Blog

This course unit is designed to enhance the learners’ knowledge on the science and art of beekeeping with special focus on beekeeping in Kenya. We think that the content is appropriate for any beekeeper in Sub-sahara Africa. Beekeeping is a less capital intensive investment can combine with other land use options such as agriculture and conservation rather well. It is anticipated that by the end of this blog course, the learner will have the knowledge and skill to successfully start and run sustainably an improved/ modern beekeeping enterprise.

Bees and their products, especially honey has been very important throughout the history of mankind. Their benefits range from agricultural in pollination of farmlands to nutritional by providing honey to medicinal to economical, just to describe a few. Among the greatest advantage beekeeping has to other farming options is that it neither requires much capital nor space.

Summary of learning outcomes:

To achieve this unit the learner should be able to:

1. Describe the importance of beekeeping at household and national level
2. Describe the behaviour of bees
3. Demonstrate the ability and knowledge to establish and manage a modern apiary
4. Appreciate the economic and environmental potential of beekeeping

History and importance of beekeeping

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) is the foundation of beekeeping. It is among the most common and the most known insects in the world.

Definition of terms

Apiary

This is the place where bee colonies are kept. It is also called a bee yard

Beekeeping

This refers to the science and art of managing bees for honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, bee pollen, royal jelly or venom and provision of various by products and services.

Hive

It refers to a man made container which honey bee colony makes its home.

Colony

This refers to a community of bees.

History of beekeeping

In 1851, a man called Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth discovered the idea of bee space. Bee space refers to a space of 7 mm that must always remain between two frames or combs. It is this idea that is used in making hives in modern bee keeping.

The attempts to modernize beekeeping in Kenya began in around 1950s when colonial government set up honey collection centers in semi arid areas of Kenya. These centres mainly dealt with honey collection and not production. This made people to destroy hives to collect honey. Consequently, bees were either burnt out completely or swarmed to establish new colonies. These honey collecting centres collapsed shortly due to this and mismanagement.

After independence, a 10 year national beekeeping project (1971-1981) was established. Through the project, The Kenya Top Bar Hive and other equipment were developed. A beekeeping section was established within the Ministry of Agriculture and a National Beekeeping Station established in Ngong Forest near Lenana High School. The station is a great resource centre for any person undertaking a beekeeping initiative in Kenya.

Potential of beekeeping in Kenya

Beekeeping in Kenya can be a viable business venture because:

• Over 80% of land in Kenya is suitable for beekeeping
• Kenya has the potential of producing 100,000 tonnes of honey and 10,000 tonnes of wax annually. Currently only 20% of this potential is tapped.
• With major lifestyle diseases, natural products like honey have bigger markets.
• Globally, there is concern on the reduction of honey bees

Major problems facing apiaculture in Kenya

Despite the great potential of beekeeping, major challenges also face beekeepers including:

• Defensive nature of the African honey bee
• Inadequate training for the extension staff and farmers
• Lack of effective pest control measures
• Poor marketing structures

The Government of Kenya is encouraging beekeeping to rural areas so as to provide additional income.

Economic importance of bees

Bees whether wild or kept in apiaries are useful. Some of the importance uses of bees include:

• Production of nutritious foods such as honey, bee pollen and royal jelly.
• Income generation from the sale of bee products
• Pollination of most food crops
• Contribution to biodiversity. Bees help sustain natural habitats through pollination and hence reproduction of plants in these habitats.
• A number of bee products are used in treatment of diseases.

*Can you think of other importance of bees?

Important Bee behaviour a beekeeper should know

Bee colony

A single honey-bee cannot live for very long on its own. There would be no point in doing so. A worker bee cannot reproduce; a queen bee cannot construct comb, collect food or even feed herself; and a drone bee is able to accomplish only one task and that is to mate. All three castes of honey-bee that live in a colony of bees – the queen, the worker and the drone – therefore can live only as part of a colony. When you first look into a hive and see thousands of bees apparently moving around at random and flying off the comb in all directions, the colony appears to be a place of chaos. But it isn’t. All this movement has a purpose. Let us first look at the different caste in a honey bee colony:

There is usually one queen bee in a colony, the drones can number to a few hundreds while the worker bees can be as many as 50,000 in a colony. All life in a hive is dictated by the queen.

The major function of the queen is to lay eggs and reproduce. This is important since the life expectancy of the worker bee is only around 1 month. The queen is also responsible for maintaining cohesion of the colony and is the matriarch. The drone function is to mate with the queen, since the queen only mates once in her lifetime, the drones virtually have no job in the colony!

The worker bee is a busy bee. The saying as busy as a bee should be specific to worker bees. She almost does everything in the bee hive. Scientists have discovered that the division of labour among the worker bee depends on her age. During her first days, the worker will be cleaning the cells, when 3-10 days old, she would take care of the queen, build wax and feed the young ones. At 15-20 days old, she would build wax, process nectar, guard the hive and do undertaking. When mature (21-35 days) the worker bee will forage for nectar, water and pollen. She is also responsible for the colony’s defence.

Special bee behaviour

There are bee behaviours that are of interest to a bee farmer and they include:

• Swarming
• Migration
• Supercedure
• Absconding
• Aggressiveness

You can research more on each of these behaviours. The National Farmers Information Service provides a detailed explanation of the honeybee behaviour and communication 

Communication methods in bees

Bees communicate by various stimuli such as physical stimuli (dances) and chemical stimuli (pheromones).

The honey bee dances

The dance language of honeybees was discovered by Karl von Frisch (1967). While observing bees, Karl noted that the scout bees would go to look for nectar source. The other worker bees would go to the flowers without the scout, it therefore meant that the worker bee must have received directions from the scout. The scout gave direction by use of dances and various dances have been recorded in hives including:

• Circular or round dance
• Waggle dance
• Sickle dance

Watch honeybee Waggle dance here

Pheromones

Pheromones are substances produced by one individual but will cause a particular response to members of the same species. Pheromones are produced from glands and include the following:

• Nasanov gland that produce pheromones to help worker bees find the hive
• Koschevnikov glands is an alarm pheromone. After stinging, the pheromone attract other bees to sting the same place.
• Mandibular gland of the queen produces pheromones that have a variety of functions including attracting drones during mating flights.

Beekeeping equipment

Now that you have learnt the history, importance and behaviour of bees, lets get down to the serious activity of beekeeping.

The hive

This is the structure in which bees live and raise their young ones. There are mainly three types of hives used in Kenya:

• Log hive (traditional hive)
• Kenya top bar hive
• Langstroth hive

Modern hives in beekeeping are Langstroth and Kenya top bar hive. The major advantage of a modern hive is that it has moveable frames and this makes inspection and general working with the bees easier.

Other beekeeping equipment

The smoker

This equipment is for providing smoke. Smoke calms the bees and makes working with the bees easier. Never go to a hive without a smoker! Make sure you have enough fuel to smoke, fuel can be old cloth rags, grass or wood shavings.

The catcher box

This is a small box used for trapping swarms which are later transferred to the hives.

Hive tool

This is a knifelike iron bar used for scrapping propolis from the top bars. It is also used for prying top bars apart.

Bee brush

This is made of soft sisal fibres and is used to sweep off the bees from the comb during honey harvesting.

Bee suit

This is a set of protective clothing put on while working with the bees in order to avoid stings. It consists of an overall covering the whole body, a veil for the head, a pair of gloves for the hands and a pair of gumboots for the feet.

Queen excluder

This is a framed wire mesh in a hive. It serves two functions:

• Restrict the queen to the brood area so that the workers can store clean honey in the comb cells
• It prevents the colony from swarming since the bees will not leave the honey without the queen.

Feeder box

It is used to feed the colony sugary syrup in seasons when there are fewer flowers.

Other beekeeping equipment include honey extractors, wax press and wax melter.

Apiary establishment and management

Factors to consider that are important to bees and beekeepers

Knowledge of the bee plants

An individual should know the flowering patterns of important bee plants. Other important information about bee plants include:

• Duration of the flowering plants.
• Know the period between budding and actual flowering
• Plant selected should be high nectar and pollen producers.

Forests, woodlands and even grasslands with flowering herbs and shrubs can be areas for beekeeping. Agricultural crops that have high nectar such as sunflower, coffee, legumes, bananas are also good for beekeepers.

Source of water

Bees require water for various uses such as:

• Cooling the hive
• Feeding larvae
• For their own use.

Apiary should be close to water. If water is not available, it can be supplied in containers with floating sticks for the bees to step to avoid drowning.

Human conflicts

Apiary location should be away from public places such as schools, highways and estates so that the bees do not disturb the people. Although honey is sweet, the bees also sting!

Fence/hedge

Trees and bushes can surround the apiary so that the bees fly high when leaving and returning the apiary thus reducing the risk of becoming a nuisance to the nearby activities. Fencing also helps to prevent animals that might disturb the bees.

Shelter

Colonies should be sheltered from the sun, wind and floods. Wind causes drifting of bees and poor communication.

Drainage

A well drained place is recommended to avoid absconding due to high humidity. Waterlogged soils cause the rotting of hives and posts.

Accessibility

The area must be accessible to motorists, beekeeper and human traffic.

Pests

The apiary must be free from areas with frequent attacks by pests e.g. honey badger, ants and man

Fire hazard

Avoid locations with frequent bush fires. It is wise to cut the grass short to minimize fire hazards.

Routine management of apiaries

Inspection

Honeybees colonies should be inspected at least once a month. The purpose is to know your bees well, know the colonies that are of good temperament, top honey producers, hardworking, etc. It is good  to know which colonies are best to multiply.

It is also important to check if the hives structures are stable, standing well and if there is nail coming out, replace it. Sometimes complete repair of the hive might be necessary.

Cleaning

Keep the apiary clean by slashing all the weeds and grass around the apiary. This puts away pests such as ants and beetles.

Greasing

Wires are greased to avoid other insects like ants to crawl inside the hive.

Bee behaviour

Check for abnormal bee behaviours such as bees clustering around the entrance. This might mean that bees lack space due to overpopulation or un-harvested honey. It could also mean that there is too much heat in the hive or bees want to swarm.

Record keeping

Record keeping is important to any bee farmer. The records to be kept can include the following:

• Date and time of last inspection
• Age of the queen
• Date of last harvest
• Amount of honey in stores
• Characteristic of the hive
• Swarming records
• Cash flows

Honey harvesting

• The ideal time of harvesting honey is in the evening (after 7.00 Pm)
• Do not harvest honey in rainy weather because honey may absorb water and become too watery
• Use a bee suit and a smoker always. Never use fire!.
• Harvest combs that are at least two thirds capped or sealed full of honey. Uncapped honey contain too much water and will start to ferment.
• Cut away the comb leaving around 1cm for bees to build combs
• Do not harvest the brood so that the bees continue to produce honey and not to swarm.
• Observe general hygiene while handling honey. Remember honey is food!
• Do not store honey in metal containers

Here is a video about essential skills needed in the nursery

Honeybee products

Bees produce various products for various uses. The products include honey, propolis and bee pollen which are plant products modified/changed by bees. Beeswax, royal jelly and bee venom are made by bees themselves.

1. Honey: honey is used for various purposes in different cultures. This includes use as food, food additive or medicine. Never boil honey as this destroys its flavor and medicinal characteristics. While handling honey, please remember it is food and should be handled in the cleanest way possible.

2. Propolis: this is a sticky black or brown substance that is used by bees in sealing holes in the hive, embalming/ covering dead hive invaders that cannot be removed or to repair combs. Hundreds of chemical compounds are found in propolis and which can be used in manufacture of medicine e.g. for ulcer healing, anti-viral, anti-histamine, anti-inflammatory etc.

3. Bee venom: the purpose of venom is to defend bees from its predators. The venom is transmitted through stinging. The bee dies after stinging. Bee venom has over 60 components which can be used medicinally in treating rheumatic disorders such as gout, arthritis and is even investigated in treating cancer. Some people claim that it is also a good for people suffering from HIV and AIDS.

4. Royal Jelly: this is a white creamy substance produced from mandibular glands of worker bees and is used to feed developing and mature queen bees. It is used to make cosmetic and skin care products. It can also be used as specialized health food.
5. Beeswax: beeswax is the primary material used for making combs. The combs are used for rearing brood and storing honey and pollen. Beeswax is produced from wax glands in bees. Man uses beeswax for various purposes including making polish, capsule coating and candles.

6. Bee pollen: it refers to pollen of plants found in hives. The pollen is usually from variety of plants therefore the pollen will vary from hive to hive. Bee pollen is used by bees for food and the first three days of the life a bee, the diet is usually pollen after which they eat honey. The diet of the queen is however royal jelly.

Importance of Honeybee in Modern Agriculture

Majority of agricultural crops are dependent on insect activity for their pollination. The bees are efficient pollinators because they are active all year round, have long tongue, have body hair coverage, have large colony population and they frequently visit crops. However, monoculture, use of insecticides, use of greenhouses may make the bees or other insects less effective in pollination. 

Beekeeping as business

Many financial benefits can arise from keeping bees. These range from selling products such as honey to selling services such as pollination by hiring out bees!

In starting a beekeeping business, one should first list all the equipment necessary for honey production. If finances are limiting, as is often the case, one can start the beekeeping with basic equipment such as hives and hive tools and might either acquire slowly the rest equipment or hire them if need arises. Things like protective clothing and honey extractors can be hired.

Marketing honey

Good quality honey can fetch good prices. Therefore one should ensure his/her honey is clean and of highest grade. Honey can be sold as crude honey, refined honey, comb honey or chunk honey.

Storing and packing honey

1. Honey should be stored in clean dry sealed containers
2. Pack honey in plastic or glass jars
3. The containers should be preferably see-through so that customers can see the product
4. Metal containers are not good for storing honey because honey is acidic and may eat through the containers
5. You should not store honey in other containers that have held anything other than food products before e.g. motor oil or paraffin containers.