Bees around the Paardeberg

Robert Post - April 2012

Beekeepers in South Africa have noted that concerns exist globally, regarding the health and continued existence of pollinators. Pollinators are all those living organisms that affect the transfer of pollen in flowers and - as a result - ensure the creation of seeds in their "fruit" and a subsequent generation of plants.

It is a well-known fact that of these pollinators, bees make up an astounding 72%. Honeybees make up a very large component of the more efficient and effective pollinators, because they are highly social insects, living in colonies of up to 80,000 individual insects.

Honeybees are under threat - world-wide - due to many (mainly man made) issues that play a role in their lives. Sometimes, bees experience stresses. Sometimes, they react uncharacteristically to these stresses.  In many parts of the world, beekeepers (managing beehives in manmade structures for the fun of it, or for commercial farming) report uncharacteristic behaviour in bees, namely the sudden disappearance of colonies out of their hives. The jury on this is still out. No one in the scientific community knows WHAT the malady is all about or WHAT causes it, WHERE it comes from, WHAT the actual effect is on the bees or WHO is responsible (perhaps Osama Bin Laden or the Russians?).

This does not mean that we can be glib or blasé about this issue. In the Western Cape, beekeepers are currently extremely sensitive about the health of their bees. In 2009, a bacterial bee disease - called American Foul Brood disease or AFB - found its way into our bee colonies from somewhere overseas. It is an age-old malady in the rest of the world, affecting the baby larvae of the bees (the immature stages of the bee) and sometimes leads to the demise of the colony. Beekeepers here (and also our bees) are still learning about this disease and how to manage in these new times.

The Paardeberg area was one of the first places that reported AFB on quite a serious level. Even new colonies trapped in the area soon succumbed to the symptoms.

The current situation is quite a bit better. The past honey season has been fair and the bees seem healthy enough. Added stresses to our bees, might soon affect a new outbreak of the disease, however. Beekeepers need to learn how to keep their bees stress free and how to manage them effectively and efficiently - i.e. the same way that our bees do their work.

Robert Post runs various bee keeping courses for more info please contact him at.
crpost@telkomsa.net
(021) 971 1022
073 080 3544