Apiconsult News - May 2006

Your African Beekeeping Newsletter

May 2006 Edition
 
Welcome to this issue of Nyuki (meaning bee is Swahili Language).  Thank you o­nce again for subscribing to this e newsletter.  Please send any comments o­n the e newsletter to tcarroll@apiconsult.com

Tom Carroll

Webmaster Apiconsult

-----May in a Kenyan Apiary-----

I checked the bees last week and we have 5 occupied hives in the apiary (Bee House).  There are a total of 17 hives in the apiary – 3 Langstroth Frame hives, 2 Tanzania top bar hives and 12 Kenyan Top Bar Hives (KTBH).  All of the 5 occupied hives are KTBH (Kenya Top Bar Hives).  Four colonies survived the dry season (January to April) and another was occupied recently by a swarm of bees.  I did not feed bees during the dry season and lost 2 colonies which absconded.  The last remaining occupied Langstroth hive had absconded and left the combs which were then infested by wax moth.  You can see a picture of the aftermath at http://www.apiconsult.com/Langstroth_wax_moth.jpg

It is allot harder to clean up the mess using a frame hive than with a top bar.  With a top bar hive you just scrape everything clean and start again.  With the frame hive you have to repair frames and re-insert foundation (which is expensive and not easily available in Kenya).

From o­ne of the KTBH I harvested 4 Kgs of comb honey.  None of the other colonies had any honey and all appeared in good condition – plenty of brood and strong colonies building up well. 

What Next?

Since I know from experience the main honey flow occurs between September and December I reckon that if I make an effort between now and July in getting all empty hives occupied then I have a good chance of getting an excellent honey crop.  I will occupy hives using divisions and trying to catch passing swarms of bees using catcher boxes (miniature hives hanging in trees – the swarms are later transferred to full size hives). 

Low hive occupation by bees is a great problem in Kenyan beekeeping with occupation rates between 30-75% recorded in a recent survey in Kitui District, Kenya. 

-----Participatory Action Research o­n beekeeping-----

On Friday I was working with a group of beekeeping farmer researchers looking at key issues they face.  Three separate groups came up with the same issue as their number o­ne priority – low hive occupation rates.  The farmers will research the issue for the next two months and then come together again to share their findings and then decide what to do about the problem and take action.  We are looking forward to improve beekeeping through this process.  I will give a summary of the farmer findings in the next newsletter.

-----Dates for your diary-----

·          Baraka Agricultural College, Molo, Kenya has a o­ne-week course o­n 'Establishing a Beekeeping Enterprise' from August 6^th-12^th 2006.  See the apiconsult web site for more details o­n other Baraka Agricultural College beekeeping courses this year – http://www.apiconsult.com/beekeeping-training.htm

Please Note:  If you run training courses o­n beekeeping in other countries please forward details to us to help you promote your service.

If you would like more information or have any questions/comments, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Best regards,
 
Tom Carroll
Apiconsult
The African Beekeeping Resource Centre

Box 3354, Nairobi, Kenya.

Tel:  254 733 716948
Web Site: http://www.apiconsult.com
E-mail:  info@apiconsult.com