Subject: African Bees

From: [email-masked] (Dave Du Toit)
Date: 10 Sep 94 20:41:00

Hi Andy

AA> My first question would be have you ever worked bee's in the US?
No, born here in Africa, enjoy it here with all its problems and 
whatever and have never been out of this country except to a few 
neighboring states.
 
AA> working with queen nucs and wanted to show their visitor. The
AA> African beekeepers dressed up, cover-alls, gloves, the works and
AA> approached the bees with Wayne who was in normal dress, cut off
AA> shorts, T- Shirt, thongs for shoes, no veil,
 
AA> a frame to display the brood pattern and queen, he looked up and saw
AA> his visitor retreating down the path in grate haste.

Well lets put it this way if he approached a site here with a few 
strong colonies and tried to work on them like that I doubt he would be 
back to tell the tale and thus maybe the reaction of the beekeepers,

AA> Wayne learned from the beekeeper that in South Africa a more
AA> cautious attitude is taken when working bees, and they even found it
AA> desirable to do most of the work at night. Is this the norm in South
AA> Africa?
Well everything depends on the circumstances I do most of my work during 
the day except in cases where my colonies are near people and I am 
forced to work at night, but naturally the forced removal of bees in 
situations of nuisance is all done at night. Once you get use to the 
bees it is also possible to work on them without gloves but no 
protection is not advisable, when moving my colonies at night I dont 
actually wear any protective clothing in this case only my gloves.
So as I say it all depends on circumstance, who, what and how.  

AA> The big question is do you have Varroa mites in South Africa?

Well we have no known problem of any bee diseases in the country thus 
the strict laws on importation of bee products to the country, although 
this wise law is being threatened but thats another story. Our biggest 
problem is wax moth and at the moment a take over by the cape bee, as we 
basically have to types of bees used for commercial purposes one found 
in the Western and Eastern Cape area (apis mellifera capensis) and then 
the Apis mellifera scutellata found in the rest of the country.

Summary on damage by Cape bee, If colonies of cape bee comes across 
those of scutellata and mix by way of drifting or during transportation, 
one of the cape bees takes over the role of queen (the cape bee 
forms a part a rare few species whereby the worker is able to lay 
eggs which hatch into workers and no mating has taken place) 
which causes the colony to dwindle and die, the take over is more 
prominent in times of drought or stressful conditions.

A law was pasted that all colonies that had come in contact 
with the cape bee or showing signs of the take over  must be destroyed 
a boundary line was made where no bees may be transported over, to 
keep the two races separate, but the problem is still at hand and 
colonies are being lost daily. 

AA> in South America the so called African bees are not bothered by
AA> varroa mites,
Strong colonies of african bees are known to be able to overcome most 
situations its more the keeping them strong thats the problem.
 
AA> their genes have been identified in many areas of the west,
AA> we may all soon have them and see for ourselves.

They are not such a bad bee to work with, I have a nursery site about 
three meters from my house and at stages I can have upto 200 colonies in 
it and in the 14 years of working with bees here have not once had an 
incident whereby they just go out and sting without some sort of 
provocation. They tend to get angry only once they have a stores of 
honey and due to there bad temperament they do help to keep the amount of 
beekeepers down to a point whereby you can still make a living out of 
doing it.

AA> But the bug in the rug is a billion $ almond industry that
AA> believes they need 800-900,000 live hives each spring to pollinate
AA> their crop.

Pollination forms 50% of my business and one of our problems is 
convincing farmers of the vital role bees play in there orchards, but 
some people take a long time to learn.

Dave