POLLINATION SERVICES BY AFRICAN BEES
by C.J. Coleman, Zimbabwe
Background
During the last 20 years 1 have been working in the pollination field in Zimbabwe. As people become more informed regarding the enormous financial benefits of using the service of custom pollination, the need for numbers of pollination hives has escalated. To provide adequate hives, that is units of a specific standard and in sufficient numbers, we have to establish a suitable education programme for the beekeepers and growers. In addition, attendance at seed production field days and farmers’ association meetings will ensure that accurate information is given to farmers.
Education
In Africa there is a tendency to perpetuate beekeeping using the top bar hive. The top bar is good in its place, but in order to meet pollination needs, and stop the drain of natural resource, serious thought should be given to a hive that will tolerate transportation and migratory beekeeping.
I believe, persons that have proved their ability to manage our bees should be offered the opportunity to develop commercially. There is little or no planning in this direction. The result is a dearth in units suitable for fieldwork in pollination, which means enormous loss of revenue in seed and horticultural production. In fact beekeeping clubs in Africa are ready to move into commercial techniques to make pollination services available to the agricultural industry. The people are limited by lack of educational opportunities to develop present skills.
The problem lies in the cost of equipment, not in ability. Finance should be raised to support suitable candidates in loan form.
There is a natural fear of our bee that has been capitalised by dissemination of inaccurate information regarding the African bee, as a result of the unfortunate circumstances in South America. The notorious killer bee! It is our responsibility, to correct this impression and grant credit where it is due. We have a fantastic bee!
Research
In Zimbabwe we have a vacuum silence that screams. This, I believe, is the general picture throughout most of Africa. We know there is lack of honeybee penetration into our crops. How serious this is, and to what extent it affects production needs researching. We would appreciate assessment of our bee in our crops African bees working in African crops.
Breeding
In Zimbabwe, in our apiaries, we use carefully selected strains of Apis mellifera scutellata. I believe, in the course of time, we have been left with the more aggressive survivors of mismanagement. We have proved that selective breeding of queens with controlled mating produces a strain of quiet, productive bees. It has to be acknowledged by beekeepers internationally that we have a superior bee. Let us learn to use this asset to full advantage.
Our breeding programme uses the Doolittle Queen Breeding System employing the modified long hive two brood chambers, maintained without queens, adjacent to and on either side of the queen compartment. The queen compartment consists of four drawn brood frames that are replaced regularly to increase laying area, and facilitate continuity of laying. If the queen does not have space to lay prolifically, insufficient pheromones will be produced, and laying workers will result.
Controlled mating is ensured by saturating the immediate area, 35 squared kilometres with our gene pool. This results in only desirable drones being available for free mating, perpetuating characteristics of docility, productivity, low swarming, migration and propolising tendencies.