Getting started in beekeeping

Dear Daktari,

It is always great reading your informative articles on various agricultural topics. Keep up the good work.

Last month, it came to my attention that there is a World Bee Day. It piqued my curiosity to venture into beekeeping.

Unfortunately, there is not much information out there or experts in my area that I can learn from. 

I’m sure you have distilled information and experience that can start me off on this farming venture.

Desmond Otieka,

Kakamega County

Thank you so much, Desmond, for your kind words and for reading Smart Harvest.

Bees are not only a source of nourishing honey for personal use but can also be a source of income from the sale of the honey and its many other byproducts.

But beekeeping is not a straightforward affair; it is a complex venture that requires more information beyond conventional knowledge.

Bees are among the key pollinators, without whom humanity would face an unprecedented shortage of food.

Plants rely on pollinators for them to reproduce. So important is this function that the world celebrates the silent workers every 20th May, with each year having a theme to create awareness of the life-giving role bees play in the ecosystem.

This year’s theme was “Be Inspired by Nature to Nourish Us All,” which emphasised the importance of supporting biodiversity and sustainable agriculture. The day was marked in  Lodwar town, Turkana County. Beekeeping is a very fertile sector that remains largely underutilised in Kenya, largely because of public apathy.

There are many things one needs to know before going into commercial beeping. Here are a few of them.

What does a honeybee colony look like? A healthy honeybee colony has three distinct types of bees, namely queen, worker, and drone.

The queen is the only actively reproductive female and lays all the eggs. She is capable of laying up to 2,000 eggs daily. She also releases pheromones to regulate the hive’s activities and cohesion in the hive. 

A queen may live up to five years. The worker bee feeds the larvae, produces wax, builds combs, guards the hive entrance, fans wings to regulate hive temperature, forages for nectar, pollen, water, and propolis.

It also pollinates plants during its foraging missions, among other hive duties. The drone has the hallowed duty of mating with the virgin queen.

Beehives: This is the house, or the “land” within which the bees live and produce honey, bee wax and other byproducts. There are several types of beehives.

The Langstroth hive is the most common type used in many parts of the world. It is composed of boxes that contain frames stacked on top of each other. The frames offer surfaces where bees build their comb and store honey. The top-bar hive is a simpler design, but does not allow for the production of more honey. There is also the traditional log hive, Kapkuikui super log hive, and barred-box hive, among others.

Locating the beehives: The beehive should be in a shaded place away from direct sunlight. The beehive should be located in a spacious place to allow the bees to easily fly in and out of the hive.  They should also be away from human activities like homesteads to avoid attacks. A water source should be in the vicinity of the beehive.

Pests and diseases: Bees, like any other living organism, are affected by several diseases and pests. The commonest pest is Varroa mites, which cause weakness in bees.

This internal parasitic mite lives within the tracheae, breathing tubes, or inside the thorax of adult honeybees. Tracheal mites may also be found in air sacs in the thorax, abdomen, and head.

The mites pierce the breathing tube walls with their mouthparts and feed on the hemolymph, or blood, of the bees.

American Foulbrood is a serious bacterial disease that can destroy a colony. The varroa mite is considered by many to be the most serious malady of honeybees. This external parasite feeds on the fat bodies of adult bees, prepupae, and pupae, others include honeybee tracheal mite, bee louse, small hive beetle, honeybee tracheal mite.  Diseases include chalkbrood, a fungal brood disease of honeybees.

Worker, drone, and queen larvae are susceptible. Others include Sacbrood, chalkbrood, American Foulbrood among others.   

[Dr Othieno is a veterinary surgeon and the head of communications at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Kenya. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of FAO but his own]