BeeKeeping: Part 1

Insects and Bees

The insects (from Latin 'in', in, 'secare', cut), or hexapods (from Greek: 'hex', six, and 'pous, podos' foot) are characterized by always having six limbs. Insects breathe air. Their heads have two compound eyes. The thorax is divided into three parts, the prothorax which carries a pair of legs, the mesothorax which carries a pair of legs and a pair of wings, the metathorax which carries a pair of legs and sometimes a pair of wings. Insects always have the sexes separate. The larva after hatching from the egg undergoes a series of metamorphoses until it comes to resemble its parents. Because of their intelligence and organization, insects are superior to other invertebrates. The 600,000 known species of insect are divided into eight orders: orthoptera (grasshoppers), neuropteran (ant-lions), odonata (dragonflies), hemiptera (bugs), diptera (fleas), Lepidoptera (butterflies), coleoptera (cockchafers) and hymenoptera. The hymenoptera (from the Greek 'humen', membrane, and 'pteron', wing) are characterized by four membranous wings. Hymenoptera denotes the class of insects that is most highly organized from the point of view of intelligence, to such an extent that their manifestations overwhelm ours. And yet we still only have partial knowledge of their qualities, such as how many there are of them; for the 25,000 known species indicate that there may be as many as 250,000.

The hymenoptera comprise two groups: the sawflies and sting-bearers.

· The sawflies have an abdominal terebra for sawing or perforating plants. In this group is the class Cephus, in which is found the larva in the haulm which bears the ear of corn, and Lydia piri, whose larvae spin a kind of silk net enveloping several pear leaves.

· The sting-bearers have a sting at the end of their abdomen. Some are parasites whose mission is often to destroy harmful insects, or carnivores like the common wasp or the hornet whose larvae need a supply of insects or meat, and the bee wolf (Philanthus triangulum) which constantly rummages around on the ground to find larvae to feed on and which eats many bees. The others are Formicoidea or ants, which, after the bees, are insects best endowed from the point of view of intelligence, and finally the Apides.

The Apides or honey-bearers are the bees. They feed their larvae on honey. There are about 1,500 species. They include:

§ Some which are solitary, like Osmia, in holes in walls or in cavities of decaying timber.

§ Others which form social groups, such as the social bees including bumble-bees, stingless bees (Melipona) and the common bee or Apis mellifera. The bumble-bees, large, very hairy insects, live only in small groups and make their nests below ground. Apart from the Apis mellifera, some other main species of the genus Apis include: Apis dorsata (the giant honeybee), Apis laboriosa (the darker giant honeybee), Apis florea (the dwarf honeybee), and Apis cerana.

The Melipona are very small, live in large colonies, because they have several queens, and are found only in tropical countries.

The honey bee, Apis mellifera, is our focus in this topic.

Beekeeping/Apiculture

Honey is the most popular natural sweetener in the world and has been adjudged the sweetest feed for man. The world trade of honey and other bee product is worth millions of dollars every year. Due to its diverse use, the world wide consumption of honey is so huge that supply can barely cope with demand. Africa consumes more than 3 times the amount of honey is produces. The major producers of honey in Africa include: Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania which supplies most of the continents honey. Other countries like Nigeria and South Africa, although have large market, still are unable to meet their demands for bee products. Beekeeping is an ideal home-based and low capital requiring business which involves the procurement or attraction of honey bees, their feeding and management, for the purpose of deriving their beneficial products.

Bees which may be called the golden insects are flying insects that are renowned for their role in pollination and honey and beeswax production. They are closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are monophyletic lineage within the super family “Apoidae” presently considered as a clade “Anthophia”. There are nearly 25,000 known species of bees in 7 to 9 recognized families, though there are still many undescribed species. As a matter of fact, there are 5 times more species of bees than reptiles and amphibians and 4 times as many as the avian. Bees are found on every continent except in the Antarctica (that is the severe cold and Polar Regions). Africa is endowed with numerous types of honey bees and they are everywhere man inhabits.

NB. Not all bees are honey bees (honey producing insects)

At the local settings, honey is collected from tree branches, hollows, and crevices in several regions of the continent. Traditional bee keeping in bee hives as practiced in Egypt, Kenya, and Tanzania are not well known in other parts of the continent. In these areas, correct equipment and modern techniques are not used. Harvest of honey is done with fire or live torches which burn the insects to death. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as energy source while the later, the source of protein and other nutrients. The insect processes the collected nectar in their hives and packs it in comb cells.

Taxonomic classification of honey bees

Kingdom:        Animalia

Phylum:           Arthropoda

Class:              Insecta

Order:             Hymenoptera

Suborder:        Apocrita

Clade:             Anthopila

Families:         Apidae

Andrenidae

Collectidae

Dasypodaidae

Halictidae

Meganomidae

Megachilidae

Stenotritidae

Genus:             Apis

Species:           Mellifera

Benefits of Beekeeping

Honey is a nutritious and delicious biological product of bees that is income generating and serves as food to man. Reasons for indulging in bee keeping include:

· Source of food to man: different bee products are consumed by man and they are highly nutritious. The bee brood (larvae and pupa) for instance are fed to malnourished children and Royal jelly and pollen are consumed for their high protein value.

· Source of medicine: following antibiotic nature of bee products like the bee venom, honey, and propolis, they can be used for treatment of many conditions like stomach upsets, diarrhea, vomiting, wounds, burns, cough, measles, false teeth, and fungal infection. The venom is an important remedy for arthritis, Parkinson diseases, and other diseases of the nervous system and it is obtained through stings.

· Source of income: the bee keeper can generate lots of income from the sales of the products from his hive; as well, setting up bee hives for people can also be a source of income.

· Foreign exchange earnings: if large quantities of honey and raw bees wax are harvested, export can be an option for the farmers, which is a source of foreign exchange earnings as obtainable in Egypt, Kenya, and Kenya, and Tanzania.

· Tropical apiculture is cheap. It does not require mass feeding of bees, because the insects can provide their own food all year round and there is no winter management of bees. It can be started with limited funds the technology and all necessary inputs required for beekeeping is locally available. Nectar and pollen might be wasted if bees are not kept.

· The honey bee is a great pollinator and this is an indispensable activity in crop production.

· Honey and beeswax can be produced in semi-arid areas that are unsuitable for other agricultural purposes.

· Ownership of land is not required for keeping bees.

· It improves the ecology. It helps in plant reproduction. Bees do not over-graze as other animals do.

· Can be kept as a hobby

· Api tourism and research.

Hive products

Products that can be collected from a bee hive include:

· Honey

· Pollen

· Royal jelly

· Propolis

· Bee venom

· Beeswax

1. Honey

This is a sweet, viscous juice usually collected in the largest quantities from bee hives and popular for their taste and flavor. Due to its natural sweetness and chemical properties, it is preferred over processed sugars and other sweetener used in baking, beverages and food.

It is found in cells of honey bee comb. Mature (ripe) honey is found sealed in combs and can be kept indefinitely. Unsealed honey is not mature (unripe) and hence can ferment shortly after harvest. Honey is used as food, medicine (for constipation, duodenal ulcers, liver problems, sore throats, cough, hay fever and burns), ingredient in drugs (added in cough syrups and as sweetener in children’s drugs), in cosmetic industry (for making cleaners, lotions, and creams) and as nutritional supplements for children, athletes and people suffering from diabetes. In animal production, honey has been reportedly used as a feed ingredient and also to increase milk production in dairy cows. Honey is also used in mice and rat repellent compounds.

Honey formation

Honey is made from sugary secretions of flowers called nectar which contains 70 – 80% water. Honeys natural sugars are dehydrated, which prevents fermentation with the addition of enzymes (secreted by their honey sack) to modify and transform their chemical composition and pH leaving the product to less than 19% water content. Honey bees transform saccharides into honey via regurgitation process which they repeat a number of times, until the sugar is partially digested. The bees do the regurgitation and digestion as a group, transferring the nectar from their stomach to other bee during which the moisture reduces. After the last regurgitation, the aqueous substances which is still high in water, begins to evaporate much of the water followed by enzymatic transformation. Bees utilize their honey stomach for the ingestion and regurgitation. Invertase (synthesized by the insect body) and digestive juices/acids hydrolyze sucrose to give the same mixture of glucose and fructose.

Honey is produced by bees as a food source. In order to produce a single jar of honey (454g), foraging honey bees have to travel the equivalent of 3 times around the world. In the cold weather or when there is scarcity of fresh food, bees feed on their stored honey as an alternative source of energy. The bees work together until the product reaches a desired quality. After the final regurgitation, the honeycomb is left unsealed. Due to the moisture and natural yeast content of the nectar is still high, fermentation can set in if unchecked. The evaporation is facilitated by the bees as they warm up the honey up to 35⁰C followed by the fanning their wings creating a strong draft across the honeycomb, which enhances evaporation of much of the water from the nectar leaving the honey at less than 19% moisture content. This reduction in water content raises the sugar concentration and prevents fermentation. Ripe honey is harvested by the keeper from the hire and has a long shelf life and will not ferment if properly sealed.

Other sources of honey

A number of wasp species such as the wasps (Brachygastra lecheguana) and Brachygastra mellifica are also known to produce honey from nectar to produce honey.

Quality honey harvesting

For the beekeeper to do well in the marketing of his products, it is necessary that he know how to identify, harvest, grade and handle excellent quality honey.

Reason for the variation in taste and smell of honey

Honey is classified by the source from which the bees gathered the nectar. Because the differences in the taste, aroma, colour, and viscosity (thickness) of honey results from the various plant flowers the bees have collected nectar from. For example, honey collected between October and December may have an orange flavor, showing that the bees collected most of the nectar from citrus trees. The following table shows some plants, with the colours and viscosity of the honey they produce.

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Generally honey of high viscosity flows slowly. The harmattan wind has a great influence on honeys collected between December and March in West Africa, causing them to thicken. The coastal areas are less influenced by the harmattan and therefore produce honeys of lower viscosity. Heat is applied to force honey to flow; however, the beekeeper must not subject honey to higher temperature than 30°C. The age of the comb also affects the colour of honey with the older combs giving darker honey. Honey contain different kinds of natural fruit sugars (80 – 85%) which are high in CHO and are easily and readily absorbed by the body to release energy. The honey sugar differs from that of refined granules (sucrose), which have impaired health effects because refined sugar is more difficult for the body to break down and can lead to diabetes in later life.

Usually the bees do a good job in producing high quality honey but the beekeeper mess this up by poor harvest, processing and marketing technique. It is essential that the product sold retains its good quality and its property presented.

Factors that affect the good quality of honey

· Honey must be clean and clear with no dirt, dead bees, wax, and dust, splinters of wood or ashes.

· It should have a good taste. It should not be too smoky or have a fermented taste. Chemicals and insecticides can affect the smell and taste of honey.

· Good smell: Harvesting old dark combs and brood combs can affect the smell and colour of honey.

· Good colour – this depends on the source of nectar and the age of the comb. Usually dark honey has stronger flavor and the taste of lighter colored honey is delicate.

· The presence of pollen can make the honey appear muddy or cloudy but it is in fact highly nutritious. The moisture content of honey is very important as much water will cause it to ferment. Incompletely sealed combs can give honey with high water content. The water content of the honey is measured using a refractometer and this equipment is widely used by buyers and traders to check the honey collected from hunters or beekeepers. Too low moisture content of honey will mean that the beekeeper has heated up the honey to evaporate water or may have added sugar water to alter it.

To taste for moisture content without refractometer one can:

· Put a match stick into the honey and if the moisture content of the honey is high, the head of the match stick will be damp and will not burn.

· Place a droplet of the honey on dry soil. Honey with high water content will disperse but the normal good honey should sit on the soil as a globule.

2. Pollen (2 – 3 kg a year)

This is the basic food for bees collected from the anthers of flowers on the legs of the bees. The hairs on the bees’ legs acts like a hair comb. The bees moisten the pollen with little nectar as they are collected and pack them into the pollen loads on their hind legs (pollen basket). Pollens which may come in different colours depending on the flower source are then stored in small quantities in the combs. This product can be collected from the beehive by the use of pollen traps. It is highly nutritious and proteinous and is believed to have medicinal properties. It can be eaten in the comb (Bee bread) which is easier to digest than dry pollen.

3. Royal jelly (Bees milk) (250 – 500g a year)

This is the whitish fluid secreted by the young worker bees and are used to feed the queen bee and the young larvae less than 3 days in large amounts. Young bees that just hatched produce it from their glands within their first 5 – 15 days. It is rich in vitamin B and highly medicinal. This product does not come from the flowers. A queen bee if fed exclusively on the royal jelly can live for 4 to 5 years laying about 1,500 eggs a day. The queen cannot be the queen without the royal jelly. It is presumed to be the rich nutrients content of this product that makes the queen fertile and strong as it contains vitamins and hormones for increasing fertility and protection against bacteria and parasites. This product is used for making royal chocolates candy, wine, lotion and tonics for other therapeutic uses.

4. Propolis or the bee glue

This is a sticky substances (resin) collected by the bees from leaves buds and sap of certain trees. Bees use this to fill cracks in their hive, to seal the entrance hole if it is too large, and to keep the hive clean and free from disease and parasitic (as it possesses both antibacterial and antifungal properties). If a pest or predator dies in the hive and cannot be removed, the bees rap it in propolis, so that it does not rot or smell. The antifungal and antibacterial properties make it a suitable agent in the pharmaceutical industry. It is a natural medicine for treating cough and cold, inflammations, viral diseases, ulcers, skin burns and scalds. 100 – 200g of this can be collected a year from a hive.

5. Bee venom (Apitoxins)

This is the poisonous, colourless liquid contained in the venom sac of the bee that is used by bees as a defensive weapon to protect the colony from intruders and attackers. It is anti-inflammatory and is used by humans to relieve pain. It is effectively used in treating the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, neuralgia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even multiple sclerosis. Bee venom therapy can be used to treat fertility problem. It can also be used as desensitizers for those allergic to bee stings. Applying bee venom medicinally can be easy and this is done by holding the two bee wings and applying the tip of the abdomen to the painful area and allowing the bee to sting the area. The bee then dies after the sting.

6. Beeswax

This is a wax material secreted by the bees during the warm period of the day. The worker bees make regular hexagonal wax cells and cappings in the hives to store new honey and pollens and to brood their egg/larvae. The honey combs are made from beeswax produce by the wax gland on the underside of the abdomen of a worker bee between 12 and 15 days old. Bees consume 8 – 22 kg of honey to produce a kg of beeswax. This bee product has over 120 industrial uses including food processing and cosmetic industry.

African Honey Bees

The African honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) is a subspecies of the Western honey bee. It is native to central and southern Africa, though at the southern extreme it is replaced by the Cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis). Their habitat is the tropical areas including the southern and eastern regions of Africa and they are not adapted to cold areas with heavy rainfall. Although similar and smaller than their European counterparts, their stings are more venomous. Their honey production is far less than those of the European species. The African bees possess higher rate of colony growth, reproduction and swarming than the European counterparts. In terms of feeding behavior, the striking difference between the African bees and those of the European origin is that their workers focus on pollen processing while the later are more inclined to nectar. Importantly, they are the ancestors of the hybrid Africanized bees.

Difference between the African Bee and the European Bees

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Africanized Honey Bee

These bees are colloquially called killer bees and are produced as a result of cross breeding between African honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) honey bees and various European bees such as the Italian bee (A. m. ligustica) and the Iberian bee (A. m. iberiensis). They possess almost the same features as the common European bees and can only be distinguished in the laboratory after some analysis. The limiting factor to their spread to other continents appears to be because they do not store as much food as other bees. This means they may starve to death in winter when there are no flowers blooming. Behaviorally, Africanized bees are typically aggressive when reacting to threats that non-Africanized bees would ignore.