Hi All
 
I have been meaning to draft a report back on my recent field trip to
the mountain kingdom of Lesotho - to describe the bees up there.
 
Lesotho is a small landlocked mountainous country in the middle of
South Africa. It contains a big chunk of the Drakensberg (dragons
mountains) also known as the Maluti highlands. These are some of the
higher mountains in africa, and also some of the more rugged. They
recieve above average rainfall for the region and form the catchment
area for many important rivers. Winters are cold, with snow cover
thick enough to allow skiing in regions (if one is adventurous). Bees
occur in these areas quite happily.
 
The human population is comprised of the Basutho, a strong
mountainous african population with a vibrant culture and good work
ethic. The Basutho are a beautiful healthy people, kept trim and fit
by their healthy lifestyle. Most industries are human powered and
major exports consist at present of labour, water (to south africa)
and narcotics (marijuana). Fabrics are also important.
 
Vegetation consists of grassland, sedge and small patches of scrubby
heath.
 
My task was to take ten colonies of A.m.capensis to an isolated
region 2000m above see level and to bring native colonies back from
those heights to my level (380m where I have the hives).
 
Taking the bees to the highlands was easy - finding bees to bring
back was more difficult. Beekeeping is not a major occupation in
Lesotho, although recent government initiatives have  got about 70
beehives going (in a country with a human population of 3 million
this is few). To gather ten hives with queens involved a 1300km
expedition into back valleys of these rugged mountains (one usually
travels in second gear most of the way in order not to burn out the
breaks).
 
The bees themselves are quiet hard working bees that seem to be
resourceful foragers/scavengers managing to scrape together at least
10 to 20kgs of weird mountain honey a year from the overgrazed
mountains nearby. Most flowers are small yellow things burried in the
grass - which appear to be visited by 'random forager' - bees just
cruising the area looking for flowers.
 
The bees are larger than the cape honeybee, and are bright yellow in
coloration. They appear to be much less diverse in colour
configurations with a standard yellow with thin black stripes look.
The queens are all golden coloured with orange brown backs.
 
I was able to work all hives with little protection ( a veil
occasionally) and given that most hives had frames, but no foundation
and had to be butchered to find the queens a total of 7 stings for 10
queens collected was quite small. (With capensis I would normally
average about half that for a single queen!) The bees appear to
maintain a compact brood cluster and I saw very few empty cells.
 
Hive beetles were observed, and similar guarding behaviour to that of
capensis was evident.
 
Communication with locals suggested that hives swarmed once a year in
early november, and if rains were good would also swarm going into
winter.
 
Many traditional honey gatherers exist who gather honey from the
extremely harsh highland cliffs - wild hives in the Catze area are
often 2700m above sea level and well above the snow line in winter.
 
Honey in Lesotho sells for about US$4.30 a kilogram (about 2.15 for a
pound sized jar) - hence in a poor area these hives represent a
considerable source of income to the villagers, often providing more
instant wealth than traditional crops like maize etc - which have to
be tended.
 
Scenery wise the country is amazing and anybody thinking of coming to
the southern african area should definitely cash in on a trip there
(if you earn a real currency like pounds of US$ bear in mind that for
myself and a helper it cost us US$110 for food and accomodation!!)
All major roads are tarred and free of potholes as well alowing one
to go right into the heart of the highlands.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139 South Africa
 
Time = Honey