beekeeping apprentice

[cubetraveller]

Hi all,

I' ve been accepted into the Peace Corps and in the autumn will be heading off to central America for 2 years. I'm being encouraged to learn beekeeping, as honey would be a good way for subsistence farmers to generate some income in small villages. I've just bought a book on honey bee biology, but have no experience beekeeping. Is there anyone in or around Edinburgh that could do with an apprentice/slave labour this spring or summer? I'd be very keen to learn, and would perform chores or menial tasks in exchange for the opportunity.
Cheers!
Ivan

[Stromnessbees]

Hi Ivan

Great initiative of yours!

I am not in Edinburgh but in Orkney, and if you want you can come up here for a couple of weeks this summer and help with bees and maybe some organic farming. I have been involved in beekeeping projects in Africa and can help you to find information about beekeeping in developing countries, as you can't just transfer our complicated and rather expensive way of bee management to somewhere with completely different circumstances. Beekeeping is a great way to create an income in remote areas, but many poorly planned projects fail due to lack of understanding of local circumstances.

For initial information about beekeeping in developing countries go to http://www.beesabroad.org.uk/ and to http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/

Doris

[Stromnessbees]

Hi again

There's also a great book that you should read before you go off on your great adventure. It gives you an idea of the kind of things that can go wrong if our technologies are transferred directly to some poor country:
Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle by Moritz Thomsen

Hope to hear from you, Doris

[Jon]

Hi Ivan.
There is a lot of beekeeping going on in Central America, some of it on a pretty large scale.
Most of the equipment I have seen seem to be Langstroth type, often home made.
I think most of the bees are Italian strains although there are a lot of Africanized bees there as well.
Watch out for those ones as they regularily kill livestock and sometimes agricultural workers who happen to disturb them.
You will see plastic bags labelled 'trampa de abejas' in some places which have been put up to try and capture swarms.
Do you know exactly where you are going yet?

The Mayans were beekeepers.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0628_050628_maya_bees.html

[cubetraveller]

Hi Doris,

Thank you for your kind offer, I would love to assist you for a couple of weeks if you could find some use for me. I would be more than happy to help out with organic farming, or anything else you could use an extra set of hands with. Thanks for those websites as well, great information, and I've sent away for that Moritz Thomsen book. When would be a convenient time for you? I'm pretty busy through June but could definitely make it in July at your convenience. Thanks again for your generous offer, looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Ivan

[Stromnessbees]

Hi Ivan

I'll send you a pm with my contact deatils.

First a word of caution, though: Please don't expect to learn beekeeping within a couple of weeks or even within one season. To be able to give advice in another country takes lots of experience with bees and a good insight into what's available there. But you are keen, and if you get started now at least you will be able to understand the basics when you are abroad.

Join your local association now and see if there is a teaching apiary anywhere within reach. This is the time of year when everything starts to happen and you can follow the colonies through the season.

Our honeybee, Apis mellifera, is not native to the Americas, but they used to cultivate stingless bees for honey production. This practise has nearly died out now, but could be revived for the low cost production of small amounts of honey, which is used mainly for medicinal purposes.

Lots to talk about on these topics, but you need to get stuck into it now and first find out if you like working with bees and can handle to be stung!

Doris

[Neils]

Our honeybee, Apis mellifera, is not native to the Americas, but they used to cultivate stingless bees for honey production. This practise has nearly died out now, but could be revived for the low cost production of small amounts of honey, which is used mainly for medicinal purposes.

Must admit that this post piqued my interest and I was doing a little bit of reading. Certainly in places like Nicaragua Melipona/e honey appears to attract a premium price compared to Apis Mellifera honey and I must admit that given the choice it sounds a much nicer bee to work with (stingless!) than potentially having to deal with Africanised Apis Mellifera colonies.

Generally speaking across South America there does apear to be a bit of a revival of "traditional" practices going on which might be another reason to investigate Melipona beekeeping.

In any case, it sounds like a fascinating project an I hope you'll keep us updated with how it's going.

[Stromnessbees]

Just found this video re. bees imported from Africa vs. native South American bees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7kKqgPEGs&NR=1&feature=fvwp

The 'invasive species' problem all over again.

Doris