8).

Now that I already knew how to weave I realized that some Lithuanian beehives are woven in the same way as ‘gorčiai’. The most difficult thing was to get a large amount of Lithuanian long rye, because due to the developing agricultural policy, farmers grow less and less of it, because

7: Old cylindric skeps that I was lucky to buy.

8: My first woven skep among other creations.

9: The meadow of rye. 10: The rye cut with sickle. Later they are lied on and wrapped into tablecloth. 11: After day of work it is possible to relax.

the payments for it are significantly lower than for wheat (Pic.9) I cut rye for beehives in the same way as for gorčiai or braided plates - with a hand sickle (Pic.10). Then I wrap them like babies in tablecloths and carry them to the car. Cutting rye is quite difficult, I get quite tired after such work and I want to lie down (Pic.11). There is a lot of work to be done at home - to cut the ears of rye with scissors, to clean the leaves from the straw, to pick out weeds. And then I go to the forest for digging pine roots! Yes, you heard it rightpine roots are torn, they will be used to interweave rye straw. In the same way, “gorčiai” are woven in Lithuania from rye straw and pine roots or linden wicks. It's true, now that I've been in the Netherlands, I've started to get a little lazy and buy ready-made and split rattan canes.

Woven beehives have been known in Lithuania since the XIX century, although it is possible that this tradition was known in western Lithuania much earlier. Most of the largest Lithuanian museums have at least one woven beehive in their collections. And the number of people who are interested in braided beehives is gradually increasing. Here is my Face-

17: Two rings of cylinder skep on the wooden honeycomb; 18: One cylinder skep with a lid; 19: Cylinder skep weaved the same way as hat shaped skep; 20: The long skep from Šiauliai Aušra museum; 21: The long skep with door from Šiauliai Aušros museum; 22: The long skep, the form of which reminds us of the skeps of Breigel’s drawing.

Traditional forms of Lithuanian round hives

book page: www.facebook.com/pintiaviliai which already has more than 700 followers. You can also buy traditional or sun beehives that I weave there.

Traditional Lithuanian woven beehives are divided into types according to their shape - hat-shaped (Pic.12-16), cylinder-shaped (Pic.1719) and long beehives (Pic.21-23). The first ones are earlier. Interestingly, unlike in Western Europe, the hives here have a wooden pin going through the central hole. It can be long, reaching the arc of the hive and connecting to the wooden part of the antechamber (Pic.13), or short, just 7-10 cm, covering only the central opening of the hive from above. The hives are quite thick, going from 5.5 to 8.5 cm thick. Winters in Lithuania are cold, sometimes it can be under -20 degrees Celsius at night, so a thick-walled beehive is necessary. The cylindrical hives (Pic.17-20) are woven in a completely different way which is by placing rye from above on a wooden loom and pressing it with the help of a loom. Also, such cylindrical hives have a cover which can be made up from several cylindrical rings or also with a box for the honeycomb (Pic.17). I found one beehive braided in the same way as a hat beehive and even with a pin, but it is cylindrical and made of several rings (Pic. 19). Some of the hives wear out over the years and are repaired, such surviving marks can be seen in the museum exhibits. The smallest group of beehives found in Lithuania are the long beehives, only five of which are preserved in Lithuanian museums (Pic.20-22). One of them is very similar in shape to the beehive from the Bruegel’s painting (Pic.22)

I weave many different kind of skeps and there are so many examples from the past to learn more about, but sadly there is no room for further examples here (see my website(!). Of course, in order to produce a traditional hat-shaped skep it takes longer and the help of a carpenter is needed. The carpenter, Giedrius, helps me to make those beautiful wooden honeycombs boxes stools and pins. (Pic 23 -25). In the summer, I prefer weaving in the nature and that's where I get inspired and relaxed (Pic 26).

23–25: Wooden components of the hives I am unable to build, but they are expertly made by Giedrius. 26: Weaving hives in the outdoors on a pleasant day - what could be more relaxing!

Looking back: the Catenary Hive

Text and images from Home Honey Production

This unique hive was the invention of Bill Bielby in the 1970s and was publicised in his book “Home Honey Production”. Published by EP Publishing Limited in 1977 as part of the series of ‘Invest in Living’ - very practical books which enabled people to: improve their quality of life. have an interesting and rewarding leisure activity.

produce financial savings.

It is important to remember that at this time many people were determined to improve their lives by taking part in self-sufficiency activities which covered many aspects of growing crops and the rearing of small animals for food.

Bielby’s book is still of value today in that the basics of beekeeping are simply outlined and includes sugges-

tions on how to take part in the craft without spending too much money.

However, whilst many of todays’ readers of this journal have turned away from conventional beekeeping practices which include the use of frames, bought in wax foundation and the intensive management of colonies, the Catenary Hive, developed almost fifty years ago, shows how much Bielby understood the real needs of bees.

Bill Bielby was Adviser to the West Riding County Council until 1974, when he became the Beekeeping Adviser to North Yorkshire. He was a specialist in the insulation and the condensation problems in beehives and lectured on “The Wintering of bees in Cold Climates”.

He discovered a colony of native British Bees at Fountains Abbey in 1966

1: Early Catenary hives on a trailer at Fountains Abbey.

2: Home Honey Production by W. B. Bielby, 1977.

3: The Catenary hive with honey super. It is thought that entrances near the top of the curve at the front of the hive give greater security and shelter for the bees. The entrance is a 15/8” diameter hole.

4: Fountains Abbey. © Antony McCallum, Wikimedia Commons.

- using both the name of the Abbey for the strain of bees he propagated - and the Abbey grounds as a most suitable site for his apiaries.

Given knowledge accrued one the last few decades, I believe that Bielby would have improved the Catenary Hive, to make it a very successful home for colonies today. John Phipps.

The Catenary Hive

When bees produce wax and build honeycomb, they hang in festoons from the bar which is to support the comb. These festoons or chains of bees, when freely suspended, form a curve. The natural shape of the honeycomb built when free from restrictions such as rectangular frames and square hives, conforms to the mathematical catenary. This shape gives maximum strength for minimum use of material. Bees do not live in a square world like man. They are not geared to the saw bench and the right angle. At honey shows, men set themselves up as judges of honeycomb and knock off points for holes in corners of combs in rectangular frames. Bees are kept in little houses with sloping roofs and given entrances and even doorsteps on or as near to the ground as possible (W.B.C. Hive). Very pretty, and in fact the general concept of a beehive. An entrance at the bottom of a hive makes it easy for every small creature on four legs to take an interest and possibly gain access to the precious stores within the hive. The bees have to defend those stores to survive. The beekeeper makes life very difficult for bees (a) by giving entrances too near to the ground and (b) by giving entrances which are far too large for circumstances at particular times, especially during periods of minimum activity.

The Catenary Hive gives facilities to the bees to build natural combs without the expense and labour caused by using frames, and yet the combs are movable for inspection.The shape of the hive gives the maximum comb area for the bees using a minimum volume of timber and labour. Thus capital expenditure on each hive is greatly reduced when compared with the square hives. But to operate these frameless hives it is necessary to use nylon-reinforced wax foundation to give strength to the natural comb. You will have to DIYS. Thus you can actually be completely independent of the equipment vendors.

Only one size of nylon-reinforced foundation is used in the super and in the hive body. Although this foundation is rectangular, the bees will extend it to form a naturally shaped comb in the catenary-shaped body of the hive. The nylon reinforcing gives strength at the weakest point of the comb, i.e. where it is attached to the bar and subject to great leverage when handled.

5: The Catenary hive body (brood box) and an example of of a nylon reinforced foundation on which the bees build comb to the shape of the hive body. The foundation is supported by two strips of wood which rest on the supper which also located the curve.

6: An idea for a queen excluder - slots incorporated in the top bars. (Askham Bryan College of Agriculture). It is not necessary to purchase metal queen excluders.

Construction

Hive Body

The two side walls of 12.7mm (1/2”) exterior ply 508mm x 304mm (20” x 12”) are held in position by two cross members 394mm x 38mm x 32mm (15” x 11/2“ x 11/4”) at the top, rebated into the two side walls, screwed and glued. Two dowels 406mm x 24.4mm (16” x 1”) provide a handle and support approximately 50.8mm (2”) from the bottom corners of the side walls.

The curve is 762mm x 381mm (30” x 15”) of 3.2mm (3”) ply cut across the grain to facilitate bending. Two locating pieces 11mm x 11mm (2” x 2”) fixed to the top cross members locate the curve and support the bars for the combs.

Honey Super

The honey super consists of two side walls 508mm x 146mm x 12.7mm (20” x 53” x 1”) ply nailed or screwed and glued to two end walls of 483mm x 146mm x 12.7mm (19” x 53” x 1/2in.) ply. Two bar supports 483mm x 6.4mm x 12.7mm (19” x 1/4” x 1/2”) are nailed and glued lengthways 12.7mm (3”) below the top of the super. Wax foundation is supported by two pieces of wood 11mm x 11 mm (2” x 2”) cut to length for body or super and using metal ends and/or pins.

Queen Excluder

A queen excluder may be a piece of plastic cut to leave 127mm in. space round the inside perimeter of the hive body for the bees to gain access to the super when the colony is strong enough and requires space to store honey. This type of queen excluder was used successfully many years by the late Miss Margaret Logan, Adviser in Beekeeping, North of Scotland.

Roof

The roof of the hive is again made from 12.7 mm (1/2) exterior grade ply deep enough to accommodate 102 mm (4”) thickness of insulation (polystyrene or polyurethane foam) which should be protected to prevent the bees from chewing it. 1.5mm (1/16”in.) ply or vinyl wallpaper may be used. Inside, the roof and the interior walls of the hive should be painted with a flat black paint or dag to minimise condensation.

Siting the Hive

To establish a colony of bees in a catenary hive use a prime swarm or all bees from a colony about to swarm (an artificial swarm). Site the new hive with the top bars and foundation running magnetic North to South. If your entrance hole (41mm (15/8” diameter) is on the curve, then the entrance will be facing SSE to South. Bees build comb under the influence of gravity and magnetic forces, so it is a good idea to set up the hive properly to obtain the best comb building possible under the prevailing conditions.

The frameless combs of honey can be extracted by uncapping and centrifuging in the normal way. Although the combs might tend to collapse when spun radially, the honey comes out and the comb can be straightened and used again and again thanks to the nylon reinforced midrib. A framed acrylic sheet crown-board is a very worthwhile luxury 508mm x 406mm (20” x 16”).

My Experience

I was fortunate to be given an example of one of Bielby’s Hives. It had been given to a school and had been placed on the flat roof. The teacher who managed it was retiring so I was offered it as a gift. The biggest problem came at the very start - removing the hive with a super and obviously wellfilled with both bees and honey. I don’t know to this day how we managed to get it down the ladder and into my car - it seemed to be such a monster of a hive. I asked the beekeeper if he had any particular problems with the hive, his only criticism was that it was almost impossible to clean the bottom curved floor of the hive and that damp and debris accumulated there. My experience was that the bees made full use of the deep combs which were were very heavy and tightly fastened together with propolis.

Thinking about the hive today it had some good and bad features. The bees could build good natural combs and without having to use foundation - some starter wax was all that was necessary on the top bars. Using one today, wouldn’t be much of a problem - if the combs were not built so that they could be easily removed, no matter, as it wouldn’t be my intention to interfere with the colony. The curved plywood to give the hive its catenary shape necessitated the use of very thin wood which meant there would be very little insulation. Also, as the curved body part of the hive was exposed to the weather, it was not surprising that inside of the hive became damp. Additionally, I didn’t like like the use of plastic components in the roof for insulation

In an attempt to improve the hive, I boxed in the whole of the spaces which faced the curved parts filling, them with insulation and added a thick wooden crown board and a solid roof. This done I made some simple top bars the under sides of which were covered with beeswax and in which a souvlaki stick was embedded.

8: Frameless reinforced wax midrib ready for use again for comb building. Honey was extracted twice during the summer from these ‘combs’ and then they were scraped to the midrib after being filled at the heather.

In order to try the hive out I put it in a prominent place hoping to attract a swarm.

Unfortunately, despite this work, my attempts to test the hive were foiled as a bait hive. It was taken over by a pair of great tits, despite my trying to block the entrance for them, but not for bees searching for a nest site. Each time I placed a pin in the entrance they quickly removed it! Nine eggs were laid, then I left them alone and watched as the food was carried the nest and the first flights of the young birds. A wonderful experience!

1) Catenary Hive built to original specifications.

2) Ver y easy to build and to adapt to provide greater weatherproofing and insulation. I like the single upper entrance. No queen excluder used. Though simple supers with top bars can be added for honey stores.

Unfortunately, when used as a bait hive it was taken over by a pair of Great tits, despite my trying to block the entrance for them, but not for bees searching for a nest site.

3) Top bars - flat, primed with hot wax in which souvlaki sticks are embedded to give extra adhesion for the combs.

7: Nylon reinforced wax foundation held in position by two 11mm x 11mm bars as used in the brood or hive body of the frameless catenary hive. The bees will build comb on this foundation and extend it into a natural catenary shape. The nylon net gives strength at the weakest point of the comb.

9: Catenary Hive built to original specifications.

10a, 10b: Top bars - flat, primed with hot wax in which souvlaki sticks are embedded to give extra adhesion for the combs.

11: Catenary hive being used as a bait hive. NB. Wooden boards have been added to the front of the curved sides and the spaces filled with insulation. The pin in the entrance was meant to deter birds from using the hive as a place to nest.

Great Tit

1. The male fed the female whilst she was incubating the eggs; 2: The nest in the hive contained the same mixture of material; 3. Squabs.

(All photos from Wikipedia)

Book reviews

Honey Bees

Ingo Arndt and Jurgen Tautz

Hardback, 192 pages

IIustrated throughout in full colour Natural History Museum London, 2021

ISBN: 978-0565095277

29.1 x 2.3 x 22.2 cm

Reviewed by John Phipps.

Over so many years of keeping bees and adding beekeeping books to my library, there are three books that I consider to be outstanding as regards both the wonderful images they contain and the all-important text which fully describes the inner mysteries of colony life and the bees’ relationship with those with whom they are involved,

The first, undoubtedly a long-standing beekeeping classic, is the huge book, published way back in 1998 - Eric Valli’s ‘Hunting for Honey - Adventures with the Rajis of Nepal’. The photographs, which were taken under extremely difficult conditions, show that the photographer was willing to expose himself to the same dangers as the hunters, those who climb to tremendous heights in trees or on steep rock faces as well as facing the anger of the bees in order to collect the much-needed honey and wax for their communities.

The second, only recently published in 2017, is another enormous volume, ‘Ostatni Bartnicy Europy’ (The Last Remaining European Tree Beekeepers) sadly as yet only in Polish, but it is accompanied with a supplement in English which gives plenty of information on the book’s contentsenough anyway to allow one to guess what is happening in the outstanding photos about the history and the still remaining (though disappearing) practice of tree beekeeping mostly in Poland, but also in other parts of Northern Europe. I understand that a full English translation of this remarkable book on sustainable beekeeping will eventually be published.

The third - this one, ‘Honey Bees’, is a collaboration between two remarkable men: the famous photographer Ingo Arndt, and one of the most interesting writers on bees today, Jurgen Tautz. What an excellent partnership! Whilst in the past Tautz and written on many aspects of bee science and behaviour, in this volume he is focused entirely on honey bees as forest insects and their very important relationship with the forest throughout history - or, as Tautz puts it: “Many of the attributes and abilities inherent in honey bees can be explained by the living conditions in the forest.” This theme is explored throughout the book, looking in detail at all aspects of a colony’s life within the nest itself and in the surrounding environment. Thus, the development of bees; the castes and their activities, the wonderful construction of combs to rear the brood and to accommodate their stores, their methods of orientation and how they deal with their enemies, as well as the importance of nest commensals (not found in modern bee hives) are all delightfully and clearly illustrated in sharp detail - with captions sufficient in length for full understanding.

If any family member, colleague, or friend finds it difficult to understand why you are so absorbed in beekeeping - then this would be a good present for them, containing as it does a magnificent window into a world they may know so little about. And, of course, first of all buy a copy for yourself.

A Guide to the Safe Removal of Honey Bee Colonies from Buildings

Clive A Stewart & Stuart A Roberts - with a Foreword by Professor Thomas D. Seeley

Paperback, 127 pages

ISBN: 978-1-914934-50-6

Northern Bee Books, 2022

Reviewed by Mary Montaut.

This is quite a short book, at 129 pages, but it gives a great deal of helpful information and advice, including warnings about the precautions which must be taken before you try to remove a colony of bees from a building. I feel sure that most beekeepers have been requested to perform this feat at some time, and I think that the warnings in this book should really be included in any beekeeping course. It would be especially valuable for less experienced beekeepers to be warned about the difficulties they are likely to encounter, when they may innocently be trying to help someone who has discovered bees in their chimney or attic. The main part of the book is addressed to a beekeeper who is considering taking up bee removal as a small business or service. The authors emphasise the immense difference between collecting a swarm from a tree or bush, and trying to dislodge a colony from its nest inside part of a built structure. All beekeeping courses will address the first of these, almost none addresses the latter. Yet, collecting a swarm and enjoying the drama of being watched by the admiring citizens is a completely different job from the hugely challenging beekeeping and construction skills which are needed to remove a colony from a building where it may well have been living for some years. Whether you are considering starting a service or business, you will need to understand the legal and insurance dimensions of this work as well as understanding bees and their needs.A good example of the complexity of the problems which you are likely to encounter would be the need to know whether the part of the building which you may be required to open up, contains asbestos. In such a case, there is not only the risk to your own health. There are also stringent regulations about dealing with asbestos which you should know. The authors recommend that you actually do a course on this subject before you delve into an old roof (with asbestos tiles, for example) or open up an old chimney where the cowl could be made of asbestos cement from years ago. Just as important, you would need to understand enough about building construction to assess the risk to the fabric if you cut into rafters, joists or walls, where the bees have taken up

residence. In every case, a thorough assessment of the work involved should be written up and discussed with the owner and/or occupier of the building. This will also require you to understand the insurance and other legalistic aspects of the job. Health and Safety regulations are paramount, and the need for scaffolding to work safely even at quite a low height. The authors spend time describing the various tools which may be required, and in fact, there is a photograph of their van fitted out with all sorts of building and carpentry tools, besides the bee suits, gloves, nuc or spare hive for the bees, and so on. Certainly my response to this thorough and highly professional outfit was to determine that I would advise anyone with bees in their building to find an expert to remove them. However, the question of setting up a business aside, there is a huge amount of helpful advice in this book. It is clear from the outset that the authors’ main intention is to protect and preserve the colony itself. This distinguishes their entire approach. and reflects the expert nature of their beekeeping skills - a Bee Master and a beekeeper with twenty-three years’ experience. The preface by Tom Seeley speaks about the immense value of wild colonies of honey bees, and it is clear that both the authors have taken his research to heart. The preservation of the colony in the best condition possible is really the aim of all their work, though it is often put in a technical frame - heat camera to locate the colony, or discussion of the ‘bee vac’ which gives rise to the comment that they only use this (rather violent) method when there is absolutely no other choice. The constant advice to use scaffolding to provide a safe platform when working underlines all the the dire warnings they give about trying to work from a ladder - don’t do it! Their imperative is always to find and catch the queen, working with the bees’ natural instincts. I was quite amused by the warning they offer against eating any of the honey which you might obtain from a colony in a building - just think about it! The part of the book which is of most use to ordinary beekeepers who are in the situation of being requested to remove a colony comes in Parts 4 & 5. In these chapters, the authors give excellent advice about cutting out comb - ‘Cut Outs’ - including from a fallen tree. They show how to fix the comb into a frame for putting in a nuc or hive, and advise you to keep as many bees as possible on the comb during this operation. If you are doubtful that you have kept the queen, they give the excellent advice of waiting - not being in a hurry. The bees will show the situation soon enough. There are many times when wild comb may be exposed if a swarm has not found a suitable new home, and the advice about removing such combs is most helpful. However, the part which I found most enlightening for my own limited experience was the part where the authors describe a ‘Trap Out’ method to lure a swarm out of their new home in a building. Of course, you have no real means of knowing how long such a colony has actually been in situ, and householders may simply have failed to notice the colony for some time. This method is superficially attractive because it seems to be kind to the bees, just luring them into a new home, as you hope. But our authors’ give us the benefit of wide experience: ‘Due to the many disadvantages, I only ever use it (Trap Out) in extreme situations where access to the building is physically impossible. Whilst this option looks potentially favourable (…) it does not operate in a favourable way for long established colonies. it can however be very useful on those colonies that have truly only just moved in, where access is easy enough to enable it (the new home - a nuc or hive) to be installed without

hindrance.’ I confess I have totally failed with this method myself, though it sounded ideal when the Aussie beekeeper I was talking to described it to me. This part of the book is full of useful summaries of advice and techniques, very helpful to any beekeeper who is considering whether to become involved in any kind of removal of bees, not just in setting up a service/business. There are case studies in the final chapter, and a summary at the end of the book. The photographs throughout the book give clear demonstrations of the items under discussion in the text, and this is most helpful. It is particularly good to see a photograph of nucs which have been rescued. I suggest that your Association could invest in a copy for members’ use. This book could save you all a lot of time and energy next spring.

Beekeeping Simplified with the Drayton Hive

Andrew Bax

Paperback, 52 pages

ISBN: 1914934490

Northern Bee Books, 2022

Reviewed by Marcus Nilsson.

Andrew Bax has written a book about a hive of his own construction that is aimed at beekeepers like himself who seek a more relaxed approach to beekeeping. A ’coming of age’ hive and book? Not only that: it might just be the perfect hive for beekeepers/gardeners with a more relaxed view on backyard beekeeping for the beauty of keeping honeybees and not necessarily for maximized honey production; a hive that also makes a beautiful ornamental part of the garden as well as being a good home for its inhabitants.

This book is about a hybrid hive that in its creation, construction and usage reflects the personal journey of its inventor. As many experienced beekeepers know, heavy lifting of traditional stacked beeboxes starts to get hard on one’s back and knees when we reach a certain age.

But age also comes with a lot of accumulated experiences in bee behaviour and what beekeeping practices to use to help bees overcome such obstacles as drought or lack of sufficient stores for wintering, etc. An understanding of bees also leads many of us to have more faith in the honeybees’ own abilities to take care of numerous tasks in the hive, so that we as beekeepers need not to intervene as we usually have done as ’traditional’ beekeepers. We learn that it is easier and more cost effective to follow nature instead of trying to force our way as beekeepers upon it. The author gives many examples of this in his book as, for example, letting the bees build natural comb instead of providing them with frames of foundation. This lets the bees decide how to construct comb but also what cell size they need and how much drone comb. As Andrew Bax points out, "a more relaxed approach leaves the bees in control. Unstressed by constant manipulation, they are much more likely to be docile bees – just what is wanted in a garden hive".

The use of foundationless frames in a horizontal hive has benefits other than saving your back. It can be more

economical in that all frames are kept throughout the year in the beehive, so no need for extra boxes with frames that take up valuable storage room, no need for investing in an expensive honey extractor as comb can just be cut out and strained or pressed to get the honey out of the comb without any mess. Frames emptied of honey are simply put back in the hive for the bees to clean up and start to build new comb in. The removal of comb in this way also leads to a rotation of old comb out of the hive to be replaced by new comb, thus lessening the likelihood of it harbouring the infections which can occur when old comb is re-used. As, normally, no frames are being moved between hives, the spread of disease between colonies is unlikely. All of the above will lead to better hive hygiene.

The author is very open when saying that the Drayton hive in its construction is a hybrid hive which borrows some of the best features of established designs such as the Warré hive and the Horizontal Topbar hive, but avoids some of the difficulties inherent in their use. Bax has also understood the importance of a well-insulated hive that leads to less consumption of winter stores and a better chance of survival for the bees. Instead of being tempted to use any form of insulation material, the author uses the simple but very effective method of sealed double walls with air in between.

Less intrusive management, as in the Drayton hive, gives the beekeeper the option of trying to let the bees manage the varroa population themselves without the need for chemical treatment against mites. Populating the hive with feral swarms, as the author practices, is also a good way of getting bees that could handle mite control better than the beekeeper.

The management system encouraged by the author is to leave the bees sufficient amounts of their own honey for wintering. This is at the cost of a smaller honey harvest but for the benefit of bee health. As stated above, the good insulation of the hive leads to less consumption of winter stores, giving the beekeeper the option of letting the bees winter on their own stores, if they are sufficient.

Manual de buenas prácticas en alimentación de abejas (Manual of Good Practices In Bee Feeding)

Various authors

This is excellent text (in Spanish) has recently been prepared by experts in Argentina, as a consequence of the increased volumes of fake honey appearing in world trade. The crisis situation demands increased control and analysis to detect foreign sugars in honey.

An online course was organised so that Argentine beekeepers could quickly find out about the scope of the fight against fraud, its implications in the global market for quality honey. 2,700 Argentine beekeepers partici pated in the on-line course, and the Argen tine beekeeping sector managed to quickly adapt feeding practices to the new require ments and avoid inadvertent contamination of honey.

Using the contents from the on-line course, this Manual was prepared to deepen and update the information related to good bee-feeding practices, in the context of the fight against fraud. The Manual is a combination of scientific knowledge and experience of different actors in the market chain. It explains the need to adjust feeding practices, and scientifically supports why and how to do it in a clear and accessible way.

The Manual was first presented at the 47th Apimondia International Congress in Istanbul, Turkey in August 2022.

The team was made up of professionals from the company NEXCO SA, researchers and technicians from INTA Beekeeping Program (INTA-PROAPI), the Agroindustry Research Center (CIA); EEA Balcarce, EEA Ascasubi, EEA Famaillá, EEA Cerrillos, EEA Rafaela and EEA Cuenca del Salado, professionals from the National University of the South, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and SENASA. The team received the invaluable and generous collaboration of honey-buying companies, beekeepers, and technicians and extensionists from INTA and other provincial institutions.

Together the team are determined to prove the quality of Argentine honey!

A Drayton Hive, recently occupied by a swarm, showing how the bees build comb on foundationless frames.

A scientific note on the strategy of wax collection as rare behavior of Apis mellifera

Krzysztof

Received 14 March 2022 – Revised 6 June 2022 – Accepted 27 June 2022

Abstract

Wax collection behavior has not yet been described in the honeybee; it is typical of another Apis species. The wax collection was more difficult to observe due to the different biology of Apis mellifera and the fact that beekeepers do not display combs around the apiary to avoid the spread of bee diseases and robberies. The transport of wax in the pollen basket is typical of Apis florea; additionally, these bees have preferences for natal combs, which are significantly greater than for non-natal combs. Before they abandon their nests, these migratory bees following the nectar flow collect and transport some wax in their pollen baskets. This helps them to build a new nest quickly. The collection of available wax by both A. florea and A. mellifera is economically justified, as it reduces consumption of energy and honey supplies for the production of wax. The economic balance is believed to determine the collection of wax covers of Ceroplastes sp. soft scale insects by A. mellifera. This can be confirmed by the comparison of the energy value of wax (12.7 kcal/g) and honey (3.1 kcal/ g), which indicates an over fourfold energy gain in favor of honey stored in the bee colony. The energetic trade-off between wax secretion and collection from an old nest may explain why A. florea is probably the only honeybee species known to recycle wax if the new breeding site is located at a distance lower than 100–200 m away from the nesting site. In such a case, it energetically pays off to recycle the wax. The same is probably true in A. mellifera, as we observed that wax was placed on the tops of the apiary hives at a distance lower than 100 m away from the colony. This is also reflected by the economic conversion rates, as a bee colony consumes from 4 to 8 kg of honey to produce 1 kg of wax. Our observations show that A. mellifera collect wax in pollen baskets. In addition, wax collection by honeybees is a static process occurring at the site where wax is present; bees do not have to flight, unlike in the case of pollen pellets, which

are formed during flight. This paper addresses two completely unknown issues that make up two hypotheses: one is associated with collection of propolis into the pollen basket to stick the light wax fragments, and the other assumes saving energy required from the bee organism, which can be used to support colony functioning.

beeswax / wax collection / pollen basket / bee behavior / honeybees

Thanks to the development of advanced technologies, humans are currently able to expand knowledge, also that related to the honeybee. Detailed data on the anatomy, morphology, or behaviors of bees contribute to the development of research techniques (Borsuk et al. 2017). Nevertheless, the bee colony has still many unexplored facets. There are still some rarely displayed behaviors of honeybees that have yet to be fully explained. One such unexpected

behavior is the collection of wax into the pollen basket on the third pair of legs (Figure 1), which was observed in the apiary of the University of Life Sciences in Lublin (51° 13′ N, 22° 38′ E). The collection of wax in this way has never been reported in the literature. It is documented in Figure 1a, b, c, and d. Similar behavior has been presented in a video film (Estrada Farms 2017), which shows a honeybee worker biting off pieces of wax from the wax foundation with mandibles and placing the wax fragments in the pollen baskets. Dimou and Thrasyvoulou (2007) reported that honeybees also collected wax covers of Ceroplastes sp. soft scale insects. This indicates that Apis mellifera bees are more heterospecific in terms of wax collection.

Figure 1a, b, and c show workers collecting wax from a virgin/light honeycomb as well as dark wax scraped off by the beekeeper from the top bars of the nest frames (Figure 1d) and forming a wax ball. The wax is darker

Olszewski1, Piotr Dziechciarz1, Mariusz TryTek2, and Grzegorz Borsuk1

1 Institute of Biological Basis of Animal Production, Faculty of Animal Sciences and Bioeconomy, University of Life Sciences, Akademicka 13, Lublin 20-950, Poland; 2 Department of Industrial and Environmental Microbiology, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Akademicka 19, Lublin 20-033, Poland

Figure 1. Wax collection by bees. A: a bee with propolis and light wax stuck to the pollen basket; B: a bee with a bitten off fragment of light wax; C a bee biting off a piece of light wax; D: a bee with fragments of dark wax in the pollen basket.

than that from the light virgin honeycomb, as it may contain an admixture of propolis or wax collected by workers from older honeycombs, in which several generations of bees have been reared. Wax fragments removed from the bee nest during the inspection held at the end of July were left on the hive roof. They contained no honey or nectar. The wax pieces were left at different times so that the bees did not have to choose the type of wax to collect and that did not have mixed wax loads in their pollen baskets. The worker bees became interested in the wax after ca. 20 min. First, they bit off fragments of the wax with their mandibles and placed them in the pollen basket with the help of the combs of the first and second pairs of legs (Figure 1b). The pollen basket is used by worker bees to collect and transport floral pollen. During the formation of the bee pollen pellet, bees rub the two combs on the basitarsus of the third pair of legs, lift the basitarsus, and press the pollen into the basket. They perform this activity during flight (as shown in video 1 in the Supplementary Material), as then they can move the thirdpair legs freely (Thorp 2000; Goodman 2003; Stell 2012). The bees collecting the wax probably displayed two strategies: one may consist in collecting propolis into the pollen basket to stick the light wax fragments (Figure 1a). Bees may use the adherent properties of propolis (resins) to affix the wax faster to the pollen basket. The other strategy may involve direct attachment of the wax fragments to the basket (Figure 1c). It was observed that, during the collection of the wax pieces into the pollen baskets, the workers did not start the flight but lifted the front part of their body to detach both the first- and second- pair legs from the honeycomb. This facilitated transfer of the wax fragments onto the brushes on the second pair of legs, which are then used to attach the wax to the pollen basket (Figure 1b).

Interestingly, honeybees collect wax and propolis in pollen baskets (Meyer 1956; Ghisalberti 1979; Kadhim et al. 2018) at the site where they find these materials, unlike in the case of pollen pellets, which are formed during flight (Thorp 2000; Goodman 2003; Stell 2012). During the production of scale wax, bees chew wax and add saliva, which contains enzymes exerting lipolytic activity, thereby reducing the pool of diesters in newly secreted wax and increasing the content of the monoester fraction in comb wax (Kurstjens et al. 1985). This is consistent with the previously described free fatty acid content in two kinds of waxes. The comb wax was shown to contain larger amounts of fatty acids released from esters (especially 16:0 and 24:0) compared to scale wax (Hepburn et al. 1991). In turn, fatty acids affect the mechanical properties of beeswax (e.g., stiffness) (Svečnjak et al. 2019). Probably, during wax collection, foraging bees add saliva to soften the wax fragments and to diminish its surface tension, which increases the adhesion strength of the wax to the pollen basket. This hypothesis corresponds to comparative analyses of the physicochemical properties of virgin wax scales and comb wax, which showed that the former had twofold higher strain and was characterized by significantly lower stiffness (Kurstjens et al. 1985).

Although the wax collection behavior has not yet been described in the honeybee, it is typical of another Apis species. The wax collection was more difficult to observe due to the different biology of Apis mellifera and the fact that beekeepers do not display combs around the apiary to avoid the spread of bee diseases and robberies (Sulborska et al. 2019). The transport of wax in the pollen basket is typical of Apis florea (Ruttner 1992, 1988); additionally, these bees

have preferences for natal combs, which are significantly greater than for non-natal combs (Hepburn 2010). Before they abandon their nests, these migratory bees following the nectar flow collect and transport some wax in their pollen baskets. This helps them to build a new nest quickly. The collection of available wax by both A. florea and A. mellifera is economically justified, as it reduces consumption of energy and honey supplies for the production of wax. The economic balance is believed to determine the collection of wax covers of Ceroplastes sp. soft scale insects by A. mellifera (Dimou and Thrasyvoulou 2007). This can be confirmed by the comparison of the energy value of wax (12.7 kcal/g) and honey (3.1 kcal/g) (Colleen et al. 2002; Pirk et al. 2011), which indicates an over fourfold energy gain in favor of honey stored in the bee colony. The energetic trade-off between wax secretion and collection from an old nest may explain why A. florea is probably the only honeybee species known to recycle wax if the new breeding site is located at a distance lower than 100–200 m away from the nesting site. In such a case, it energetically pays off to recycle the wax (Pirk et al. 2011). The same is probably true in A. mellifera, as we observed that wax was placed on the tops of the apiary hives at a distance lower than 100 m away from the colony.

This is also reflected by the economic conversion rates, as a bee colony consumes from 4 to 8 kg of honey to produce 1 kg of wax (Guderska 1983; Akratanakul et al. 1990; Prabucki 1998; Bradbear 2009).

Our observations show that A. mellifera collect wax in pollen baskets. In addition, wax collection by honeybees is a static process occurring at the site where wax is present; bees do not have to flight, unlike in the case of pollen pellets, which are formed during flight.

This paper addresses two completely unknown issues that make up two hypotheses: one is associated with collection of propolis into the pollen basket to stick the light wax fragments, and the other assumes saving energy required from the bee organism, which can be used to support colony functioning.

Honey bee collecting wax from foundation in a frame left outside the hive in the Editor’s apiary, Greece.

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Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi. org/10.1007/s13592-022-00948-z.

Author contributions

KO and GB conceived this research and designed experi- ments; KO, GB, PD, and MT participated in the design and interpretation of the data; GB and PD performed experiments and analysis; KO, GB, PD, and MT wrote the paper and participated in the revisions of it; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

Financial support for this work was provided by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education ZIB/27/S/2021/ ZIR.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Declarations

Ethics approval No approval of the Research Ethics Committee was required to achieve the goals of this study, as the experimental work involved unregulated invertebrate species

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Honey bees collecting wax from beneath top bars. (John Phipps)

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