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Agricultural Support Systems Division

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Rome 2003

Diversification booklet 1

Nicola Bradbear

All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material inthis information product for educational or other non-commercialpurposes are authorized without any prior written permission fromthe copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged.Reproduction of material in this information product for resale orother commercial purposes is prohibited without written permissionof the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should beaddressed to the Chief, Publishing Management Service, InformationDivision, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy or bye-mail to copyright@fao.org

The designations employed and the presentation of material in thisinformation product do not imply the expression of any opinionwhatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nations concerning the legal or development status ofany country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerningthe delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

© FAO 2003

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Diversification booklets

FAO Diversification booklets aim to raise awareness and provide informa-

tion about opportunities at the farm and local community level to increase

small-scale farmer income. Each booklet will focus on a specific farm or non-

farm enterprise or technology that experience has shown can be integrated suc-

cessfully into small farms or at a local community level. We explore the poten-

tial benefits associated with new activities and technologies, as well as appro-

priateness and viability in differing circumstances.

The main target audience for FAO Diversification booklets are people and

organizations that provide advisory, business and technical support services to

resource-poor small-scale farmers and local communities in low- and middle-

income countries. We hope to provide enough information to help these sup-

port service providers consider new income-generating opportunities, and how

they might enable small-scale farmers to take action. What are farmer require-

ments and constraints? What are critical “success factors”?

FAO Diversification booklets are also targeted to policy level people in gov-

ernment and non-governmental organizations. What actions might policy-

makers take to create enabling environments for small-scale farmers to diver-

sify into new income-generating activities?

It is important to point out that the Diversification booklets are not intended

to be technical “how to do it” guidelines. In order to provide farmer advisory

and support activities relating to introduction of new income-generating activ-

ities, most organizations will find it necessary to seek more information or

technical support. For these organizations, each booklet identifies complemen-

tary sources of information and technical support.

If you find this booklet of value we would like to hear from you. Tell your

Preface

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colleagues and friends about it. If you have any suggestions where we can

make changes for the better in our next edition, or topics for other booklets –

this is equally important. By sharing your views and ideas with us we can

eventually provide better services to you.

Director, Agricultural Support Systems DivisionFood and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsRome, Italy

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Preface iii

■ Beekeeping helps to create sustainable livelihoods 1

■ Beekeeping assets 1

■ Natural capital assets 2

■ Human assets 3

■ Physical assets 4

■ Social assets 4

■ Financial assets 4

■ Beekeeping outcomes 5

■ Bees are diligent pollinators of fruit and seed crops 7

■ What is pollination? 7

■ Bees are good pollinators 7

■ Cross-pollination 8

■ Pollination affects crop quality and quantity 8

■ Protecting pollinators 9

■ More pollinating insects needed 9

■ Bees around the world 11

■ Africa 11

■ Asia 12

■ The Americas 12

■ Honey popular food 13

■ What is honey? 13

■ Honey quality 13

■ Harvesting honey 14

■ Water content 15

■ Values of honey 17

■ As a food 17

■ As a medicine or tonic 17

■ As a cash crop 17

■ As an export crop 17

■ As cultural food 19

■ Beeswax useful and valuable product 21

■ Beeswax quality 21

■ Income from beeswax 22

■ Uses of beeswax 23

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Table of contents

■ Other products from bees 25

■ Pollen 25

■ Propolis 25

■ Royal jelly 26

■ Value-added products 29

■ Apitherapy: healing with bee products 31

■ In brief: how to keep bees 33

■ Obtaining bees 33

■ Choice of hives 33

■ Traditional hives 34

■ Top-bar hives 35

■ Movable-frame hives 37

■ Beekeeping equipment 39

■ Smoker 39

■ Protective clothing 39

■ Hive tool 39

■ Harvesting and processing 40

■ Promoting beekeeping projects as a source of livelihoods 41

■ Natural resources: indigenous species 41

■ Human resources: beekeeping skills, training and extension 41

■ Physical resources: equipment and transport 42

■ Financial resources: credit 43

■ Social resources: sector support and marketing 43

■ Project evaluation 44

■ Case studies 46

■ Some apicultural terms 53

■ Further information - websites, books, videos and CDs 57

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Beekeeping does not attract much at-tention. It is easy to visit villages andnot “see” beekeeping, unless activelylooking for it. Beekeeping, however,is crucially important for agriculturalwell-being; it represents and symbol-izes the natural biological interde-pendence that comes from insects,pollination and production of seed.Useful small-scale efforts to encour-age beekeeping interventions can befound throughout the world, helpingpeople to strengthen livelihoods andensuring maintenance of habitat andbiodiversity.

Strengthening livelihoods meanshelping people to become less vulner-able to poverty. This is achieved byhelping them to gain greater access toa range of assets, and supporting theircapacity to build these assets into suc-cessful livelihood activities. Thisbooklet shows the useful role thatbeekeeping can play in creating sus-tainable livelihoods.

People who have limited cash orfinancial savings often have otherassets or strengths – as opposed toneeds – that can be mobilized.Chambers and Conway (1992) de-veloped what is now the accepted

definition of a livelihood:“A livelihood comprises the capa-bilities, assets and activities re-quired for a means of living. Alivelihood is sustainable when itcan cope with and recover fromstresses and shocks and maintainor enhance its capabilities and as-sets both now and in the future,while not undermining the naturalresource base.”

■ Beekeeping assetsIndividual livelihoods depend on ac-cess to many types of assets whichfall into five categories: natural, hu-man, physical, social and financial.To understand this, think about yourown livelihood and all the diverse as-sets you depend upon: your skills, ac-cess to transport, equipment, telecom-munications and the social networksyou have been born into or have cre-ated yourself. No individual categoryof capital assets, such as finance, issufficient on its own to create a liveli-hood.

Beekeeping is a useful means ofstrengthening livelihoods because ituses and creates a range of assets.Successful beekeeping draws upon

Beekeeping helpsto create sustainable livelihoods

all categories of capital assets, al-though financial capital is not essen-tial for getting started in productivebeekeeping.

■ Natural capital assetsBeekeeping livelihoods are built uponnatural resource stocks: bees, flower-ing plants and water. Bees collectgums and resins from plants and useplants and trees as habitat for nesting.Bees are a natural resource, and freelyavailable in the wild. Where bees havenot been poisoned, damaged orharmed, they will collect whereverthey are able, provided the naturalconditions include available floweringplants. Wild or cultivated areas,wasteland and even areas where theremay be land mines all have value forbeekeeping. Beekeeping is possible inarid areas and places where crops orother enterprises have failed; the rootsof nectar-bearing trees may still beable to reach the water table far belowthe surface. This makes beekeeping

feasible in marginal conditions, whichis important for people who need torestore their livelihoods or create newones.

Beekeeping fits in well alongsidemany other livelihood endeavours be-cause it uses the same natural re-sources as, for example, forestry, agri-culture and conservation activities.Beekeeping provides an excellentbonus in addition to other crops ratherthan instead of them, because onlybees are capable of harvesting nectarand pollen. There is no competitionwith other insects or animals for theseresources that otherwise would be in-accessible to people. Beekeeping en-sures the continuation of natural as-sets through pollination of wild andcultivated plants. Flowering plantsand bees are interdependent: one can-not exist without the other. As beesvisit flowers, they collect food andtheir pollination activities ensure fu-ture generations of food plants, avail-able for future generations of bees and

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Types of capital assets needed for beekeeping

Natural: bees, a place to keep them, water, sunshine, biodiversity and environ-mental resources;

Human: skills, knowledge, good health and strength, and marketing expertise;Physical: tools, equipment, transport, roads, clean water, energy and buildings;Social: help from families, friends and networks, membership of groups and

access to a wider society, market information and research findings;Financial: cash, savings and access to credit or grants.

for people too. It is a perfect self-sus-taining activity. Pollination is difficultto quantify, but if it could be meas-ured it would be the most economi-cally significant value of beekeeping.

By definition, a livelihood shouldenhance capabilities “while not un-dermining the natural resource base”(Chambers and Conway, 1992). Bee-keeping goes beyond this, because itactually helps to sustain the naturalresource base. Throughout the world,beekeeping has traditionally been partof village agriculture. Now, as farm-

ing practices change, it is essential toensure that beekeeping is retained andencouraged in order to provide con-tinued populations of pollinating in-sects.

■ Human assetsMany societies have considerabletraditional knowledge and skills con-cerning bees, honey and relatedproducts. The products of beekeep-ing are often used by women: the im-portant tej (honey wine) industry inEthiopia, for example, is run by

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FIGURE 1 A mother and child in Nepal:just one hive of bees makes a significantcontribution to the resources of the house-hold.

FIGURE 2 Many African women add totheir livelihoods by brewing and sellinghoney beer. Ethiopian women make and selltej (honey wine) and non-alcoholic drinksbased on honey.

women. Elsewhere in Africa, womenbrew and sell honey beer. These arethe types of human assets or skillsneeded to create livelihoods within asociety. Beekeeping projects havesometimes ignored existing knowl-edge or implied that it was wrong orout of date, which is worse. The bestbeekeeping projects recognize exist-ing skills and build on them forgreater income generation and to en-sure sustainability.

■ Physical assetsSuccessful beekeeping enterprises re-quire production equipment and in-frastructure such as transport, water,energy, roads, communication sys-tems and buildings. There are manyways to manage bees and obtaincrops of honey, beeswax or otherproducts. In sustainable beekeepingprojects, all equipment must be madeand mended locally which, in turn,contributes to the livelihoods of otherlocal people. Beekeeping can add tothe livelihoods of many different sec-tors within a society including villageand urban traders, carpenters whomake hives and stands, tailors whomake veils, clothing and gloves andthose who make and sell tools andcontainers.

■ Social assetsSocial resources such as networksand producer and marketing associa-

tions have great significance for bee-keeping development. Local associa-tions provide the means for beekeep-ers to advance their craft, lobby forthe protection of bees, organize col-lective processing for honey and wax,and gain access to markets. Access tonetworks at a wider level throughnon-governmental organizations(NGOs) such as Apimondia and Beesfor Development helps beekeepers tomake national and international con-tacts, find sources of training, mar-kets and new research results, and im-prove their understanding of the in-dustry.

■ Financial assetsAlthough significant financial assetsare not essential to initiate beekeep-ing activities at subsistence level,they are essential for development ofbeekeeping enterprises. Successfulmarketing depends on adequate sup-plies of containers for processing andpackaging. Credit is necessary forbeekeeping associations to run collec-tion centres and for traders to buyhoney and beeswax.

A good beekeeping project willutilize available assets; it will not de-pend on imported resources or equip-ment, such as the beeswax foundationused in frame hives (see Figure 26).There are situations all over the worldwhere beekeeping can be especiallyvaluable because it remains an activi-

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ty that is possible for people living inthe most difficult circumstances, per-haps isolated by war or sanctions.This is because bees are almost al-ways available in the wild and equip-ment can be made from whatever ma-terials are at hand.

■ Beekeeping outcomesBeekeeping produces a number ofquite different outcomes.• Pollination of flowering plants,

both wild and cultivated, is vitalfor continued life on earth. How-ever, this essential process is diffi-cult to quantify.

• People everywhere like honey, thebest-known beekeeping product.Honey is a traditional medicine orfood in most societies. Whethersold fresh at village level or in so-phisticated packaging, honey gen-erates income and can createlivelihoods for several sectorswithin a society.

• Beeswax is a valuable product ofbeekeeping, and much of theworld’s supply comes from devel-oping countries.

• Beekeeping products such aspollen, propolis and royal jellycan be harvested and marketed,although special techniques andequipment are needed for some ofthese products.

• Beekeepers and other communitymembers can create assets by using

honey, beeswax and other productsto make secondary products suchas candles, skin ointments and beer.Secondary product brings a far bet-ter return for the producer than sell-ing the raw commodity. This workstrengthens people’s livelihoods.

• Products of beekeeping are usedfor apitherapy in many societies.

• Honey, beeswax and productsmade from them, such as candles,wine and food items, have cultur-al value in many societies andmay be used in rituals for births,marriages, funerals and religious

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FIGURE 3 A beekeeper in the Amazon.Honey is a useful source of income for peo-ple living in or near tropical forests.

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celebrations.• Beekeepers are generally respect-

ed for their craft. Bees and bee-keeping have a wholesome reputa-tion. Images of bees are used assymbols of hard work and indus-try, often by banks and financialinstitutions.These outcomes are real and they

strengthen people’s livelihoods,

even though some of them cannotbe fully quantified. Beekeepinghelps people to become less vulner-able, strengthens their ability toplan for the future and reduces thedanger that they wil l s l ip intopoverty in a time of crisis, for ex-ample, if a family member becomesill or crops fail.

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■ What is pollination?Pollination is necessary for all seedand fruit production by floweringplants. Transfer of pollen amongflowers to allow their reproduction isa vital mechanism for maintaininglife on earth. People harvest the seedsof some crops for food; examples areoilseed crops, nuts, legumes such asbeans and peas, and cereals such asrice and maize. Other crops providefruit that develops with the seed, forexample citrus fruits, mangoes andtomatoes. Seed is required for theproduction of the next generation ofcrops and allows plant-breeding pro-grammes to improve varieties.

■ Bees are good pollinatorsPlant reproduction requires the trans-fer of pollen from the anthers, or malepart of a flower, to the stigmas, or fe-male part of a flower, either on thesame plant or on a separate plant thatmay be some distance away. Afterthousands of years of evolution andadaptation to local environments,each plant species has specific re-quirements for this important transferof pollen; many depend on foraginginsects to transfer pollen among

flowers. Many species of insects visitflowers to seek nectar or pollen;while doing so most will transfer afew pollen grains, thus contributingto pollination. Honeybees are highlyefficient pollinating insects, because:• they have hairy bodies that easily

pick up thousands of grains ofpollen as they move about inside

Bees are diligent pollinatorsof fruit and seed crops

FIGURE 4 Everywhere in the world wherethere are flowering plants – there are bees ,and over 25 000 species have so far beendescribed.

flowers;• they visit only one species during

each foraging trip;• each foraging bee not only collects

sufficient food for its own require-ments, but continuously forages fornectar and pollen to supply the dai-ly food needs of the colony.

During a single day, one bee may vis-it several thousand flowers of one plantspecies, collecting nectar and pollen andcontinuously transferring pollen grainsfrom one flower to another.

■ Cross-pollinationCross-pollination occurs when an in-sect moves pollen from one plant toanother. It is needed when plant sexesare segregated on different plants, suchas melons, or by different periods offlowering of the same plant, such asavocado. Many varieties of fruit treesneed cross-pollination; they should beplanted so that pollinizer trees are nearthe main crop trees. Production of hy-brid seed crops on a commercial scalecreates a special need for cross-polli-nation by insects: a large population ofpollinating insects is needed to carrypollen from rows of male plants torows of female plants.

■ Pollination affects crop quality andquantity

Crops vary in the extent to which theybenefit from insect cross-pollination.Some crops, such as field beans and

mangoes, are self-pollinating but givebetter yields if pollinated by insects.Many, such as passion fruit, cowpea,sesame, litchi, mustard and cashew,give a substantially increased yieldwhen pollinated by insects. Otherssuch as sunflowers, clover, beans, al-monds and melons are completely de-pendent on pollination by insects andotherwise will not produce crops.

Adequate insect pollination affectsboth the quantity and quality of crops:uneven, small fruit often indicate insuf-ficient pollination. Adequate pollination

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FIGURE 5 Coffee in Yemen. Yield improvessignificantly when optimally pollinated bybees; beekeepers obtain good honey cropsfrom the abundant nectar produced by cof-fee flowers.

by insects also ensures that early flow-ers set seed. This results in a uniformand early harvest and gives the crop themaximum length of time to ripen.

Pollination can be as important incrop production as water or fertilizer.With the use of improved cultivarsand irrigation, pollination can be thelimiting factor. The pollination re-quirements of all major temperatezone crops are well known. In coun-tries with highly mechanized agricul-ture, the use of bees for pollination in-creased greatly during the twentiethcentury and became an integral partof crop production. Less research hasbeen done on the pollination require-ments of crops grown in the tropics.

■ Protecting pollinatorsMany other species of bees and polli-nating insects living in the wild arehighly important for pollination, inaddition to honeybees living in thewild or managed in hives by beekeep-ers. Many factors have caused a de-cline in the numbers of these insectsavailable for crop pollination. Themost serious threat to pollinating in-sects is the use of insecticides. Her-bicides, grazing or cutting of road-side verges and other destruction offlowering plants remove foodsources for pollinating insects. In-tensive land cultivation and destruc-tion of hedges, banks and roughverges further reduces the habitat for

nesting and hibernation sites forbees.

It is in everyone's interest to main-tain strong populations of honeybeesand other pollinating insects. Thismeans increasing people’s awarenessof the value of insect pollination,stopping unnecessary pesticide useand increasing forage for bees by in-cluding nectar-bearing bushes andtrees in planting schemes. Farmerscan contribute to the protection ofhoneybees and their habitats as fol-lows.• Select and use insecticides with

great care; if wild pollinating in-sects are destroyed, there is a riskof decreased crop yields in the fu-ture.

• Never use insecticides when flow-ers are open; foraging insects workon open blossoms and are killed bysprays at this time; if insecticidesmust be used, spray at a time ofday when crop flowers are closed.

• Allow wild plants to flower onwasteland, because they will helpto support populations of foraginginsects.

• Make habitats more acceptable fornesting and hibernation of pollinat-ing insects.

■ More pollinating insects neededParadoxically, intensive agriculturalpractices diminish the numbers of wildpollinators and at the same time increase

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the need for them. Larger fields increasethe need for pollination while a crop isflowering, yet decrease the ability of thelocal insect population to pollinate ade-quately. The tendency to concentrateparticular crops in certain areas intensi-fies this situation, because when the ma-jor crop is not in flower there may be in-sufficient forage from other sources.

In temperate countries, large-scalemonocultures have increased the needfor pollination, yet have decreased thepopulations of wild pollinators. Asimilardilemma is arising in the tropics, wherethere has been an increase in mecha-nized farming and an accompanying in-crease in field size. In the tropics, how-ever, crop flowering is more prolonged

and less intensive than in temperate re-gions. Where growing conditions arefavourable, the same crop species mayoccur in a sequence of growth stages.Many fruit trees flower and fruitthroughout the year, albeit more abun-dantly at certain periods, and thereforeforage for bees may be present at alltimes.

Increased monoculture in the tropicsmeans that flowering will be more con-centrated, so large pollinator populationswill be needed for shorter periods. Al-though pollen sources that allow cross-pollination are naturally present in smallmixed farms, special provisions for croppollination are necessary for large areasof a uniform crop (Free, 1999).

FIGURE 6 Market stall in Egypt. Adequate pollination increases the quality and quantity ofmany cash crops.

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Many species of bees collect nectar,they convert to honey and store as afood source. Only bees that live to-gether in large colonies store apprecia-ble quantities of honey; these includebees of the genera Apis (honeybees),Trigona and Melipona (stingless bees)that people have recognized through-out the ages as sources of honey. Untilthe seventeenth century, honey frombees was the only commonly availablesweetening substance.

The most widely used honeybeesare European races of Apis mellifera, aspecies of honeybee also indigenous toAfrica and the Middle East. Honeybeesare not indigenous to the Americas,Australia, New Zealand or the Pacificislands, but during the last four cen-turies European races of bees have beenintroduced to these regions. During thelast 30 years, European bees have beenused increasingly in Asia. Beekeepingequipment and technology have beendeveloped for use with European racesof honeybees. Most beekeeping litera-ture relates only to these bees.

■ AfricaApis mellifera are indigenous to tropicalAfrica. They are slightly smaller thanthe European races of Apis mellifera

and their behaviour is notably different.They are more readily alerted to leavethe comb and defend themselves. Tropi-cal honeybees are more likely to aban-don their nest or hive if disturbed, be-cause they have a greater chance of sur-vival in the tropics. In some areas, hon-eybee colonies migrate seasonally.

Bees around the world

FIGURE 7 Colonies of wild nesting beesare the major source of honey in many areasof India. These colonies will be harvestedby honey hunters who climb the trees, cutoff the honeycombs and lower them to theground in baskets.

These are crucial factors governingtropical bee management.

■ AsiaThere are many indigenous honeybeespecies in Asia. Some can be managedin hives; others build individualcombs in the open and cannot be keptin hives. Honey hunters plunder thesecombs for honey. In Bangladesh, In-dia and Nepal, for example, most hon-ey comes from gathering the largecombs of wild nesting bees.

■ The AmericasThere are no indigenous honeybees inthe Americas. Their ecological niche isfilled by many different species of stin-gless bees that were and in some areasstill are exploited for their honey,

which is particularly valued for its me-dicinal properties. Knowing nothing ofthese indigenous bees, European set-tlers long ago brought with them Euro-pean bees, on which basis the industrydeveloped. In 1956, some African Apismellifera queens were introduced intoBrazil. These bees survived far moresuccessfully in tropical Brazil thantheir European Apis mellifera prede-cessors, and quickly proved dominantover them; they are known as “killerbees” in the media and have spreadthrough much of South and CentralAmerica and southern parts of theUnited States. They have many of thetypical African honeybee characteris-tics that have necessitated changedmanagement practices and led to in-creased yields for beekeepers.

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FIGURE 8 Hive for stingless bees in Brazil.

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Mention bees, and most people thinkof honey. Almost every society onearth has traditionally known andused honey. Cave paintings near Va-lencia in Spain from 15 000 years agodepict men gathering honey. TheBible and the Koran extol the virtueof honey as a valuable and nourishingfood. The reputation of honey as awholesome and popular commodityis a useful basis upon which to createlivelihoods.

■ What is honey?Flowers need bees to visit them so thatplants will be pollinated. As an incen-tive, they supply nectar. Nectar is a so-lution of sugars and other minor con-stituents that bees collect and concen-trate into honey. Honeys contain awide range of sugars, varying accord-ing to the nectar source, and smallamounts of other substances such asminerals, vitamins, proteins andamino acids. The temperature in a nestnear the honey storage area is usuallyabout 35 °C. This temperature and theventilation produced by fanning beescause water to evaporate from thehoney. When the water content is re-duced to about 20 percent, the beesseal the cell with a wax capping. The

honey is now considered “ripe” andwill not ferment. In this way the beesprepare for themselves a concentratedfood source packed in minimal space.It is free from problems of fermenta-tion; therefore bacteria cannot grow inthe honey and it will not deteriorateduring storage. This food sustains thebees through periods when there areno flowers.

Pollen is a minor but importantcomponent of honey. It is carried tothe nest and stored quite separatelyfrom nectar, but a few pollen grainsinevitably find their way into nectarand eventually into the honey. If thepollen in honey is identified through amicroscope, it gives a guide to theplants on which the bees have beenforaging.

■ Honey qualityThe aroma, taste and colour of honeyare determined by the plants fromwhich the bees have gathered nectar.Sunflowers, for example, give a gold-en yellow honey; clover gives asweet, white honey; agave speciesgive honey a bitter taste that is popu-lar in some societies. Dark honey usu-ally has a strong flavour and often hasa high mineral content; pale honey

Honey – popular food

has a more delicate flavour. The pop-ularity of dark and light honey variesfrom country to country. Colour canalso indicate quality, because honeybecomes darker during storage or if itis heated. However, some perfectlyfresh and unheated kinds of honeycan be dark in colour.

Glucose is a major constituent ofhoney. When the glucose crystal-lizes, the honey becomes solid and isknown as granulated honey. Depend-ing on the plants the bees are visit-ing, some kinds of honey are moreprone to granulation than others; al-most all honey granulates if its tem-perature falls below 15–24 °C. Aswith colour, different people favourdifferent qualities of honey. Someprefer granulated honey, while oth-ers choose liquid honey. Granulationis a natural process; there is no dif-ference in nutritional value betweensolid and liquid honey. Some kindsof honey look cloudy because theycontain a high level of pollen. Suchhoney is sometimes said to be of lowquality, although the presence ofpollen makes the honey even morenutritious. In Europe and NorthAmerica, a new market is develop-ing for honey that has been cold-fil-tered and not processed to remove allpollen.

■ Harvesting honeyHoney inside the nest that the bees

have sealed with a wax capping is re-garded by beekeepers as ready forharvest. Honey at this stage is pureand perfect, whether it is in a wildnest, a home-made hive or the mostexpensive factory-made hive. Thesubsequent harvesting and process-ing of honey determine whether thisquality is retained or whether it willbe spoiled by contamination, over-heating or over-filtration. This meansthat rural beekeepers using simpleequipment can produce honey of topquality. If the beekeepers are work-ing in remote places far from roadsand industry, the honey may even be

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FIGURE 9 Piece of honeycomb in India.When honey is presented this way, the con-sumer can see that it is fresh and uncontam-inated.

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certified as organic and command apremium price. Honey processing ona small-scale requires the same sim-ple equipment that is used in otherforms of food preparation: bowls,sieves or straining cloths and con-tainers.

■ Water contentIf the water content of honey isgreater than 23 percent, the honey islikely to ferment. Low water content

is therefore important. Water con-tent can be measured using a honeyrefractometer, which is a small in-strument that measures the refrac-tion of light as it passes through aglass prism on which a few drops ofhoney have been smeared. In cli-mates with high humidity where itcan be difficult to retain low watercontent in honey, airtight plasticbuckets with lids are essential forhoney storage.

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Honey has value as a food, as a medi-cine, as a cash crop for both domesticand export markets and as an impor-tant part of some cultural traditions.

■ As a foodHoney is valued everywhere as asweet and tasty food. At times offood shortage it is a useful carbohy-drate source that contains trace ele-ments and adds nutritional diversityto poor diets. Honey often has an im-portant place in traditional foodpreparation.

■ As a medicine or tonicIn many parts of the world, honey isused as a medicine or tonic and as aspecial treat for children. Modernmedicine is increasingly using honeyfor a variety of treatments.

■ As a cash cropFresh local honey is always morehighly valued than imported honey.Many beekeepers sell their product di-rectly to consumers. Honey is oftenused as a barter commodity in vil-lages, especially in remote areas or ar-eas isolated by war or sanctions. Hon-ey is a stable commodity with a longshelf life. If harvested carefully, it will

remain wholesome for many years.

■ As an export cropAs standards of living rise, honey con-sumption increases. Most industrial-ized countries import honey to meetdemand. This requirement can pro-vide developing countries with a use-ful source of foreign exchange from

FIGURE 10 Honey is a traditional medi-cine or food in nearly all societies. Here inUganda, it may be sold in a simple way atvillage level.

Values of honey

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TABLE 1 World honey production and trade, 1997

Production Import Value Export Value(tonnes) (tonnes) (US$1 000) (tonnes) (US$ 1 000)

Total 1 112 000 317 630 539 820 264 701 453 546Argentina 65 000 171 336 70 422 108 361Australia 26 000 30 70 13 287 22 159Canada 29 000 1 992 3 279 8 408 17 054China 188 000 2 296 2 393 48 306 69 200Cuba 6 000 - - 3 800 5Ethiopia 31 000 - - 1 5 000Germany 12 000 83 295 130 383 13 061 33 406Kenya 26 000 20 57 1 1Mexico 54 000 135 246 26 900 41 090South Africa 1 000 587 707 27 83UK 3 000 21 223 37 282 904 2 430USA 90 000 75 950 124 852 4 111 7 858

Sources: FAO Production Yearbook, Vol. 51; FAO Trade Yearbook, Vol. 51.Note: This table lists only official figures; although exports from African and Asian countriesare significant, they are unofficial.

FIGURE 11 Packaged in a more sophisticated way, honey generates income (Viet Nam).

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honey exports. The countries withthe highest honey exports are Mexi-co, China and Argentina. Each coun-try has a large beekeeping industrythat is an important part of their agri-cultural economy (see Table 1). Alldeveloping countries can export hon-ey if production is in excess of localrequirements. Because beekeepingdoes not use land, production of hon-ey for export need not conflict withgrowing crops for local consumption.

■ As cultural foodHoney is widely used as a source ofsugars for making honey wines andbeers. Honey also has a high culturalvalue: eating honey or using it foranointing are part of many traditionalbirth, marriage and funeral cere-monies; this cultural connection is evi-dent in the term “honeymoon”. In theMasai society of East Africa, honey isused to pay the bride price; in Ethiopia,honey wine is brewed for weddings.

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Beeswax is the material that bees useto build their nests. It is produced byyoung honeybees that secrete it as aliquid from special wax glands. Oncontact with air, the wax hardens andforms scales, which appear as smallflakes of wax on the underside of thebee. About one million wax scalesmake 1 kg of wax. Bees use the waxto build the well-known hexagonalcells that make up their comb, a verystrong and efficient structure. Beesuse the comb cells to store honey andpollen; the queen lays her eggs inthem, and young bees develop inthem. Beeswax is produced by all

species of honeybees, although thewaxes produced by different specieshave slightly different chemical andphysical properties.

■ Beeswax qualityBeeswax is valued according to its puri-ty and colour. Light-coloured wax ismore highly valued than dark-colouredwax, because dark wax is likely to havebeen contaminated or overheated. Thefinest beeswax is from wax cappings,which are the wax seals with whichbees cover ripe honeycombs. This newwax is pure and white. The presence ofpollen turns it yellow.

Beeswax – useful and valuable product

FIGURE 12 Beeswax.

■ Income from beeswaxFor several reasons beeswax is an ex-cellent commodity for rural communi-ties to use as a cash or export crop.• Beeswax processing is easy. Ren-

dering beeswax to a quality suit-able for export involves only sim-ple heating and filtering methods toensure that the beeswax is clean. Itcan be moulded into blocks usingany suitably sized containers asmoulds. The blocks are broken intosmall pieces to assure buyers thatthe beeswax is pure and clean.

• Transport and storage of beeswaxis simple, because no special pack-aging is required. Beeswax is nor-mally exported as small unwrapped

lumps in hessian sacks.• Beeswax does not deteriorate with

age. Individual beekeepers or co-operatives can store small amountsuntil they have enough to sell.

• As with honey, beeswax can beconsidered an appropriate exportcrop for developing countries, be-cause beekeeping does not use landrequired for local food production.

• In areas where most or all of thehoney produced is consumed local-ly and where there is no major localuse for beeswax, honeycombs areoften discarded, even though theycould provide additional income.Beekeepers sometimes need to betrained in methods of rendering and

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FIGURE 13 Beeswax processing in Tanzania.

saving beeswax, and encouraged tosell their combined crop in onetransaction.

■ Uses of beeswaxBeeswax has many traditional uses. Insome countries in Asia and Africa, it isused in creating batik fabrics and in thelost-wax method of casting small met-al objects. Beeswax is widely used as awaterproofing agent for wood andleather, and for strengthening threads;

it is used in village industries such ascandle-making and as an ingredient inointments, medicines, soaps and pol-ishes. Beeswax is in great demand onthe world market. There are more than300 industrial uses for beeswax. Cos-metics and pharmaceutical industriesare the major users, accounting for70 percent of the world trade, and re-quire first-class beeswax that has notbeen overheated. The price rangesfrom US$4 to US$8 per kg. Other

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TABLE 2 World Trade in Beeswax, 1994

Production Export Import(tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes)

Angola 1 500Argentina 1 500Australia 482 317Chile 500 264China 12 800Dominican Republic 350 206Ethiopia 2 100 210France 1 563Germany 1 275Japan 766Kenya 1 050 1 615Korea 600Mexico 9 150 50Portugal 375Spain 730Tanzania 1 050 437Thailand 2 302Uganda 780United Kingdom 421USA 3 027 847

Source: Data from Bees for Development.Note: A good deal of beeswax is exported from Africa by unofficial routes.

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significant users are the beekeepingindustries in industrialized countriesthat need beeswax for cosmeticfoundations and for candle-making.Beeswax is used in the manufactureof electronic components and CDs,in modelling and casting for indus-try and art, in polishes for shoes,furniture and floors, in grafting wax-es and in specialized industrial lu-bricants.

Industrialized countries useframe hives for beekeeping. Emptyhoneycombs are returned to the hiveafter the extraction of honey, whichmeans that relatively little beeswaxis harvested. With frame hives, theratio of honey to beeswax produc-tion is approximately 75:1. Honey

hunting or the use of traditional ortop-bar hives results in greateryields of beeswax, however, the del-icate honeycomb is broken duringthe extraction of honey and cannotbe returned to the nest or hive. Theratio of honey to beeswax produc-tion using these hives is about 10:1.For this reason countries in Africa,Asia and Central and South Americaproduce large amounts of beeswax,which can provide a valuable exportcrop (see Table 2). Beeswax is avaluable export commodity forEthiopia, for example, and beekeep-ers in northwest Zambia harvestboth wax and honey from bees nest-ing in bark hives as cash crops for ex-port to Europe.

FIGURE 14 Traders in Pakistan discuss prices of beeswax harvested from wild bee colonies.

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In addition to honey and wax, beeswill produce a number of other prod-ucts all of which enjoy commercialmarkets. These include pollen, propo-lis and royal jelly.

■ PollenPollen is valued as a health food;some people believe that it can helpto combat allergies. It contains30 percent protein, 30 percent carbo-hydrate, 5 percent fat and many minor

constituents, so it is a potentially use-ful source of nutrition. Pollen is rela-tively simple to harvest from framehives using a trap fitted to the hiveentrance. When the bees pass throughthe trap, a grid knocks the pollen outof the pollen baskets on their backlegs and it falls into a tray, fromwhich it is collected. Pollen prices arehigh in Europe and East Asia.

■ PropolisHoneybees collect resins and gumsfrom buds or injured areas of plants.This glue-like substance, usually darkbrown in colour, is called propolis. Aswith honey, propolis differs in com-position according to the plants fromwhich bees have been collecting.Honeybees use propolis to keep theirhomes dry, draught proof, secure andhygienic. Propolis is used to seal upany cracks where micro-organismscould flourish; its volatile oils mustserve as a kind of antiseptic air-fresh-ener. Bees use propolis:• as building material to decrease

the size of nest entrances and tomake the surface smooth for pass-ing bee traffic;

• to varnish inside brood cells be-fore a queen lays eggs in them,FIGURE 15 Pollen ready for harvest.

Other products from bees

providing a strong, waterproof andhygienic unit for developing lar-vae;

• to embalm the bodies of mice orother predators too large for beesto eject from the nest, whichwould otherwise decay and be asource of infection.The Apis f lorea , one of the

As ian honeybee spec ies , usesrings of propolis l ike bands ofgrease to coat the branch fromwhich its single-comb nest is sus-pended as a protection from pred-ators. Propolis has long been usedas a medicine; it has been provedscientifically that propolis kills

bacteria. It is a common ingredi-ent in toothpaste, soaps and oint-ments. Dissolving propolis in al-cohol makes a tincture with manycla imed medic ina l p roper t ies .Propolis can be a useful incomesource: its current world price isabout US$10 per kg. For bee-keepers in remote areas, access tomarke ts i s more of a p rob lemthan harvesting the product.

■ Royal jellyRoyal jelly is the food that workerbees give to freshly hatched larvae.It contains many insect growth hor-mones and is valued as a medicine,

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FIGURE 16 Since the 1970s, royal jelly harvested from European races of honeybees hasbeen an export crop for beekeepers in Thailand.

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tonic or aphrodisiac in various partsof the world. Royal jelly has manydifferent components including pro-teins, sugars, fats, minerals and vita-mins.

Under natural conditions, a larvadestined to become a queen bee de-velops in a special large wax cell, in-side which worker bees place largeamounts of royal jelly. Honeybeecolonies can be manipulated by bee-keepers to start producing greatnumbers of queens, perhaps 50 ormore, specifically to produce royaljelly for harvest. Worker bees pro-duce vast amounts of royal jelly –extra sugar must be fed to the colonyto achieve this – and place it in the

queen cells. Instead of feeding on itand developing into queen bees, thelarvae are removed and the royal jel-ly is harvested by beekeepers.

Harvesting royal jelly and its sub-sequent processing and packagingcall for skilled techniques of honey-bee colony manipulation and sophis-ticated technology. Royal jelly dete-riorates quickly after harvest andmust be kept frozen or freeze-driedduring handling, storage, transportand marketing. The main countriesharvesting royal jelly commerciallyare China, Taiwan and Thailand. Themain market for royal jelly is Japan;relatively small amounts are import-ed by other industrialized countries.

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It is to the advantage of producers tofind ways of adding value to beeproducts, as opposed to selling onlythe raw products. The manufacture ofvalue-added products from beekeep-ing can involve various groups, someof whom may not be interested in ac-tually keeping bees or have the meansto do so. Honey, beeswax, pollen orpropolis can be used in a variety offoods, cosmetics, ointments and othergoods that can be made and sold lo-cally, creating more livelihood oppor-tunities.

Beeswax provides an excellentmaterial for making high-qualitysoap. The main difficulty in soap pro-duction is obtaining and safely han-dling caustic soda (sodium hydrox-ide), which is an important ingredi-ent. In some villages, people knowthe techniques required to produceash for making caustic soda, andthese methods can be used. There aremany traditional ways of makingsoap that can be modified and im-proved by including beeswax.Beeswax used in soap must be of ex-cellent quality – pure, golden or paleyellow in colour and not damaged byheat. If it is neatly made and attrac-tively packaged, beeswax soap can

bring a good price at market and is apopular product for sale to tourists.

It is easy to make profits frombeeswax by manufacturing oint-ments or cosmetics. It is essential towork in hygienic conditions, and tohave good knowledge of the ingredi-ents and products and access to smallcontainers for packaging and mar-keting. Making wax candles may bethe easiest way to increase profits

FIGURE 17 Using beeswax in the lost-waxcasting method to make small metal orna-ments for sale to tourists in Ghana.

Value-added products

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from harvested beeswax. In develop-ing countries with tourist industries,batik art and small metal ornaments

made by lost-wax casting – bothprocesses use beeswax – can createlivelihoods for artisans.

FIGURE 18 Using beeswax in batik work. (Malaysia).

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It is said that the word “medicine”derives from “mead” (honey wine).Whether or not this is true, honeyand the products of bees have longbeen used as medicine. Countries inAsia and eastern Europe have awealth of traditional knowledge ofapitherapy – the healing propertiesof bee products. In recent years,there has been a worldwide revivalof interest. Honey, beeswax, propo-lis and bee venom, used in bee-stingtherapy, are the main bee products

used in apitherapy.Honey has antibiotic properties:

it is a sterile solution with a highsugar concentration that preventsthe growth of micro-organisms. It ishighly acid. It contains enzymeswhich produce hydrogen peroxidethat kills bacteria. Honey is good forhealing wounds and for skin treat-ment: its hygroscopic property isgood for drying out wounds, and itspermeability allows oxygen to passthrough it.

Apitherapy: healing with bee products

FIGURE 19 Propolis for sale in Brazil.

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Propolis also has medicinal prop-erties: the gums and resins that beesgather from plants for propolis are

the very substances exuded byplants for their own protection andhealing.

FIGURE 20 Wide range of bee products for sale.

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Honey hunting, or plundering thenests of wild honeybees to obtainhoney and beeswax, is practisedthroughout the world wherevercolonies of wild nesting honeybeesare abundant. It has been known forthousands of years, however, that ob-taining honey is easier and more con-venient if bees are encouraged to nestinside a hive. This housing of bees ina container is true “beekeeping”, butthe term is used loosely to describe allthe techniques involving bees and theharvesting and processing of theirproducts. There are many ways to uti-lize honeybees for their pollinationservices or to obtain products fromthem. The methods used will be de-termined by the types of bees avail-able, and the skills and resourcesavailable to the beekeeper.

■ Obtaining beesBees can be obtained by transferringa wild nesting colony to a hive. Thewild colony will already have anumber of combs, which can be tiedto top-bars or into the frames of ahive. Another way to get started is toset up a hive, perhaps rubbed insidewith some beeswax to give it an at-tractive smell, and wait for a passing

swarm of bees to occupy it. Thiswill only be successful in areaswhere there are still plenty of hon-eybee colonies. The best way to startis with the assistance of local bee-keepers.

During the last quarter of thetwentieth century, bee diseases werespread around the world as a result ofpeople moving honeybee colonies;there were serious consequences forthe beekeeping industries in somecountries. The few regions withoutintroduced honeybee diseases aremainly in developing countries. Itwill be beneficial if these countriescan retain their stocks of disease-freehoneybees. Honeybee colonies, oreven single queen bees, and used bee-keeping equipment must never bemoved from one area to another with-out expert consideration of the conse-quences.

■ Choice of hivesBeekeeping does not need to take upvaluable land. Depending on type,hives may be placed in trees, onscraps of wasteland or flat rooftops.This makes beekeeping feasible forsmallholders and landless people. Agood site should have a water source

In brief: how to keep bees

nearby, plenty of flowering plants andtrees in the area and shelter fromwind and strong sunlight. A hive isany container provided for honeybeesto nest in. There are three main types:traditional hives, movable-framehives and top-bar hives.

■ Traditional hivesThese are made from local materialssuch as hollowed-out logs, barkformed into a cylinder, clay pots, wo-ven grass or cane – whatever is suit-able and available. The sole purposeof the hive is to encourage bees tonest in a place accessible to the bee-keeper. The bees build their nest in-side the hive, just as they would build

it in a natural cavity. The beekeeperplunders the nest to obtain crops ofhoney and beeswax. Bees may or maynot be killed during this process, de-pending on the skill of the beekeeper.If the colony is destroyed, the hivewill remain empty for a while. If thereare plenty of honeybee colonies in thearea, a swarm may eventually settle inthe empty hive and start building anew nest. Traditional beekeepers of-ten own many hives and expect only aportion to be occupied by bees at anyone time.

All the materials required shouldbe locally available, but traditionalbeekeepers can benefit from assis-tance in obtaining protective clothing,

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FIGURE 21 Traditional local hives made from logs in Bhutan.

smokers and containers for the honey,and help in locating markets for theirproducts.

■ Top-bar hivesTop-bar hives have the same advan-tages of manageability and efficiencyin harvesting honey as movable-frame hives, without the disadvantageof high manufacturing costs. To makethe hives manageable, bees are en-couraged to construct their combsfrom the undersides of a series ofbars. These bars allow individualcombs to be lifted from the hive bythe beekeeper. As with traditional lo-cal hives, the container for the hive

may be constructed from whatevermaterials are locally available. Manydifferent designs have been published(see Aidoo, 1999 and Sakho, 1999).

All equipment can be made local-ly. The only items that need to be con-structed with precision are the topbars, which must provide the samespacing for combs in the hive that thebees would use in the natural nest.This spacing will depend upon thespecies and race of honeybee. As avery general guide, the width of topbars needed for Apis mellifera of Eu-ropean origin is 35 mm, Apis mellif-era in Africa – 32 mm and Apis cer-ana in Asia – 30 mm. The best way to

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FIGURE 22 End removed to show inside a traditional hive: the bees build their combs fromthe top of the hive.

determine the optimum width is tomeasure the spacing between combsin a wild nest of the same bees. Thevolume of the brood box should beroughly equal to the volume of thecavity occupied by wild nesting hon-eybees.

An advantage of this type ofequipment is that it opens up bee-keeping to new groups of people. Insome countries, traditional beekeep-ing tends to be an activity for men on-ly, who use hives made from bark,kept deep in forests. Groups ofwomen beekeepers may prefer to be-gin beekeeping with top-bar hivesthat can be made and kept close tohome. Top-bar hives can also be an

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FIGURE 24 Top bar and comb.

FIGURE 23 Top-bar hive beekeeping in Cape Verde.

inexpensive way of housing largenumbers of colonies for pollinationpurposes.

■ Movable-frame hivesThese hives are used in most industri-alized countries and some developingcountries, especially in Central andSouth America and Asia. Rectangularwood or plastic frames are used tosupport the combs. These frameshave two major advantages.• They allow for inspection and ma-

nipulation of colonies, such asmoving frames of bees or honey-filled frames (stores) from a strongcolony to strengthen a weaker one.

• They allow for efficient harvestingof honey, because the honeycombsin their frames can be emptied andreturned to the hive, which allowsincreased honey production be-cause the bees do not have to buildfresh combs.Frame hives consist of a series of

boxes, usually of wood, stacked ontop of one another. Frames arearranged in the boxes like suspensionfiles in a filing cabinet. The bottombox is usually used for the brood nest,which is where the queen lays hereggs and young bees develop. Aqueen excluder – a metal grid withholes that allow worker bees to passthrough but not the larger queen – isplaced between the box with thebrood and the box above it. This en-sures that only honey is stored in theboxes above the queen excluder. Ahive stand, floor and roof are re-quired, along with various other spe-cialized items of equipment.

Frame hives must be constructedwith precision. Boxes must fit togeth-er precisely and the spacing betweenframes must be the same as in a natu-ral nest. Frame hives require seasonedtimber that is accurately cut andplaned and materials such as wire,nails and foundation. They are there-fore relatively labour-intensive tomake and maintain. There must be ac-cess to replacement parts, particularlyfoundations and frames. The spaces

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FIGURE 25 Top-bar hive in Nepal.

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between combs, nest volume andother features of standard framehives have been developed for usewith European honeybees in Europe,North and Central America and Aus-tralasia and are not necessarily suit-

able for other races and species ofhoneybees. When buying equipmentit is important to have an understand-ing of the honeybees to be housedand the specifications of the equip-ment offered.

FIGURE 26 Beekeepers with their frame hives in Albania.

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■ SmokerA smoker provides beekeepers with asource of cool smoke needed to calmthe bees. The smoker consists of a fu-el box containing smouldering fuelsuch as dried cow dung, hessian,maize cobs or cardboard, and has abellows attached. The beekeeperpuffs a little smoke near the entranceof the hive before it is opened andgently smokes the bees to move them

from one part of the hive to another.Imported smokers are useful as proto-types, but smokers can be manufac-tured by village blacksmiths, whichadds to local livelihoods.

■ Protective clothingA broad-brimmed hat with a veil pro-tects the head and neck from stings.Protective clothing gives beginnerbeekeepers confidence; more experi-enced beekeepers find that wearingtoo much protective clothing makesthem hot and the bulk makes it diffi-cult to work sufficiently gently withthe bees. Some beekeepers merelyput a plastic bag over each hand, se-cured at the wrist with a rubber band.Rubber bands also prevent bees fromcrawling up trouser legs or shirt-sleeves. Imported clothing can pro-vide useful prototypes, but beekeep-ing clothes – basically modified over-alls – can be made locally, thus pro-viding a useful stimulus for local in-dustry.

■ Hive toolSome bee species tend to close everygap and seal every joint in the hivewith propolis. The hive tool is a handypiece of metal used to separate boxes,

FIGURE 27 Equipment for small-scalebeekeeping should be made locally: a man-ufacturer of smokers in The Gambia.

Beekeeping equipment

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scrape off odd bits of beeswax andseparate frame-ends from the sup-ports. It is possible to use an old knifefor this job, but knife blades tend to betoo flexible and give insufficientleverage. Village blacksmiths can eas-ily produce suitable implements.

■ Harvesting and processing Honey is harvested at the end of aflowering season. In traditional ortop-bar hives, the beekeeper selectscombs which contain ripe honey cov-ered with a fine layer of whitebeeswax, usually those nearest theoutside of the nest. Combs containingpollen or developing bees are leftundisturbed. Honeycomb can be sim-ply cut into pieces and sold for a pre-mium price as fresh cut-comb honey.

Alternatively, the honeycomb can bebroken and strained through muslinor another form of filter to separatethe honey from the beeswax. After thehoney has been separated from thecombs, the beeswax can be meltedgently over water into a block. Hon-eycombs harvested by honey hunterscan be processed in the same way.

Honey is obtained from framehives by spinning the frames in a cen-trifugal extractor. The empty honey-combs are then returned to the hive.Because the combs are recycled, beesput effort into honey productionrather than beeswax comb produc-tion. This explains why the beeswaxyield from frame-hive beekeeping islow compared to traditional beekeep-ing methods.

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There are many different entry pointsfor projects to strengthen livelihoodswith beekeeping, such as includingtrees for bees within plantingschemes to improve pollination andincrease crop harvests, assisting hon-ey hunters through beekeeping ormaking and marketing honey winesor beeswax cosmetics. Beekeepingprojects have been started in manydeveloping countries and are fre-quently supported by international or-ganizations, governments or NGOs.Beekeeping fits in well with other in-terventions and is often incorporatedas one of a number implemented.Some minimum resources, however,should normally be available to peo-ple.

■ Natural resources: indigenousspecies

Beekeeping projects can improve thepotential for beekeeping by plantingmelliferous vegetation. Indigenoushoneybees have evolved and survivedsuccessfully under local conditionsand will be better suited to them thanintroduced bees. The European hon-eybees introduced into many coun-tries and African bees introduced into

Central and South America currentlyform the basis of successful beekeep-ing industries.

■ Human resources: beekeepingskills, training and extension

Beekeeping is a widespread activitywith a wealth of existing local knowl-edge and skills. The addition of a lit-tle technical information, however,can lead to greatly improved harvestsof honey and beeswax. There aremany ways to assist honey hunters orbeekeepers to build on their resourcesto create more income by harvestingand processing honey more skilfully,and to obtain better prices by savingand selling beeswax and by makingsecondary products.

Beekeepers and trainers often lackappropriate training materials – mostof the literature discusses keeping Eu-ropean bees in temperate zone condi-tions. Training is often theoreticalrather than practical, placing emphasison changing the type of hive usedwithout providing practical guidanceand follow up. New beekeepers needtraining in how to work with bees,how to maintain honey quality, how toseparate honey from beeswax, how to

Promoting beekeeping projectsas a source of livelihoods

render beeswax, how to manufacturesecondary products and how to makebeekeeping clothes and equipment.

■ Physical resources: equipment andtransport

Limited access to transport is the mainreason why beekeepers in remote ar-eas receive the lowest prices for theirproducts. Projects can do much to al-leviate this problem. Rural people canfind it difficult to obtain equipment,containers and packaging. The answeris not merely to donate the items but

to train local people to make their ownequipment and find access to goodcontainers and packaging, and creditwith which to acquire them.

The equipment needed for bee-keeping can be simple: the humbleplastic bucket is one of the most essen-tial items. Recommending good-quali-ty, lidded, stackable plastic bucketsmay not bring great professional ku-dos to the beekeeping expert, but suchbuckets are useful for beekeepers liv-ing in remote places who need to keeptheir honey clean until they are able tosell it. Honey of excellent quality canbe harvested as long as clean bucketsare available, along with cotton or bas-kets for sieving honey and containersfor melting wax and packaging thehoney and other products.

The appropriate equipment forharvesting and processing honey andbeeswax depends on the quantities tobe processed and the type of productrequired. In some areas, beekeepingusing traditional local hives is prac-tised on a large scale and justifies theprovision of relatively sophisticated,large-scale processing equipment ca-pable of dealing with honey in bulk.Where a cooperative has established ahoney-packing unit, a few specializeditems often have to be imported, suchas effective taps for use on honeycontainers, special gauze for filteringhoney and refractometers to measurewater content.

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FIGURE 28 Ethiopian beekeepers carryingtheir honey to market. Lack of access totransport and markets is usually the majorconstraint for beekeepers in remote places.

■ Financial resources: creditIn poor societies, lack of credit is amajor constraint to everyone con-cerned with selling and buying honey.Beekeepers with honey to sell expectto receive cash from honey-collectioncentres or private-sector traders; oth-erwise they prefer to sell their honeyin small quantities in markets to ob-tain an instant but low cash return.People buying honey need access tocredit during the honey season. Lackof credit leads to insignificant vol-umes of honey being available forsale, no interest from traders and astagnant industry.

■ Social resources: sector support andmarketing

In poor countries, there are usuallygovernment officers responsible fortraining and extension in beekeeping.Often, however, they have little rele-vant training and lack access to trans-port and other resources. National

policies are needed to promote api-culture and protect pollinators. A na-tional NGO is a considerable advan-tage and able to represent the interestsof beekeepers, establish communica-tion between producers and tradersand facilitate marketing.

In many developing countries,much can be done to increase retailhoney sales, for example, by improv-ing and diversifying packaging, espe-cially for small volume markets. Mar-keting initiatives can involve promot-ing honey in the media, interactingwith consumers and traders to in-crease honey consumption and sales,and creating links with packagingsuppliers. Honey consumption in-creases according to living standards;people are keen to buy honey when itis well presented and they have moreconfidence in the product.

The first aim of a marketing initia-tive should be import replacement,which means ensuring that local Be

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Project planning

• Establish the most effective entry point for a beekeeping intervention,for example, by providing assistance with technical aspects of beekeep-ing or product marketing.

• Ascertain that the planned intervention is appropriate for the people con-cerned.

• Recognize that beekeepers are often the poorest people in local societyand may live in remote places; focus the intervention to reach them.

• Determine that the producer groups will have market access, if morehoney and beeswax are harvested.

honey is packaged and presented asattractively as the imported brands.Only when the local need for honey issatisfied should export be planned, asinexpensive honey is readily avail-able on the world market. In somecountries, producers have benefitedfrom having their honey or beeswaxcertified as organic or produced ac-cording to fair-trade criteria. Thistype of certification can help small-scale producers to find niche marketsthat pay premium prices. Honey ex-port to the European Community re-quires expert knowledge of traderules and import requirements (Brad-bear, 2001).

■ Project evaluationMany beekeeping projects have in-volved the distribution of hives andequipment and the provision of tech-nical training. Donors and local lead-ers might be satisfied with the out-come of such projects when shownconvincing numbers of new hives in-stalled in new apiaries. Closer exami-nation, however, often reveals thathives of a newly introduced technolo-gy are not always used efficiently.Good training and follow up are es-sential. Beekeeping is a seasonal ac-tivity, and it cannot be learned in theclassroom. The true test of success inany beekeeping development project

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FIGURE 29 Many beekeeping projects have introduced technology the use of which could notbe sustained after the end of the project. Here, a storeroom full of unused equipment is all thatremains from a project that depended on imported equipment and materials.

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should not be “How many hives weredistributed?” but “Were people’slivelihoods strengthened?”

Small interventions such as bee-keeping projects are not always pop-ular with donors. In poor societies,however, large beekeeping projectswith high capital input are frequentlydoomed to failure. In far too manybeekeeping projects, a well-meaningdonor has allocated a significantbudget to a project, a large portion ofwhich is inevitably intended forequipment. This has led to equipmentbeing introduced that is not alwaysappropriate to the resources avail-able, such as imported woodworking

machinery for making hives that maybecome unusable as soon as a sparepart is needed. Training is sometimesirrelevant to local resources andknowledge.

Frame-hive equipment should notbe used unless the infrastructure ex-ists for manufacturing it locally.Frame-hive beekeeping is practisedin all industrialized countries andmany projects have tried to introducethis type of beekeeping in poor coun-tries. It is essential that the a commu-nity have the physical, human, natu-ral and financial assets to supportthis type of beekeeping, if such aproject is to succeed.

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■ Case studies

FIGURE 30 Gladstone Solomon harvestinghoney.

Case study of an individual bee farmer: Gladstone Solomon, Tobago

My grandfather was a self-employed cocoa farmer and agriculture always attractedme. But not having been prepared for cutlass-and-hoe farming, I had to find a lessrigorous activity. Gazing at a honeybee landing on a dew-soaked flower early onemorning awakened a sense of destiny within me. I knew then that I would eventual-ly become a beekeeper.

A three-day introductory course at the Farmers’ Training Centre in Trinidadgave me my first exposure to beekeeping. This was supported by practical sessionsat the Apiaries Unit Tobago with two of the island’s more experienced beekeepers.After this I started beekeeping with two nucleus hives.

I read anything on the subject and made contacts with as many beekeepers aspossible. A British beekeeper who visited the island on several occasions was par-ticularly helpful, not only to me but to the island beekeeping community, whichwas organized as a cohesive and vi-brant group: The Tobago ApiculturalSociety.

My wife Sharon and I now manageapproximately 70 colonies and markethoney (extracted and chunk), beeswax,pollen and – the latest addition to ourproduct line – handcrafted soaps withbeeswax and honey. Our three sonsearn pocket money by assisting in var-ious aspects of the business.

July, 2001

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Case study of a project for beekeepers in Uganda: Joy Mugisha,the UWESO UK Trust

Our first project was in the Luwero District, an area severely ravaged duringthe civil war. Beginning in 1995, participants were trained in the productionof honey and beeswax, equipment was provided and a honey-processingcentre was installed. The project is now self-sustaining.

Typically, a trained project officer from the NGO Uganda Women’s Effort to SaveOrphans (UWESO) provides training, advice and starter equipment to families sup-porting orphans and chosen by the local UWESO branch. The beekeepers develop thehives and gradually increase the number, so that after two or three years a family maybe operating about 30 hives. Each hive should produce two crops of honey and waxeach year, which can be taken to the UWESO collecting centre and sold to local com-panies for local and export markets. This can provide a return of perhaps US$1 400 ina year – well above the average family income level in rural areas.

The cost of such a project to the Trust is about US$140 000 including the costs ofthe project officer, equipment and a collecting and processing centre. If 150 familiescan each increase their annual earnings by US$1 400 - the return on the single in-vestment of US$140 000 is, amazingly, about US$210 000 each year! Even if somefamilies underperform, the financial returns amply justify the investment.

July, 2001

FIGURE 31 The UWESO honey and beeswax collection centre at Lyantonde, Uganda.

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FIGURE 32 Making fresh beeswax founda-tion, Iraq.

FAO project example – Iraq: requirement for technical assistance

In 1995 the Iraq Beekeepers’ Association approached the United NationsFood and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for assistance. Members ex-pressed their concern about the widespread deaths of honeybee colonies inIraq.

During the 1970s and 1980s, beekeepers in Iraq practised sophisticated bee-keeping, depending largely on imported equipment and stocks of honeybees. Thisended following the enforcement of United Nations sanctions in 1991. Beekeeperswere no longer able to import the beeswax foundation used in frame-hive beekeep-ing. Lack of beeswax and equipment to make foundation led to the use of contami-nated material and a build-up of disease in honeybee populations. The isolation ofIraq meant that beekeepers were unaware of the rapidly changing status of bee dis-ease and current methods of control, especially of the predatory mite Varroa.

FAO provided technical assistance to help identify and control honeybee dis-eases and mites, and to support local manufacture of clean stocks of beeswax foun-dation.

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FAO project example – St Vincent and the Grenadines: requirementfor sector support

The St Vincent Ministry of Agriculture recognized the need for local farm-ers to diversify beyond banana production. In 1996, they requested FAO as-sistance to encourage farmers to take up beekeeping. This assistance wouldensure adequate stocks of bees for pollination of alternative new fruit crops,and would enable some farmers to create income from beekeeping.

FAO assistance came in the form of capacity-building: training ministry staffin beekeeping, establishing demonstration apiaries for farmers, developing a train-ing programme, encouraging local manufacturers to begin making beekeepingequipment and proposing policies for protecting the beekeeping industry. St Vin-cent currently enjoys the rare situation of disease-free stocks of bees.

FIGURE 33 Making beekeeping clothes in St Vincent.

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FAO project example – Afghanistan: assistance for people living under stress

Beekeeping has traditionally always been a successful part of Afghan agri-culture, with many fruit and oilseed crops requiring pollination by bees. Thecurrent war situation in Afghanistan has led to restrictions on movement andloss of resources and opportunities for livelihood creation. Despite the lackof resources, beekeeping remains a livelihood option, because bees areavailable and equipment can be made locally.

FAO provided training for women and men beekeepers. Since beekeeping canbe practised in a home compound, beekeeping was regarded by the Taliban regimeas an acceptable activity for women in Afghanistan. In addition to harvesting hon-ey, a highly valued food under current circumstances, the women learned to makeskin ointments and other secondary products useful for people living in harsh andisolated conditions. Men and women have been given training in making all theequipment needed for frame-hive beekeeping, so that they can continue withoutneed for external inputs.

FIGURE 34 Training Afghan beekeepers:in the first part of the course trainees madetheir own veils.

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Case study: disabled beekeepers – agro-industries development

Disabled people face particular difficulties in earning sufficient income. Formuch of their lives, they remain dependent on a caring family and the soci-ety around them. In poor communities where sufficient resources are neveravailable, disabled people frequently become marginalized and forgotten,and they may lose confidence in themselves.

An NGO in Mauritius has shown that this need not be so. It has trained manydisabled people in the country to become practical beekeepers and has set up a net-work of community producers. In 1997, Craft Aid of Rodrigues established a mod-el apiary as part of its honey department. It provides the organizational skills train-ing that supplies beekeepers with equipment, materials and information, and buyssurplus honey and wax for processing and sale. The department has a staff of nine,more than half of whom are handicapped. They target the tourist trade and select-ed overseas retail markets to sell honey and other products that match the highestinternational standards. They have won medals at the prestigious National HoneyShow held in London each November. Training, production and sales are prof-itable.

Craft Aid recently shared its experience with the publication of a booklet enti-tled Small enterprise development, which is available on the FAO website; formore information check out the Craft Aid website.

Paul DraperCraft AidPort MathurinRodrigues IslandMauritiuspdraper@intnet.mu

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Apiary The location of a number of colonies.Apiculture The science and art of bees and beekeeping.Apis The genus to which honeybees belong.Apis cerana An Asian species of honeybee that can be kept inside hives.Apis dorsata The giant or rock honeybee, indigenous to Asia.Apis florea A species of honeybee indigenous to some parts of Asia and

the Middle East. It nests in the open and cannot be kept in-side hives.

Apis mellifera The honeybee species indigenous to Africa, Europe and theMiddle East. European races have been widely introducedto other areas, including the Americas, Asia, Australasiaand the Pacific. African races have been introduced toSouth America and have spread to Central America and theUnited States.

Bark hive A hive made from the bark of trees.Batik A technique for producing designs on cloth by putting wax

on those parts of the cloth to be protected from dye.Bee space A gap large enough for bees to walk and work in, for exam-

ple, the space between two parallel combs or between acomb and the wall of the hive.

Beeswax Wax produced by honeybees, secreted by special glands onthe underside of the abdomen, and used to build comb.

Box hive One of the many types of hives used to keep bees.Brood All stages of immature honeybees: eggs, larvae and pupae.Cell A single hexagonal wax compartment, the basic unit of a

comb. Each honeybee develops in a cell. Honey and pollenare stored in cells.

Chunk honey See cut-comb honey.Colony Honeybees are social insects; they live only as part of a

colony and not individually. Each colony of honeybees con-tains one queen bee who is the female parent of the colony, afew hundred drone bees and thousands of worker bees.

Some apicultural terms

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Comb The wax structure made of hexagonal cells in which honey-bees rear young and store food.

Cross-pollination The transfer of pollen between flowers of different plants ofthe same species. Plants that are not self-fertilizing must becross-pollinated before they can develop seeds. Many cropsdepend on cross-pollination by insects.

Cut-comb honey Pieces of honeycomb containing honey and presented forsale with the honey still in the comb.

Diversity The number of plant and animal species in an area.Drone A male honeybee. Drones undertake no work within the hive:

their sole function is to fertilize the queen.Extractor The centrifugal machine in which honey is spun out of cells

in frames of honeycomb.Fair trade Development charities have agreed international standards of

fair trade for commodities produced in poor countries. Mem-ber organizations cooperate in awarding fair trade marks andlabels to products that meet fair trade criteria. Issues includefreedom of association, working conditions, wage levels anduse of child labour. In addition to honey and beeswax, theproducts include coffee, chocolate, orange juice, tea, sugarand bananas.

Fixed-comb hive A hive in which bees build their nests with the combs at-tached to the wall of the hive. The combs cannot be detachedfrom the hive without breaking them.

Forage Flowering plants that provide nectar and pollen for bees.Forager A worker honeybee that collects pollen, nectar, water or

propolis for the colony.Foundation A thin sheet of beeswax embossed with the hexagonal pat-

tern of a comb. A sheet of foundation is placed in each wood-en frame and serves as a base on which honeybees build theircomb. This accelerates the process of comb construction.Without foundation, honeybees would not necessarily buildtheir comb in the orientation required by the beekeeper.

Frame A rectangular wooden frame that holds a sheet of wax foun-dation. A number of frames hang parallel to one another in-side the hive.

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Frame hive A hive that contains frames. The honeybees are encouragedto build their combs in these frames. The frames then enablecombs to be lifted from the hive for examination, which al-lows the recycling of combs.

Granulated honey Honey in which some of the sugars have crystallized.Hive Any container provided by people within which bees can

build their nest. Honey Nectar or plant sap ingested by bees, concentrated by them

and stored in combs.Honey hunting Plundering wild bee colonies for their honey.Honeybees Species of bees belonging to the genus Apis. All are social

bees that store significant quantities of honey.Livelihood A way of making a living.Local hive A hive made from local materials; often a fixed-comb hive.Lost-wax casting A technique for making an object by casting it in molten met-

al. The model is created in wax then covered with a shell ofclay. The wax model and its clay coat are then fired to hard-en the clay and melt the wax. The wax is then poured out andreplaced by molten metal.

Low-technology hive A hive that is simple, cheap, reliable and repairable.Meliponinae The subfamily to which all stingless bees belong.Movable-frame hive A hive containing frames.Nectar A sweet liquid secreted by flowers. It is a watery solution of

various sugars.Nest The home of a bee colony where bees live on their comb or

combs.Nucleus A small colony of bees created by a beekeeper from an exist-

ing colony or colonies; it is used to increase colony numbersor to rear queens and breed bees.

Organic honey Generally taken to mean honey that is free from any residuesof pesticides, fertilizers, drug treatments or heavy metals.

Pollen The fine dust-like substances that are the male reproductivecells of flowering plants. Collected by bees as a food source.

Pollination The transfer of pollen from the anther of a flower to the stig-ma of the flower, or the stigma of another flower.

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Pollination agent Bees act as pollination agents when they transfer pollen fromone flower to another. Apart from insects, other agents thatmay bring about the transfer of pollen are wind, gravity, nec-tar-seeking birds and bats.

Propolis Plant resins collected by honeybees and used by them to sealcracks and gaps in the hive.

Protective clothing Clothing to protect beekeepers from being stung by bees.Queen The female parent of the colony; the only sexually developed

female.Refractometer An instrument used to measure the refractive index of honey,

and from which sugar concentration and water content canbe calculated.

Sustainable Development that meets the needs of the present withoutdevelopment compromising the ability of future generations to meet their

own needs - as defined by the Rio Declaration on Environ-ment and Development at the 1992 United Nations EarthSummit.

Sustainable A way of thinking about objectives, scope and prioritieslivelihoods for development; an approach to understanding the nature ofapproach poverty and to implementing and assessing poverty-reduc-

tion interventions.Top bar A piece of wood on which honeybees build their comb in a

top-bar hive.Top-bar hive A hive containing top bars. Honeybees build parallel combs

suspended from a series of parallel top bars; this enables thebeekeeper to lift individual combs from the hive for inspec-tion or to harvest honey, as with frame hives.

Traditional hive This usually means a hive made according to local tradition.Most traditional hives are fixed-comb hives.

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■ Sustainable livelihoods approachesAshley, C. & Carney, D. 1999. Sustainable livelihoods: lessons from early experi-ence. DFID, London. Chambers, R. & Conway, G.R. 1992. Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical con-cepts for the twenty-first century. IDS Discussion Paper, Institute Dev. Studies, Uni-versity of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

■ PollinationDelaplane, K. & Mayer, D. 2000. Crop pollination by bees. CABI, Wallingford, UK.Free, J.B. 1999. Pollination in the tropics. Beekeeping & Development, 50: 10–11;51: 6–7; 53: 4–5.Roubik, D.W. 1995. Pollination of cultivated plants in the tropics. FAO AgriculturalServices Bulletin No. 118. FAO, Rome, Italy.Sommeijer, M. & De Ruitjer, A. 2000. Insect pollination in greenhouses. Hilvaren-beek: Research Centre for Insect Pollination and Beekeeping; Utrecht University,Utrecht, The Netherlands.

■ VideoPartap, U. 2001. Warning signals from the Apple Valleys. 31 minutes. PAL/VHS.

■ Online resourcesDFID Livelihoods Connect: http://www.livelihoods.org.uk.Inter-agency Experiences and Lessons: DFID/FAO forum on operationalizing sustain-able livelihoods approaches(available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/x7749e/x7749e01.htm).International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD): http://www.ifad.org/poverty.Overseas Development Institute (ODI): http://www.oneworld.org/odi.nrp.htmlnet.FAO: http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo.United Nations Development Programme Sustainable Livelihoods Unit:http://www.undp.org/sl/index.htm.

Further informationwebsites, books, videos and CDs

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■ Bees around the worldCrane, E. 1999. The world history of beekeeping and honey hunting. Duckworth.London.O’Toole, C. & Raw, A. 1999. Bees of the world. Cassell. London, UKMichener, C.D. 2000. The bees of the world. Johns Hopkins University Press. London.Velthuis, H. 1997. The biology of stingless bees. Utrecht University; Utrecht, TheNetherlands & University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.Winston, M. 1991. The biology of the honeybee. Harvard University Press. Boston,Mass., USA.

■ VideosAl-Alawi, H.B.S. 1996. The documentary: honeybees in Oman. 45 minutes.PAL/VHS.Kasterberger, G. 1999. The magic trees of Assam. 51 minutes. PAL/VHS/NTSC.Kasterberger, G. 2000. Defence strategies of giant honeybees. 23 minutes.PAL/VHS/NTSC.

■ CD-ROMFreitas, B.M. 1999. A vida das abelhas. Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortelaza,Brazil. (In Portuguese).

■ HoneyGonnet, M. & Vache, G. 1989. A taste of honey. Bucharest, Apimondia Publishing House.Sawyer, R. 1988. Honey identification. Cardiff, UK, Cardiff Academic Press.Sommeijer, M., Beetsma, J., Boot, W., Robberts, E.J. & De Vries, R. 1997. Perspec-tives for honey production in the tropics. NECTAR. Utrecht, The Netherlands.

■ BeeswaxBattershill, N., Constable, D., Crouch, L., Duffin, L. & Pinder, P. 1996. Beeswaxcrafts. Search Press. Tunbridge Wells, UK.Millington, D. 1992. Traditional methods of candle making. IT Publications. London.

■ Other products from beesD’Albore, G.R. 1997. Textbook of melissopalynology. Apimondia Publishing House.Bucharest, Romania.

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■ Making value-added productsBianchi, E.M. 1990. Control de calidad de la miel y la cera. FAO Agricultural Ser-vices Bulletin No. 68/3. FAO, Rome, Italy. (In Spanish).Krell, R. 1996. Value-added products from beekeeping. FAO Agricultural Ser-vices Bulletin No. 124. FAO, Rome, Italy.(Also available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e00.htm).Riches, H.R. 1997. Mead: making, exhibiting and judging. Bee Books New and Old.Charlestown, UK.White, E. 1995. Soap: seventy tried and true ways to make modern soap with herbs,beeswax and vegetable oils. Valley Hills Press. Starkville, USA.

■ VideoWendorf, H. 1999. Beekeeping in development. 81 minutes. PAL/VHS.

■ ApitherapyKaal, J. 1991. Natural medicine from honeybees. Kaal’s Printing House. Amsterdam,The Netherlands.Riches, H. 2001. Medical aspects of beekeeping. HR Books. Northwood, UK.

■ CD-ROMCherbuliez, T. & Domerego, R. 2001. Medicine from the bees. Apimondia Standing Com-mission for Apitherapy. Apimondia. Rome, Italy. (In English, French and Spanish.).

■ Online resourceApimondia Standing Commission for Apitherapy: http://www.apitherapy.com.

■ Beekeeping in brief: how it is doneAidoo, K. 1999. The Saltpond hive. Beekeeping & Development, 50: 6–7.Clauss, B. 1991. Zambian beekeeping handbook. Beekeeping Division of theForestry Department. Ndola, Zambia.Collins, P. & Solomon, G. 1999. Proceedings of the First Caribbean BeekeepingCongress, 1998. Tobago Apicultural Society and Tobago House of Assembly.Trinidad and Tobago.Cornejo, L.G. 1993. Apicultura práctica en América Latina. FAO Agricultural Ser-vices Bulletin No. 105. FAO, Rome, Italy. (In Spanish).DFID. 2000. Bees for wealth and health: Wambui finds out. Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development. Nairobi, Kenya.

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Matsuka, M., Verma, L.R., Wongsiri, S., Shrestha, K.K. & Partap, U. 2000. Asianbees and beekeeping. IBH Publishing Company Ltd. New Delhi, India and Oxford,UK.Ministry of Agriculture. 1991. Beekeeping handbook. Ministry of Agriculture.Gaborone, Botswana.Sakho, K. 1999. Sustainability in Senegal: the Vautier hive. Beekeeping & Develop-ment 51: 3–5.

■ VideosAgriculture man ecology. 1995. Bees, beekeeping and ecological agriculture. 23minutes. PAL/VHS.Clauss, B. 1995. African honeybees: how to handle them in top-bar hives. 22 min-utes. PAL/VHS.Keystone Foundation. 2000. Honey hunters of the Blue Mountains. 30 minutes.PAL/VHS.Wendorf, H. 1999. Beekeeping in development. 81 minutes. PAL/VHS.

■ Promoting beekeeping as a source of livelihoodsBradbear, N. 2001. Honey market eco-protectionism? Beekeeping & Development59: 1.Bradbear, N., Fisher, E. & Jackson, H. 2002. Sustainable strengthening livelihoods:exploring the role of beekeeping in development. Bees for Development. Troy, UK.ISBN 1 898807 01 9.Kevan, P. 1996. The Asiatic hive bee: apiculture, biology and role in sustainable de-velopment in tropical and subtropical Asia. Enviroquest Ltd. Ontario, Canada.

■ VideoWendorf, H. 1999. Beekeeping in development. 81 minutes. PAL/VHS.

■ Case studiesDisabled beekeepers – agro-industries developmentCraft Aid. 2001 Small enterprise development. (Available at www.fao.org andhttp://www.eucis.com/fmr.erfate.htm).Duggan, M.R. & Draper, P. 2001. Craft Aid in Rodrigues: Bees and Disabled People.Beekeeping & Development 58: 6–7.

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Organizations for beekeepers

■ ApimondiaApimondia is the World Federation of Beekeepers’Associations. The Apimon-dia congress, organized every two years, is the major international event foreveryone involved with any aspect of beekeeping. Apimondia publishes aquarter journal, Apiacta, that contains bee research for beekeepers. Apimondiacan assist with information on any aspect of apiculture. Further informationfrom:ApimondiaCorso Vittorio Emanuele II, 10100186 RomaItalyFax: +39 06685 2287E-mail: apimondia@mclink.itWebsite: www.apimondia.org

■ Asian Apiculture Association (AAA)The AAA organizes a conference in Asia every second year, and alternateswith the Apimondia congress. The AAA operates a network of Asian beekeep-ers. Further information from:Asian Apiculture AssociationHoneybee Science Research CentreTamagawa UniversityMachida-ShiTokyo 194 8610JapanFax: +81 427 398 854E-mail: HSRC@agr.tamagawa.ac.jp

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■ Bees for Development (BfD)Bees for Development is an NGO based in the United Kingdom that assistsbeekeepers in developing countries. BfD organizes training, provides informa-tion and publishes the international journal Beekeeping & Development. Fur-ther information from:Bees for Development

TroyMonmouth NP25 4ABUnited KingdomFax: +44 (0)16007 16167E-mail: busy@planbee.org.ukWebsite: www.planbee.org.uk

■ IlustrationsAll images © Nicola Bradbear.