Hello to All,
On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, João Campos of Porto Alegre, Brazil wrote in response
to Bob Harrison’s earlier post which stated, “One reason you see
beekeepers in Brazil able to handle bees with AHB genetics is because most
have a strict schedule of requeening
with European queens”
Mr. Campos responded, “...it's absolutely not true. First, the absolute
majority of beekeepers in Brazil simply *do not requeen*. They catch new
swarms with bait hives ... make splits at the end of the season and let
the queenless hives produce their own queens.”
My response: Dr. Tom Rinderer who has spent about 15 years working with
Africanized honey bees, A. m. scutellata, spoke in Asheville, North
Carolina this past Monday advised that the practice of scheduled
requeening with European stock is imperative to the handling of honeybees
in South and Central America and that the practice of requeening in these
countries with gentle European stock is widely accepted and desirable.
In my opinion those beekeepers in any land who make splits at the end of
the season and let the queenless hives produce their own queens are
practicing a Russian roulette style of beekeeping. Requeening with
superior queens having highly desirable traits has long been recognized as
not only more profitable and enjoyable beekeeping, it is far superior to
the primitive practice of being broodless for with as long as 27 days
without assurance that a mated queen that was raised by the queenless
colony will return to begin laying. Even those beekeepers who have just a
few colonies can graft from their most desirable hives by using the Smith
or Alley methods to raise their own queens.
Mr. Campos continues, “Brazilian breeders (and some commercial beekeepers
as well) have worked hard to select better africanized bees, because of
the increasing interest in
green propolis in Asia. Some have thought of importing Caucasian bees,
because of their great propolis use, but with the success in this
particular AHB selection, the idea soon faded out.”
My comments: The production of Brazilian propolis is a rapidly growing
industry due to the common practice in Asia of purchasing Brazilian
propolis, which has long been recognized for its medicinal properties and
now there is great talk about its use for fighting different types of
cancer. It is my understanding that the Scutellata is not a very
productive propolis gatherer due to its very nature of being a
semitropical subspecies of A. mellifera and its tendency to abscond. I
certainly would want to hear more about “this particular AHB selection”.
Propolis collection especially in Brazil may just become a steady and
desirable profit producing operation for the beekeeper. There are many
undiscovered types of propolis each with its own unique and varying
medicinal properties. The bee pastures of the World may just contain many
new and magical formulations of propolis that just may provide income for
many in Third World countries. Just as there are many medicinal plants
there must be many medicinal types of propolis. It opens a whole new era
of discovery.
Cheers,
Chuck Norton
Norton's Nut & Honey Farm
330 Irvin Street
Reidsville, NC 27320
Tel: 336 342 4490
http://www.mybeebusiness.com
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