Stages Of Beekeeping

Beekilling, Behaving and Beekeeping

Folks know that everyone with a box with bees inside is a beekeeper! I would say NO unless that person practices the right principles of beekeeping.

Yes, here in Wampiti, we followed the three stages of beekeeping in their proper order though it causes a big damage to the ecology.
People begun as honey hunters who would go and break open the nests of bees in search for honey and this practice involved a lot of colonies getting destroyed.
They didn’t realize that keeping bees in boxes or logs was more comfortable and convenient than going into the jungle hunting them. Therefore this stage is known as the beekilling stage because it involved killing bees. This must have taken very many years until 1990’s when I also happened to be a culprit. The trick involved in honey hunting was simple but very dangerous to the environment; open the nest apart, harvest everything (clear the nest without leaving combs in), burn the nest when bees attacks aggressively or disappoints you with no or very little honey. Usually honey hunters would start wild fires during the dry season when they leave fire burning in the destroyed bee nests!

When people realized that they can hang logs (calabash, woven or pots) between the branches of trees, would help them have honey in just a close by environment, they took up the idea, hung logs [hives] and swarms colonized them. Here we see people have bees in their own hives but have no idea or skills on how to manage the bees though they knew that the bees store honey and when time come people should harvest that honey against all cost.
People had only one skill; if the bees are more aggressive you burn them. Harvesting time was the only time the hive owner would go to the hive and this must be done at night when it is dark. A flame torch must be handy otherwise no job to do at the hive! Therefore this stage was behaving stage. People were just keeping bees without any managerial skills.
Beehives could only be visited during harvesting and this means beehives were checked only 3 times a year! Brood couldn’t be left in a hive by the owner claiming that when you remove brood combs from the hive, the bees could resort to storing honey. This weakened colonies and left many hives weak. People associated this to pruning of fruit trees! At this stage, people in Wampiti had no knowledge about protective gears and smokers!

After having bees for several years, volunteers came in and taught members how to manage bees and how to keep bees for profitable honey production. Now this stage is called the beekeeping stage. This stage involves all modern practices such as using frames and bars, inspecting bees for pests and diseases, providing good sites, providing bees with water and many others.
This stage also includes colony multiplication practices as well as queen rearing. During this stage, fewer bees are destroyed or killed unlike beekilling and beehaving stages where bees are killed so often during harvesting. Protective gears and smokers are used to ease manipulations.

Like in any enterprise, seeking knowledge is very important. Please join beekeeping clubs and associations, visit other beekeepers and attend seminars to acquire more skills and knowledge in beekeeping.
Above all; bees are the best teachers!

Today, there are very few wild bees since there are very few big trees which would accommodate bees; there are no more honey hunting practices!

And above of all there is no honey stealing anymore.

Our beekeeping history is full of fun>>

Avoid contaminating honey

How to avoid honey contamination

Bees collect nectar from various flowers and use it to create honey, during this process enzymes are added and the water content is reduced to 20% and below. They store the honey in cells of honeycomb and seal these cells with beeswax when honey is ripe. Honey which has been sealed is clean, pure and of perfect quality. The low water content of ripe honey enables it to be stored for long periods without going bad.

The color and taste of the honey depend on the types of plants on which the bees have foraged.

A beekeeper who wants to sell honey into a high value market must harvest honey without reducing its quality. Bits of wax, propolis, brood, dead bees, and dirt contaminate honey.

If the water content is too high it will ferment. Honey is hygroscopic and that means it readily absorbs water. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the exposure of honey to moisture is minimized by packaging it in airtight containers after harvesting.

Too much smoke stains honey and a beekeeper should be very careful while choosing the fuel to use in the smoker. Items such as plastic, cow dung, and mango leaves give off smoke with a bad odor!

Good quality honey is:
-ripe honey from capped honeycomb
-free from scraps of wax or any other contaminants
-processed using clean equipment
-stored in a clean and dry environment

Therefore a beekeeper should do the following to avoid contaminating the honey:
-Use less smoke while harvesting to avoid staining honey.
-Never use materials which give a smelly smoke.
-Don’t mix brood combs with honey combs
-Cover honey in airtight bucket to avoid ants and dust from contaminating and avoid the honey absorbing additional moisture from the environment
-During harvesting maintain hygiene standards – clean hands and use clean buckets, knives.
Avoid crushing bees; always brush off bees from combs before adding them into the bucket
-Keep your apiary clean always to avoid contamination like weed seeds and leaves from mixing with honey during harvesting.

Harvesting honey from fixed comb hives

Honey from fixed comb hives (log hives)

Equipment for harvesting fixed comb hives usually consists of a container in which to carry away the honey and a means of making smoke to subdue the bees (like a bundle of sticks and grass [this is now replaced by smokers now days]). Wait until the flame is extinguished before gently blowing smoke into the hive.

Most local style tropical African hives are cylindrical and can be harvested without the beekeeper needing any protective clothing. As the beekeeper blows smoke into one end of the hive, the bees move down to the other end and the combs at the first end can be removed with relatively little disturbance to the bees. If the beekeeper finds the brood at the opened end, they will have to close that end and open the other end instead.

Beekeepers sometimes use too much smoke, and even fire, to harvest from fixed comb hives. This can destroy a large proportion of the colony and drastically reduce the quality of honey. The aim should be always to preserve the colony. Do not disturb the brood nest anymore than necessary.

Note: Honey is the bees’ food. Only take surplus honey and leave the rest for them. Never harvest in the rain: this would cause great stress for the honey bee colony and increase the water content of the honey.