Bees are purely agricultural

Agriculture is the practice of cultivating land, rearing animals, keeping bees and keeping birds.
First of all agriculture is fully functional when there is rainfall that is to irrigate the land in order to grow what is sown. Therefore every aspect of agriculture has to be influenced by rainfall forexample animal keepers need rainfall for pastures to grow and later they feed it to the animals. The crop growers also depend on rainfall for water to irrigate their crops in order to grow into useful produce. The beekeepers in a same way need rainfall for the plants to produce flowers where bees will collect nectar from for storing as honey and their food.

Everyone involved in agriculture directly especially in beekeeping should take note of the following; agriculture has risks and uncertainities: therefore beekeeping has risks and uncertainities.

Beekeeping is faced with risks and uncertainities like flactuations in production (yields vary according to season), yields are unpredictable and asset availability especially in african bees is unpredictable (bees can abscond any time).

Beekeeping is seasonal! I always tell people who normally ask me for honey especially when i don't have honey that honey is not available until the next season. And they ask me why? ....we thought you just go to the hive and pick more honey like a brewer could with alcohol....

....and this is my casual answer; bees are like beans which germinate, grow and flower during the rainy season or rainy months and then dry during the dry months. So for the case of bees, they have to wait for flowers to come and they collect nectar and they must make sure they store enough nectar which turn into honey which is their lifeline food when there are no flowers or during dry season and the bees have never kept honey for humans!

Therefore beekeeping is seasonal and has risks and uncertainities like any other agricultural practice; production will vary depending on the season's influencing factors such as rainfall, pests and diseases, management and many others.
New beekeepers don't think that it's a matter of hunging a KTBH and then go back to harvest 25kg of honey for everytime you go to work the hive.

Causes of Absconding

Causes of absconding in African bees

When bees leave as a whole colony and leave the hive empty is what we call absconding. There are many causes of absconding and here we can point out a few of them.
1. Hive location.
The location of a beehive is very important because bees normally don't want too much heat therefore the hive shouldn't be in direct sunshine. This applies to bees in African setting. And also bees don't want damp areas therefore the temperature should be balanced. a beehive shouldn’t be located in direct wind direction which normally inconvenience bees.
2. Pests
Pests like rats, mice, beetles, lizards, birds and many others can easily force bees to leave the hive to run away from the inconveniences caused by these pests. Therefore a routine hive inspection is recommended to stop these pests from invading the hive. Termites are known for destroying wooden hive bodies as well as other crawling insects which nest in the hive.
3. Poor harvesting practice.
This involved 2 ways; when you harvest all the honey and even the brood when annoys the bees and when you poorly and aggressively handle the bees during harvesting like hitting the hive, scorching then with fire and crashing them. Bees should be manipulated gently without panic and hurrying. This will not destabilize the bees so much hence avoiding absconding.
4. Bad hive conditions.
Broken hive bodies and leaking hive covers can easily lead to absconding. Hives with no covers which allow wind and rain to enter into the nest freely and inconvenience bees eventually lead to absconding.
5. Size of the bee hive
The size of a bee hive is very important especially a small bee hive shall be abandoned by bees when their population grows big and strong, they will look for a big hollow to stay in than a small limited hive. Also bees may abscond from a too big hive in search for an average to nest in. This is due to cases like bees may not be able to regulate the temperature in the big hive and defend it well; they will leave it in search for a good size.
6. Nectar sources
When bees have to move a look distance in search of water and nectar, usually get ware out fast and tired by the end of the day. This will in no time drive away in search of a better location, situated near nectar sources and water.
7. Pesticides
Some pesticides used in spraying in gardens and animals are very poisonous to bees. For example when cows are sprayed with unfriendly pesticide and are grazed near an apiary, the bees will get affected and will consequently abscond. Spraying crops near apiaries with a bad pesticide will cause absconding to nearby affected colonies. Beekeepers are advised to use only bee-friendly pesticides with words: Non toxic to bees.

Note:
Naturally, African bees are known for absconding easily even when conditions are equally favoring.
African bees also abscond frequently from KTBH or modern hives than from logo hives or traditional hives. This has lead to many beekeepers say that modern beehives are less productive than traditional beehives. This has been confirmed in various parts of Uganda by experienced beekeepers and beginners.

Beekeepers are advised to use both traditional and modern hives for transitional purposes.

Bees in a Termite hill

Rescuing bees from a termite hill

On 18th March 2014, I was invited to extract bees from a termite-hill which was in a plot of land where constructing was going to take place very soon. And this termite hill was just a few metres (10metres) from the road.  Bees normally nest in termite hills when abandoned by termites since they have possess hollows enough for bees to live in. this is also common because a few bees are domesticated and most of the huge trees have been cut down due to urbanization and charcoal burning. Well these were the traditional nests for bees and bees could nest in the hollow parts on these trees. Bees cannot easily nest on branches of trees in an open (as swarms) because there are a lot of predators like birds, lizards, insects and human beings!
The person who called me said; if you love bees, come and rescue them or else I am going to buy petrol and use it to set fire on them! Of course as a beekeeper and a hobbyist, I had to run fast and rescue the bees.
The manipulation process was simple and easy. I dug a hole on the side of the hill. Note, the bees had their entrance right on the top of the hill and this helped when I covered the entrance with a box as I manipulate.
After opening into the nest chamber, I began puffing smoke into the nest which drove bees up into the box where they collected. This lasted for over 30 minutes until all bees including the queen abandoned the combs in the nest chamber to seek refuge in the box.
When all bees were in the box, I removed the combs which I tied on the bars which I put in the hive where I moved and installed the bees.
I covered the box as bees when on the upper side and carried them into the new hive.. All this happened from 6pm up to 2pm. I decided to use that period of time purposely to collect all bees including the foragers since by then all have come back and the place of scene was too close to a road therefore I didn't want to inconvenience people using the road. Likely some people stopped by to watch the proceedings though I and Amos we constantly requested them to keep distance.

The operation was successful and the bees are happily living in their new home and we rescued them from killers.