COSTS AND RETURNS OF SMALL SCALE HONEY BEE PRODUCTION IN OHAOZARA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

CHAPTER TWO

2.0                         LITERATURE REVIEW

Beekeeping (apiculture, from Latin (apis) “bee”) is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by human. A beekeeper (apiarist) keeps bees in order to collect their honey and other products that the hive product (including bees wax propolis, pollen, and royal jelly), to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary or “bee yard”. (Olaride et al 2008) Depictions (action) of human collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago; efforts to domesticate then are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago. Simple hives and smoke were used and honey was stored in jar, some of which were found in the tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun. It wasn’t until the 18th century that European understanding of the colonies and biology of bees allowed the construction of the moveable comb hive so that honey could be harvested without destroying the entire colony Anineme (2006).

History of Beekeeping

At some point humans began to attempt to domesticate wild bees in artificial hives made from hollow logs, wooden boxes pottery vessels, and woven straw baskets or “skeps” Honeybees were kept in Egypt from antiquity on the walls of the sun temple of Nyuserre Ini from the fifth Dynasty before 2422 BCE, workers are depicted blowing smoke into hives as they are removing honeycombs. Inscriptions detailing the production of honey are found on the tomb of pabasa from the twenty-sixth Dynasty (C, 650 BCE) depicting pouring honey in jars and cylindrical hives. Marieke Mutsaers (1991). There was an unsuccessful attempt to introduce bee to Mesopotamia in the 8th century BCE by shamash-reshusur, the governor of Mari and Suhu. His ambitious plans were detailed in a stele of 760 BCE.

2.1   Behavioral Patterns of Honey Bees

Honey bees depend entirely on instincts and they possess highly evolved sense organs such as those of slight, taste and touch. These are exceptionally perfect in the workers who are said to govern the community. The behavioral patterns observed in bee include:

Communication

i.          Absconding

ii.        Swarming

The bee dance language is a special means of communicating information. On return to the hive to announce the discovery of some source [or a new nesting site], the worker bees do this by special type of dance during which other bee follow them, holding their fellers against the bodies of the dancers to detect the actual scent of the nectar in question. Special modes of dancing indicate the distance direction of the food source. The higher the nectar concentration the more vigorous the dance. Grooming behaviour is also know defense behaviour of Apiscerana, which keeps varroa jacobomi, predatory mite that hives on honeybees in check. This is done through communication. Sometimes, worker bees realize that by self-grooming. If they fail, they ask for help and nest male-grooming leads to a disturbance and sometimes the mite are killed by the bee (Otto Boecking Germany, 2005).

Absconding is the abandonment of a colony due to excessive disturbance by predators, bad management by keepers, diminishing resources in an area or escape from sudden danger or death [Nelson, 1928, Lesley, 1991]. The bee colony then migrates to a better area. Certain acts can bring the tendency of bees to abscond, such as sitting of bee colonies near a nesting site of ants and bush burning, which produce smoke act as tranquilizer making the bees to feel dizzy (Akachakwu, 1993).

Swarming is a natural colony division or reproduction in which separate group of bees with the queen, 11,00 or more worker bees and some drones leave the colony to settle in a new site. The new queen who remains flies out within a week’s time one the marriage flight, accompanied by a large number of drones, one of which males with her in the air and dies soon after mating. She receives enough sperms and stores them in a special sac to fertilize all the egg she may lay for several years.

2.2   Classification of Honey

Honey is classified by the floral source and there are division according to the packaging, and processing used. Honey is also grade on its colour and optical density by USDA standards, graded on a scale called the P found scale which ranges from O for “water while” honey to more than 1-4, for “dank amber” honey [Govnari, 2006].

Basically they are four types of honey Blended, polyfloral, monofloral and honey dew honey (Gounari, 2006).

i.    Blended: This is the combination of honey differing in floral source, colour, density or geographic origin. Most commercially available honey is blended.

ii.  Polyfloral: Also known as wild flower honey [National honey board 2011].

It is derived from nectar of many types of flowers. The taste may vary from year to year and the aroma and flavor can be more or less intense, depending on which blooming are prevalent [Govnari, 2006).

iii. Unifloral or monofloral: This is made primarily from the nectar of one type of flower. Different monofloral honey have a distinctive flavor and colour because of differences between their principal nectar sources. To produce monofloral honey, beekeepers keep believe in area where the bees have access to only one type of flower in practice but because of the difficulties in containing bees a small proportion of any honey will be from additional nectar from other flower types.

iv. Honey dew: This consist of sweet secretions of aphids or other plants sap sucking insects which bees takes as honey dew instead of taking nectar.

Honey dew is very dark brown in colour with a rich fragrance of stewed fruit of fig jam, and is not sweet like nectar honey. Bees collecting the resources have to be fed protein supplement, as honey dew lack the protein rich pollen gathered from flowers. This honey has a much larger proportion of indigested foods than light floral honeys which can cause dysentery, resulting in the death of colonies in areas with cold winters good beekeeping management requires the removal of honey dew prior to winter in order areas.

2.3       Types of Beekeeping

Honey, the major product of beekeeping practice is gotten in many ways. They include collection from the wild beekeeping and traditional beekeeping.

Collection of the wild

This is the method which involves honey hunters. They are farmers who go into the forest and harvest honey comb mostly from hollow trees in the bush.

Modern Beekeeping

The modern technique in beekeeping/honey production involves the regular importation and migratory keeping of bee [Bee world, 1990].

However, the hives are regarded as impure or mixed with sugar, and this constitutes the bulk of commercial beekeeping in the developed world [Bee world, 1990).

Traditional beekeeping          

Although traditional beekeeping is not the most dominant practices world wide, up to one quarter of colonies are kept in various kind of traditional hives. It involves the use of local material like tree trunks or clay grasses to construct hives.

2.4       Types of Hive  

Different types of hive in beekeeping are:

1.  Tara Hive: This is made from leaves of Raphis SPP, Tara or raffia palms which grow only in certain areas. The mid rubs of the leaves are pegged together into a square shape. The hive is closed with a lid of raffia palm at each end; each closure has a hole in it. The hive is coated with cow dung or lay. Limejuice or ferfune is often applied to the operating to attract bees at the beginning of swarming season. The hive are hung high in trees.

2.  Clay Hives: These are used in the kermanshah and are made from clay material roughly 45-65 and 20-25 cm in diameter with narrow mouth of 3-4 cm. these are different from pottery hives in that there is no room for extension and it contains twice the volume of the pots.

3.  Basket Hive: The components of basket hives are pliable twigs from trees, especially willow palm fronds in Azerbaijan. Luritan, Hamada and Kurdistan.

4.        Log Hives: They are made from log and are used in many parts of the world. They are about 75-100 cm long and 30-40 cm in diameter.

5.        Mud Hive: Mud hives are also cylindrical in shape and are of clay coated with either dung or a mixture of mud and chopped straw. Long-troth hive and Kenya to bar hive [KTB] are the modern beekeeping types of hive, the former being more supplicated than the later.

6.        Pottery Hives: These are the same vessel that people use to carry water from spring and streams to their houses. The pot vessels are laid on their side on a tree branch and a swarm introduced. The bottom of the broken and covered with mud or dung in order to make provision for extensional/attachment of another pot for honey storage.

7.        Barr Hive: It is made from barrels that were probably used by the Portuguese for importing wine. They are used only in little area. 

2.5   Beekeeping Equipment and Uses

A.    Hive knife: This is a simple pray bar-like tool with a notch on one end for pulling nails, scrapping caps and pulling the bar from the hive (Beemaster com, 2005; Otialor 2003).

B.    Goggle: These are used as alternative to veils (Beemaster com, 2005).

C.    Leatter Gloves: These are long sleeves, vented gloves for sting proof and to make one very flexible at work (Beemast. Com, 2005).

D.    Comb Holding Box: Use to carry the hive top bars with the combs hanging from tree (Obialor, 2003).

E.     The smoker: The smoker is the most important tool for a beekeeper. No honey bee will ever allow you to harvest its honey without putting up a fire fight. The Nigeria honey bee is aggressive, thus, a smoker must accompany work done around the bee hive since the mode of communication for the bee is with their sense organs using a smoker will confuse their alarm signals.

2.6   Ecology of Honey Bee

Climate and consequently vegetation affect honey production through their affect on nectar flow. Nectar flow refers to the quality and quantity of nectar secreted by plants. Rainfall, temperature and sunlight affect plant and therefore determine the actual nectar flow. Adequate rainfall and sunny condition favouring flowering stimulate high nectar flow which consequently support a high honey yields.

2.7   Hive Product

Different types of valuable product are gotten from beekeeping. However, the product that occupy the prime position in the apicultural production include honey and bee wax. Other product also include propolis, pollen, and royal jelly. The propolis has antimicrobial properties and protects not only against intruders such as lizard, moths and mice but also against disease (Seeley, 1985). The pollen and royal jelly serve as food for the bees.

2.8   Economic importance/Use of Honey

Honey as one of the bee products was used to treat-infected wound as long ago as 2000 years before bacteria where discovered to be the cause of infection Lancet, 1994.

Honey has been ascertained since time immemorial as remedy for sore threat and also known for its nutritive value. It contains minute quantities of valuable mineral essential for the proper functioning of secretions and it can passes directly into the system without aid for digestive juice (Emarah, 1996).

Honey with lemon and tea, is useful in liver disorders and for completion blemishes. In addition to an infusion of yarrow, honey is used for influenza and as nutrient tonic, taking honey with milk Glycerin and honey in equal part is good for bruises, chaps on face and hands. The combination is used as a cure for dulblains (Crane, 1990). Leaves of bitter leaf squeezed and flavored with honey is also useful in insomnia.

2.9   Constraints to Honey Production

Presently, the economic potential of apicultural in rural areas due to a number of limiting factors some of the factor are as follow.

       The act of bee hunting, where by people climb tress to harvest bees at night is crude, in convincing and risky. This is because, the individual may end up falling off from the tree or being stung by the bees. In most case may lead to death (Onykuru, 2004).

Beekeeping is increasingly understood and appreciated as part of agro-forestry system and much debt enter on the so bark lives. For a number of years their use has been generally discouraged because the removal of bark always result in the death of tree which is a clear step against forestry.

Keeping of bees in the homestead is not always a welcome venture by neigbours, because of the disturbance of honey to the people and for fear of being stung, since bees detest noise and are attracted to shinny objects and sweet fragrance. The land tenure system in Nigeria has greatly hindered the commercialization of honey production and forces of land so high.

2.10   Pest and Disease Attack

The most prominent pest of bees in the hive is the tracheal mites (Acerpiswood;) The recent spread of vorroejacobsoni and tropilaelapclareal must alert the beekeeping world to the irrevocable problems which can be caused by importation of disease honey bees (Bradbeear, 1989). According to Bradbee (1989). This problems is immanent in Africa, South of sahara because of the existence of the Apisfloera-species of honey badger, a pest, also posses a serious threat to the beekeeping industry. The badger is a black animal with white fur on it face and which live in holes in the ground but attack the beehives and its content at night (Ugwunawo, 1997).

A greater proportion of honey in the market today is from the traditional hives and about 10 litre per harvest (Ntenga and Mugogu, 1991). This occurs due to lack of scientific techniques to support the traditional methods and lack of extension staff to advice the beekeepers. The unavailability of an organized market also constitute a limiting factor to effective apicultural practices in addition, the rural beekeeping also lack the technical know how about the preparation of bee wax for the market and consequently waste the product, this reduce the profitability of the bee enterprise (Ugwunkwo, 1997).

Harvesting of honey/production. Honey will not be ready for harvesting until the comb is filled with capped honey. As the food meant for the bees are to be harvested, one should have to make extra preparation to ensure that the bees are comfortable.

The following steps will be necessary.

1.    Get properly dressed from the occasion, that is protective cloths must be worn.

2.    Close your hive carefully, and all operation under harvesting must be done with swiftness and during early morning or towards evening.

3.    Get your smoker, brush, knife hive tools, plastic container with lid.

4.    Make sure you leave between one to two centimeter of honey comb on the top bar-. As this will also serve as a guide for the bees to build upon.

2.11   Procedures for Harvesting Honey

The hive must be smoked and open it with a hive and carefully remove the combs one by one (giving a puff of smoke before removing each one) and hook at them carefully so that hive only full combs of ripe honey should be collected. When such a comb is found, brush any be on it into the hive. And a knife should be used to cut comb on the frame. As this will serve as a guide for the bees to facilitate and rebuild upon. Continue with the hive harvest until a dark comb is reached. When the hive entrance is in the mid-selection, there will be honey at both sides. Replace all top bars and treat the other side in the same manner but be sure to leave the combs in the middle. The bees will then work faster to produce the next honey crop then if all honey combs were taken away.

Harvest of honey is very much important to be done on the day because of the following reasons:

1.  Worker can be done throughout the day in pleasant atmosphere with rushing.

2.  day light is utilized to ensure proper execution and efficient harvest or brood nest control without affecting bee chasing nearby inhabitants.

3.  Disease can be easily be detected and hive predators can also be found and eliminate immediately.

4.  Combs crushing and bees between top bars can be avoided or minimized.

2.12   The Traditional Method of Processing Honey

These methods of extracting honey are unsuitable and dynamic.

       Extraction of honey by squeezing with the hand seems to be quickest methods for average honey taper who cannot afford a centrifugal honey extract or solar wax-mettar. However, the hand contaminates the combs including broad, unripe and uncapped honey combs are collected at night. They are all stacked on a wire mesh and a container is put underneath the price of combs and honey wax trickle down into the container until all combs are completely contained at the top of the honey is removed and the honey is poured into bottle of about one kilogram. Although the honey has cost its nutritional value and quality when exposed to high temperature.

The centrifugal extractor

This was invented by the Austrian major francescode hruschka in 1965.

This of two types namely:

a.      The tangentially type which has the face of the comb replaced at right angle to the radii or tangentially. Honey is removed from the outer face. The comb have to be reversed to combs complete the extraction.

b.      The radial type which removes honey from both sides in the operation.

The frames are arranged like the spore of wheel on radii of the rotor.

2.13  Marketing of Honey

Marketing: This is the management process through which goals and services move from concept to consumer. It includes the coordination of four element called 4P’s of marketing.

1.    Identification, selection and development of product.

2.    Determination of its price.

3.    Selection of a distribution channel to reach the consumer’s place.