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>>