| A floral calendar
for beekeeping is a time-table that indicates to the beekeeper the
approximate date and duration of the blossoming periods of the important
honey and pollen plants in his or her local area. An example of
a Kenyan floral calendar is presented below. Clck on the calendar
below for a larger image.
The experienced beekeeper will have acquired much
of this information over the years but in Africa this type of documented
information is difficult to come by. As a new beekeeper you will
more than likely have to rely on yourself to document this information.
As a starting point you can consult experienced beekeepers (including
traditional beekeepers) in your area and your local government extension
service for assistance. The information could be known locally but
may not be written down.
To complicate the matter vegetation and climate vary
over short distances (in Kenya at least) so you really have to work
out your own calendar. It is highly unlikely that someone has already
done it for your area.
The floral calendar is very useful for the beekeeper.
It enables him/her to know when to expect flowering and subsequent
harvesting of honey. It will also allow the beekeeper to know when
to carry out bee management tasks such as preparing colonies for
the nectar flow, hunger periods etc.
Assembling a floral calendar for any specific area
is simple but time-consuming. It requires observation of the seasonal
changes in the vegetation patterns and the foraging behaviour of
the bees, and the manner in which the honeybee colonies interact
with their floral environment. The accuracy of a floral calendar,
and hence its practical value, depend solely on the careful recording
of the beginning and end of the flowering season of the plants and
how they affect the bees. The preparation of an accurate, detailed
calendar will therefore often require several years of repeated
recording and refinement of the information obtained.
The steps normally taken in building up a floral calendar
are as follows:
1. The beekeeper makes a general survey of the area, drawing up
a list of flowering plants found, special attention being paid to
plants with a high floral population density per unit area or per
tree.
2. He/she places several strong honeybee colonies
in the area, inspecting the hives regularly and observing changes
in the amount of food stored within the hive to determine whether
it is depleted, stable or increasing. Any food gains or losses can
be monitored accurately by weighing the hives. If possible one of
the hives can be set up as a scale hive (on a weighing scale).
3. At the same time that he/she monitors the hives'
food stores he/she surveys areas in the vicinity of the apiary and
within the flight range of the bees (approx 3km radious), to record
the species of plants that the bees visit.
4. He/she determines whether the plants are visited
for nectar or for pollen. Pollen-foragers will have pollen pellets
attached to their hind legs. To determine whether the bees visit
flowers for nectar the observer squeezes the abdomen of individual
bees to obtain a drop of regurgitated nectar, tasting it for sweetness
or measuring the nectar concentration with a hand refractometer.
5. He/she studies the frequency with which the bees
visit each flower species, in relation to changes in the level of
the colonies' food stores. If there is a continuous increase in
food stores, in direct response to the availability of the plants
visited, the plants are good forage sources. When the food stores
remain stable, the plants can be depended upon to meet the colonies'
daily food requirements, but they cannot be classified as major
honey sources.
6. He/she carefully records all the changes in the
blossoming of the plants visited. When the colonies begin to lose
weight, the flowering season is finished for all practical purposes.
7. In Africa you need to record the weather conditions.
When do the rains/dry seasons begin and end. How do these seasons
relate to the flowering of the bee plants? You should also make
notes of bee behaviour relating to your calendar. When do bee colonies
migrate into your area? When do your bee colonies swarm? When do
colonies abscond (if any)? Try and understand this information on
bee behaviour in relation to your floral calendar.
The information contained in your floral calendar,
refined over years of observation, will assist you to become a very
good beekeeper allowing you to fine tune your bee colony management
increasing your yields of honey.
The information in your floral calendar could assist
other beekeepers in your area/country. Please email your calendar
to Apiconsult for publication
and share the knowledge!
Reference for this article:
Beekeeping in Asia by Pongthep Akratanakul
Chapter 3 Bee forage and floral calendars
FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 68/4
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
Rome, 1990
See the following:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0083e/X0083E04.htm
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