How Sweet it Is - of bees and honey

The month-long international course in Beekeeping for Honey, By-Products and Pollination, held in May 1998, conducted by CINADCO at the Kibbutz Shefayim Center, brought together 34 participants from 22 different countries and four continents - from Colombia to Poland, Morocco to Nepal and Vietnam - to study these benefits....and many more.

The participants hailed from very diverse backgrounds professionally. A large number, like Frederick Corey, Jr., a Filipino entomologist, Ilian Getchev, a Bulgarian bee pathology professor, Elizabeth Pagliari, an Argentinian ecologist, and Hai Dong Minh, a Vietnamese agricultural engineer, are professors at universities and/or researchers at bee research centers in their respective countries. A few, like Daniel M. Nkhambule of Swaziland and Andrew Thompson of Jamaica, are senior extension service personnel.

But the staff say the kind of people attracted to bees are always a special breed. Thus it is not all that surprising that at least one participant - Dr. Rodolfo Speranza - a senior director in the Uruguay National Beekeeper's Association - is a physician by training with a keen interest in apitherapy (i.e., use of bee products for their medicinal properties, from the antibacterial properties of propolis or "royal jelly" to alleviation of rheumatism with bee venom.) Sindy Asahi Orami is actually a training officer in the Papua New Guinea National Youth Service, who came to the course with a unique agenda - to take the sting out of high unemployment in her country by investigating beekeeping as an avenue to keep rural youth on the farm rather than flocking to the city. Another course member, Francis Ung Hu Ling, is a member of the Bahai - a small world-wide religion whose religious center is in Haifa, who also hails from Papua New Guinea. Actually, several course participants - Ahamadu Vandu Hadeeza, of Nigeria, are beekeepers themselves.

"The course tried to give something to everyone among the varied student body of senior managers, researchers, teachers and field instructors," says technical advisor Sheike Stern, who, along with CINADCO course director Michel Isaak and coordinator Micha Carmel, was joined by an able group of colleagues to teach the course: Haim Efrat, Dr. Boris Jacobson, Arnon Dag, Yossi Slavetzky, Professor Jacob Lansky, Professor Avraham Hefetz, Ami Memis, Ezra Orni and Anat Yogev.

Stern says the curriculum was based on a blend of lectures at Shefayim - presented by academicians, extension service personnel and economists from all over the country, all of them top experts in their fields, and field trips to laboratories, research and training facilities, and commercial bee operations that both added to and deepened knowledge gained in the classroom.

Among the subjects on the agenda were in-depth lectures on both the biology and physiology of the honey bee and breed improvement and queen breeding; bee pests and their treatment; the positive economic impact of pollination on agriculture; talks on both ecological problems related to beekeeping and a special lecture devoted to reduction of toxicity damage in plant protection treatment; and a series of lectures on managerial and fiscal aspects of beekeeping - including economics of beekeeping and organization of roof organizations in Israel, such as the Beekeepers Association and the Honey Marketing Board.

Uniquely, one of the guest lecturers was a course participant himself: Dr. Rodolfo Speranza lectured on apitherapy, the therapeutic effects of honey and bee by-products. Shlomo Yerushalmi, a former MASHAV expert in Swaziland, today the head of CINADCO's Africa-Asia Section, also addressed the group about beekeeping projects established by Israeli agricultural instructors in Swaziland and the Ivory Coast.

The beekeeping curriculum was enriched by a sprinkling of introductory lectures on Israeli agriculture, culture and geopolitics, and Israeli agricultural cooperation programs. Lectures were intermixed with a host of field trips that meshed professional business with opportunities to tour the country and visit holy sites in cities like Nazareth and Jerusalem.

Participants visited a number of small family-owned and large collective commercial beekeeping operations - including Kibbutz Dan in the north and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai in the south, the two largest apiaries in Israel. Stern says the purpose was not only to observe large-scale beekeeping, but also to provide exposure to the possibility of varying product lines and introducing innovative packaging beyond half-kilogram jars of plain honey. Yad Mordechai's line of up-scaled honey products include gift boxes with an assortment of small honey crocks with pieces of natural honey comb, hazelnuts in honey and other gourmet products, including apitherapeuticals.

Mondo Basmat, an Israeli agricultural instructor on temporary leave from the Ivory Coast who visited course participants - two of them from the Ivory Coast, explained that such a visit serves as a "source of stimulation" for creative thinking.

"It's not that participants will necessarily go home and duplicate products they saw," he says, "But, seeing the possibilities - that honey can be more than simply a substitute for jam - serves as a source of stimulation." For instance, Basmat and his local counterparts in the Ivory Coast, succeeded in introducing honey as a sweetener and as a condiment in traditional local dishes - adding honey to achakeh in place of run-of-the-mill sauces to make a sweet bread and dipping cassava dough in honey as a dessert - a dish traditionally dipped in a sweet banana sauce.

The participants also visited a number of operations that have developed auxiliary cottage industries to supplement their honey-producing operations - a visit also geared to "kindle" thoughts of potential entrepreneurship at home. One was a visit to the Erlich Bee Wax Farm at Moshav Avihail - an operation that not only produces candles from bee wax, but also thin square sheets of bees wax stamped with octagonal reliefs for other beekeepers. The sheets are attached to the parallel removable slats inserted into the hive, serving as "starters" that guide the shape of the comb for easy removal.

Another site visited was Moshav Mishmeret where course participants had a chance to meet an individual farmer who has augmented his income with an educational center on beekeeping that attracts school groups through special programs on various scholastic levels - from kindergarten groups to high school biology majors doing special final projects as part of their matriculation.

The participants also toured the Hebrew University's Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Quality Science Institute in Rehovot, talking to staff at the Bee Training Center for agriculturalists and extension service personnel about their academic programs. Part of the focus of the visit centered on the added-value of pollination to crop yields - a subject that sparked much interest among the group.

At the Triwax Bee Research Center, they received demonstrations in new techniques for breeding and raising bee stock, particularly state-of-the-art breeding of queens - including artificial insemination. The visit was a practical demonstration that enriched the curriculum presented by Professor Avraham Hefetz, a leading expert from Tel Aviv University, who lectured on bee anatomy and physiology prior to the field trip. The trip also included a tour of the Bee Lab at the Volcani Agricultural Institute which serves Israeli beekeepers in the diagnosis of diseases and parasites.

Almost all the participants interviewed for this article cited the most important know-how gained focused on breeding and establishment of a sophisticated queenery that can provide quality queens. The importance, explained Mondo Basmat, is two-pronged.

While queens can produce for seven years, they are most productive in their first year; egg laying drops sharply after the first year, declining throughout the life of the queen bee. Thus, in commercial operations the hive's queen should ideally be removed and replaced annually with a young queen in her prime - the role of a queen breeding station.

The queen breeding station is a man-made incubator where special larvae with the potential to develop into queens are mechanically removed from regular hives - where under natural conditions they would not develop into queens, and are raised artificially to become queens, who are subsequently introduced into old hives as replacements, or used to start new hives.

Secondly, breeding is an essential step in upgrading beekeeping operations in fledgling branches. Countries with limited resources often must begin by attracting and capturing wild bee swarms in flight with a glob of propolis and transferring the swarm to a man-built hive in the hopes the bees will "set up house" - a cheaper method than buying commercial breeding stock.

A local queen breeding station both eliminates the necessity of importing breeding stock and allows local Ministries of Agriculture to breed out negative traits like aggressiveness and a natural inclination to migrate and introduce offspring from queens who are particularly productive - from local bee species.

Thus, in essence, core knowledge gained during the course regarding rearing queens in a breeding station is the key to a successful modern beekeeping industry in any country.

"If you don't have a good queen bee, you won't have a good product," sats Frederick Corey, Jr. "That's the name of the game," he says reflecting the sentiments of most participants - a "to bee or not to bee" scenario, so to speak. The Israelis, noted Corey with admiration, had no scruples about sharing their know-how with others.

Talks with five participants from different professional backgrounds and at different stages in their personal careers, from different countries at different stages in the development of beekeeping branches, produced some interesting insights into what a course like the recent Beekeeping Course can contribute. Each was asked three fundamental questions * Why did you come? * What did you learn? * What's the next step once you get home?

Daniel M. Nkhambule (Swaziland), beekeeping specialists with the Ministry of Agriculture: I had worked together with Shlomo Yerushalmi setting up a fledgling bee operation in Pigg's Peak (see previous article). I continue to hold beginner and advanced courses for those who want to establish hives, but I wanted to see beekeeping in Israel first hand. One of the highlights of the course for me was the economic impact that goes beyond beekeeping - the way the system is intertwined with crop pollination - moving hives to various fields for pollination and to extend the field of forage for the bees. We haven't yet done this. We may investigate planting more fruit trees to provide more sources of nectar. The most important aspect was know-how to establish a queenery, which I hope to do under government auspices to ensure quality. Presently, most people use the same queen for two or three years. A queenery will allow us not only to replace queens annually but also expand the number of hives by providing quality queens to farmers.

Rodolfo Speranza (Uruguay), Director of Uruguay's National Association of Beekeepers, and a physician: I did my Master's Degree in public health at Hadassah and was here two years ago for an international meeting on apitherapy. Last year three on-site Israeli courses in beekeeping were conducted in Uruguay. My primary goal in coming was to establish personal ties with colleagues in highly-specialized fields and seek areas for collaboration and joint ventures for the benefit of both countries. For instance, Uruguay is more advanced in apitherapeutics - a field that is only beginning to emerge although the medical community is very conservative. In Uruguay, these products are produced in sterile pharmaceutical labs - including ampules of bee venom for injection under the skin. Israel, on the other hand, has more experience in commercialization and marketing. The primary thing I gained was review and confirmation of a lot of knowledge and assumptions - knowing you are on the right track. Secondly, it gave me an indication of what problems are in store: With intensive beekeeping like in Israel come problems of diseases we don't yet have...but will have to face eventually as our own branch intensifies. I was impressed by management of pollination in Israel - how it is applied in such a wide-spread manner. In some ways one profits from a glimpse of the future - the pros and cons. The biggest challenge I will face is successful dissemination of knowledge gained - like commercialization and marketing. And, I hope we can find avenues for technical exchange in both directions.

Eliza Cauia (Romania), Junior Scientific Researcher at the Beekeeping Research Development Institute - Bucharest: My father is a beekeeper in Moldovia, so my interest was natural. Although I majored in animal sciences at the university, I did my final project in beekeeping. Since graduating in 1994, I have worked on a project connected with developing biotechnology for in vitro insemination of unfertilized eggs - which if successful, will be a breakthrough in breeding. I saw the course as an opportunity for cross-fertilization myself - to exchange information with colleagues. The extension service in my country can learn a lot from the way transmission of information is organized and communicated to agriculturalists here. I'm still at the beginning of my career, but what I've seen, I've stored away. Perhaps if and when I advance to a decision-making position, this experience will be relevant. In the meantime, I hope to see what studies have been published here in my particular areas of research.

Frederick Corey, Jr. (The Philippines), Professor of Entomology at Central Mindanao University: I myself am an expert in integrated pest management. Our own beekeeping industry is in the infant stage - particularly in terms of queen-rearing techniques. I had book-knowledge of beekeeping and had done some experimentation in rearing queens, but the course provided crucial information I was missing. None of the books told me that when you graft a larva - transfer it to rear it as a queen, it must be placed in the exact same position in the honeycomb as in its previous cell or the worker bees will eject it! This little piece of essential information explained why I had such low success rates attempting to rear queens. Established apiarists whom I asked about my failures preferred to stay mum - monopolize the technology and keep this trade secret to themselves, thus, blocking competition. When I get back, I will be teaching two new courses - one on biology of honey bees and one on beekeeping. My main goal, however, will be to establish a queenery at the University that will supply stock to small farmers. There is already a proposal on the table backed by United Nation FAO, funding that favors introduction of beekeeping in the Philippines as an economically sound source of livelihood.

Sindy Asahi Orami (Papua New Guinea), Training Officer with the National Youth Service: I am a graduate of an agricultural college, but we had no beekeeping courses. My primary association with honey is personal since my family are vegetarians. I had been to Israel in 1986 as a tourist. I came now in the hopes of getting a general overview of beekeeping and its economic potential, and hopefully locating Israeli specialists that might come and help us, further down the road. Beekeeping in my country is in the infant stage - here and there are some small-scale commercial operations based on stock and training in New Zealand and Australia, but there is very little awareness of honey as a potential product. Most is gathered in the wild, from fallen trees. I was motivated by the desire to investigate the potential of training unemployed youth and women in rural areas in beekeeping to stem migration from the farms to the cities - a serious source of social disruption in my country. When I go back I hope to both write training brochures and convince the relevant ministries of the potential, get them to back beekeeping - not only for its social benefits, but also its agricultural ones. Today, most farmers view bees as "insects," not a source of beneficial pollination that might increase yields. The ones that do know about this keep it as a secret for themselves.