A Glimpse of sustainable bee harvesting in guyana

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At the most recent 9th Beekeeping Congress opens at Guyana School of Agriculture, The Guyana Apiculture Society (GAS), Minister Holder stated; “Our beekeepers play a pivotal role in the sector and the work of this organization (GAS) is an important element in reshaping and repositioning the Caribbean honey industry by exposing new persons to beekeeping, introducing international best practices to existing beekeepers, developing export potential in the apiculture trade in the Caribbean and boosting local beekeeping businesses via the promotion of local apiculture products to Caribbean visitors”. Guyana has approximately three hundred Beekeepers/honey harvesters but they are not all part of the Apiculture Society. This sweet liquid goodness offers a much healthier option than sugar, and could become the next best natural economic earner with Guyana becoming a major producer while promoting the nation as a true emerging Green State.

A few members of the Eco Trust Society caught up with apiculturist Francis Bailey at one of his many bee farms across Guyana. During our engagement, he made it clear that Guyanese see bees as enemies instead of co-existing habitants of the planet. He posited that in Guyana, we have the Africanized bee which has adapted to the climate and weather patterns of Guyana. He also noted that bees do not attack without reason. Bees are deaf but they respond to vibration and scents. It was important for the Eco Trust team to walk quietly when approaching the boxes and ensuring that none of us wore any high scented perfume.
The economical dents of purchasing your own protective clothing is massive. Mr. Bailey made us aware that the high-quality suits are $70,000 and he insists that in order to host any Honey Harvesting Training, only the best protective gear will be used. He has over the years, learned about natural beekeeping and he practices both natural and commercial beekeeping to ensure productivity. He made it clear that he does not clip his queens’ wings so as to allow them leeway. Splitting hives is the main technique he uses for expansion. Though he has only been in beekeeping for four years, he looks forward to having a data set which represents the impact of climate change on his bees. Parts of the climate change predictions show that it will have an impact on the bees. For example, if we have a drought when there should be a rainy season, we will have a dearth. However, he sees that the Africanized bees have adapted to the particular circumstances.

Bee colonies can be as old as fifty years. Mr. Bailey offers several pointed notes for persons to follow with regards to preserving bees. Deforestation, the willful destruction of entire ecosystems as well as the disastrous outcome of a world without bees. Food being one, as well as aesthetic purposes in flowering plants and overall beauty to our overall landscape. He hopes that we as humans do what we must to avoid this. Colony collapse has affected the colonies in the USA due to pesticides but luckily, we have not had a similar problem here. Though pesticides have been used here, he recommends more training to be done for the staff who sell the products so that they know what they are selling to farmers. Mr. Bailey is open to teaching about bees, he even hopes to have bee tours to demystify bees. He outlined the many ways bees can die, some of which are assissation, at the end of their chores, there are undertaker bees which remove the dead bees from the hives, pesticides, there are robber bees which look for vulnerable hives and fight with each other. Female bees are not allowed to visit the hives of other bees. Once they do, they could be killed. Bees may assassinate their own queens. If the queen is not laying the right sort of eggs, male or female, for example if she is laying too many male eggs, they will force her to lay her replacement and then kill her in a process called Bawling the Queen. Bees also die seasonally, if they are running out of food, they kill all the men (meno-cide).
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There are many different types of honey produced here in Guyana, since of which are mangrove honey, jamoon honey, a plant that is dominant in a landscape, there will be honey produced using that plant. For example, if there are ten types of flowers but the bees decide there is one flavour they like, that is the flavour they will produce!
All this and more awesome facts about the wonderful world of bees can be found when you watch our documentary on bees.

A Glimpse of Sustainable Bee Harvesting in Guyana