Thomas Carroll, author of a Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping in Kenya and former head of beekeeping at Baraka Agricultural College in the Rift Valley, talks to RTÉ.ie about the differences between bees in Ireland and African countries as well as how honey is made and the issue of colony collapse.
RTÉ.ie: Are the bees in Africa the same as those in Ireland?
Thomas Carroll: Yes the bees are the same species – Apis Mellifera or honey bees. However they are different races of bees or sub-species. The African races of honey bees have very different behaviour to Irish bees.
What makes African bees more defensive?
Not all the African races of bees are defensive but many of them are. In particular Apis Mellifera Scutellata and Apis Mellifera Adansonii, which cover much of sub-Saharan Africa are defensive.
What has been suggested is that constant robbing of bee nests by both humans and animals has selected for the most defensive bees. Docile colonies are more likely to be destroyed resulting in the more defensive colonies inadvertently being selected over time.
Is the African bee the same as the Africanised bee?
For all practical purposes the Africanised bee is the same as the African bee. Africanised bees refer to the descendants of the African race of bee, Apis mellifera scutellata, which were imported into Brazil in 1957 to improve the European bees in that country.
Honey bees were not native to the Americas – European bees were introduced with settlers from Europe. However European bees are not very productive in tropical areas. A Brazilian scientist Warwick Kerr, imported the African bees to try and improve the European stock. However some swarms of African bees escaped and spread over time to much of the Americas reaching the southern US in 1990.
Is there a tradition of keeping bees in east Africa?
In parts of Africa and Spain (Valencia), ancient cave paintings exist that clearly depict people collecting honey from beehives. There is a long tradition of keeping bees in east Africa but this is not well documented until Europeans arrived.
For Example Alverez described Ethiopia as: ‘The whole land is overflowing with honey’. Each tribal community have their own traditions of bee keeping handed down from father to son.
What type of products can you sell if you keep bees?
You can sell primarily honey and also beeswax. Some beekeepers sell propolis and royal jelly but these are not common in Africa. Honey is the main product sold by bee keepers in Kenya.
How is honey made? And how long does it takes?
Honey starts out as nectar in flowers, which is harvested by honey bees and then turned into honey. Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid, comprising of about 80% water, coupled with complex sugars and is produced in plants by the nectary glands.
The worker bees use their long, tube-like tongues to suck nectar out of flowers and plants, which they then collect in their 'honey stomachs'.
Bees are perfectly equipped to carry out this job, as in addition to the regular stomach, they have a stomach (the honey stomach), which is meant especially to store the nectar they collect.
The honey stomach has the capacity to store almost 70mg of nectar and when full, almost equals the weight of the bee.
On an average, honeybees visit between 100 and 1,500 flowers, in order to fill their honey stomachs.
Once the bees return to the hive with the nectar, it is then passed on to the other worker bees, who suck the nectar from the honeybee's stomach using their mouths.
They then 'chew' the nectar for a while, and this is when the bees' digestive enzymes break down the complex sugars into simple sugars. This ensures that the honey stored within the hive, is easily digestible for the bees and less likely to be attacked by bacteria. It is then stored in cells throughout the honey comb.
At this point, the nectar still has a fairly high water content, which causes the natural yeasts to ferment the sugars. The next stage in the process of making honey has all the bees fanning the nectar with their wings, which creates a draft and helps the excess water to evaporate.
The nectar becomes thicker and the high sugar concentration prevents fermentation.
The honey at this stage is called ripe honey and if removed from the hive and properly sealed can have a long shelf life. The bees then seal off the cells with wax and the honey is stored until needed.
Bees can fill a hive with honey in a relatively short time where there is a good flow of nectar – bees can fill a hive with honey within a week.
Why is the price of honey so high at the moment?
The price of honey is high in many African countries due to the shortage in production relative to the demand. For example in some African countries the price of a kilogramme of honey can be as high as $10. This is far higher than the world market price of $1 to $2 per kilogramme.
Is it hard to process honey from combs into jars?
Essentially it is a very easy process – simply uncap the combs and allow the honey to drain through a sieve cloth. This honey can then be packed into jars.
What is the structure of a bee colony?
We have one queen bee, a few hundred male bees called drones and the vast majority of the bees are workers. Workers do all the work and are sexually immature females. The queen is a sexually mature female and lays all the eggs. The drones do no work except mate with an unfertilised queen when the opportunity arises.
How does a bee become a queen?
When conditions are favorable for swarming the queen will start laying eggs in queen cups. A virgin queen will develop from a fertilized egg. The fertilized egg is identical to eggs which will develop into worker bees. The young queen larva develops differently because it is more heavily fed royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion from glands on the heads of young workers.
All honey bee larvae are fed some royal jelly for the first few days after hatching but only queen larvae are fed on it exclusively.
As a result of the difference in diet, the queen will develop into a sexually mature female, unlike the worker bees.
Can beekeepers rear bees and sell them on?
Yes they can but very few actually do in countries like Kenya. The defensive nature of the bees does make it more difficult. People in Ethiopia however regularly sell bee colonies so I think this has potential as a means to earn additional income for some enterprising beekeepers.
Are the problems with colony collapse affecting the African bee?
Not that we know. There are no chemicals used in African beekeeping. There are also no imports of bees which might be transferring viruses into bee populations such as in the US and other developed countries.
However, in many African countries there is little or no research on African bees so we don't know but colony collapse disorder appears to be a condition of intensely managed bee colonies unlike African beekeeping which is more 'free range'!
Are African bees threatened by other diseases?
There are bee diseases in Africa – however the prevalence of bee diseases is not widely researched or known.
I remember a study a few years ago of Kenyan bees, which showed that they were very healthy.
The primary problem for bees in Africa is pests – ants, wax moth, honey badgers and man! Varroa mites are also spreading in some African countries (a parasitic pest of bees).
Is it expensive for a family in an African country to keep honey bees?
No – a hive can be made from local materials such as mud, cow dung and sticks. A bee suit can be made from used sacks and a smoker from a tin can.
The bees themselves are free – wild bees. The key ingredients often lacking are knowledge and skills.
Is it dangerous to keep bees?
Yes it can be dangerous. But then keeping a bull in Ireland can also be dangerous! People have been stung and killed by African bees. However with the right skills and knowledge bees can be kept safely.
Can technology help people become better bee keepers?
Yes, technology can assist people in Africa to become better beekeepers. However the technology must be appropriate to the needs of the people. It is not a magic solution to solve all their beekeeping problems – technology needs to be adapted to local needs using research.
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