COMPARISON BETWEEN THE MUD TOP BAR HIVE WITH KENYAN TOP BAR HIVE IN TERMS OF INSTALLATION, MANAGEMENT AND AND PRODUCTIVITY

Abu Ansumana e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Description of hives

The mud hive is made up of bush sticks bamboo cane, nails or rope. The bush sticks are halved at both top and bottoms allowing the sides to be bolted into the halving joint to form a frame construction with tapered base. The bamboo can is split or ripped into two-inch wide strips ready for nailing or for tying with a rope.

You will need several pieces of the split cane to cover the sides on the two end frames made by bush sticks. After covering the two ends with cane the whole structure will appear. The top of the hive is wider than the base, the base also is covered closely with strips of bamboo can leaving the top open for the top bars, which is made up strips of timber 1 ½ and 1” wide thick. The length will be determined by the size of the hive in construction.

1. Materials required. A. Bamboo can and string B. A mud mixture from termite hill: 3 parts earth mixed with 1 part cowding and water C. Mix the whole mixture with palm kernel Fibre D. A 5 and mixture: 3 parts sand, 1 Part palm kernel Fibre and termite hill and 1 part cowding E. Wood or sticks

2. Cover the inside and outside of the hive with mud mixture as well as the bottom. Cover the inside of the lid with the mortar. Leave two holes on as an entrance for bees.

3. Wait until the mortar dries up (this usually take about 4 days)

4. Place a layer of the sand mixture over the mud mixture completely covering the hive. This second coat covers and cracks, makes the hive more durable and gives a good finish.

5. Wait another 4 days or so until the sand mixture dries

6. Top bars need to be made 32-33mm wide and long enough to span the breath (i.e. shortest width) of the hive. Remember that the top bar because this is the distance apart that bees naturally make their combs.

In this case top bars are being experimentally made from raffia cane. Where strong timber is not available this may be preferable since the thinner end section which rest on the hive edges may be a little weak once large honey combs are being cut in the middle of the top bar into which a little beeswax will be place. This will encourage bees into the hive and help them to build the combs where the wants. The number of top bars required will depend on the length of your

Proceedings of the 37th International Apicultural Congress, 28 October – 1 November 2001, Durban, South Africa APIMONDIA 2001 To be referenced as: Proc. 37th Int. Apic. Congr., 28 Oct – 1 Nov 2001, Durban, South Africa ISBN: 0-620-27768-8 Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies Organised by: Conference Planners hive, since they must be closely placed against one another without any gaps for bees to fly up after lifting the hive cover. These hives takes 21-22 top bars.

A cover for the hive can be made by weaving a rush mat, which corresponds to the hive top in size above. Ending of 4 cane sticks nailed together and attached to the mud and this further improved with a cross of sticks in the centre for further strengthening.

The Kenyan top bar hive was a long trough shaped box with sloping walls forming angle of 1150 with the floor, cover with bars of fixed width. The hive cover was nailed with zinc.

HIVE MANAGEMENT

The Kenyan top bar hive compared with the traditional beehive made of loges, basket or bark hung in the forest, is that this mud top bar hive can be opened in the same way like that of the Kenyan top bar hive and individual combs viewed without actually destroying the nest.

All across the top of the hive, under the cover, the beekeeper put top bars (strips of wood 3.2 – 3.3cm wide) with a little wax upon them, the bees make their natural hanging from the centre of the bar. This enables the beekeeper to inspect combs at different times through the season and see when the honey is ripe or when there is a food shortage and the bees need feed. Using smoker to calm the bees, honey can be removed without damaging the broad next. Further more rather than waiting for to leave, this hives allows the beekeeper to divide a strong colony and rear another colony of bees.

Both hives were baited and placed out under the same environment condition and within the same vegetation types mango and citrus orchard as well as oil palm and rubber plantation. They hive were protected from invasion by ants using burnt engine oil in the cups of stands.

HONEY PROCESSING

Unlike that of a tangential honey extractor to solar wax melter, the method that was used to process the honey is much more improved as compared to that used by the traditional honey hunter.

After collecting the honey from the hive, the capped honey is put in containers prior to processing. The were squeezed bit by bit in clean or cloth to remove the honey from them. The wax pieces were collected separately in containers from the making of beeswax the next day, and only the honeycombs were squeezed. One should wash and dry ones hands before squeezing honey.

HONEY EXTRACTION

Greater care was taken not to contaminate the honey. The honey is then stored in a bigger container, sealed and left overnight.

The next day, cotton cloth is used to filter the honey from the pieces of . The clean honey is then collected and purred into clean containers again.

The rest of the honey with debris was finally squeezed inside a bag made from the cloth to remove as much honey as possible. The empty wax was obtained for wax processing.

HOT WATER BATH BEESWAX PROCESSING

In the absence of a wax melter, the hot water bath process was used. It is common amongst who cannot afford to buy a solar wax extractor. It is efficient and very effective. Most of the wax from the comb is recovered if the job is done with some care and patience.

Prepare hot water (depending on the quantity of bees combs) in a cooking pot. The crushed bee combs must first be washed to remove dirt and honey.

After that, put the crushed honeycombs into sackcloth, make a parcel by tightening the string round the neck.

Put the parcel into the hot, but not boiling water. The wax will begin to melt down at the temperature or 59 oC. Meanwhile, the waxy scum will begin to form on top the water. Use a stick or a long wooden spoon to push the parcel into the bottom of the cooking pot. As the parcel is submerged use the stick to gently mash the parcel. As a result of this, more wax will float to the top of the water.

Following this, use the ladle to skim off the melted wax and pour it into a container. Continue this process until the no wax rises to the surface.

Note that the water should not boil during the process. Always reduce the heat to prevent the water from boiling, otherwise the wax will become over heated and brittle.

MOLDING THE BEESWAX

Find a U-shaped container. The mouth should be wider than the bottom and should have a very smooth surface inside. A plastic container is suitable but a hollow out green pawpaw also works well. The size of container is determined by the quantity of wax

Pour (about one ladle full) of water into a cooking pot and place it on the fire. Add all the beeswax and make sure you watch carefully to remove the pot from the fire immediately after the last lump of wax has melted down.

Pour the melted beeswax into mold or container. Keep the molten beeswax in a cool dry place for it to cool down over night and remove the cakes of beeswax the next morning.

PRODUCTIVITY

In the mud hives, its was discovered the bees produced 14. litres of honey and 2kg of beeswax per year as compared to 7.2 litres of honey per year and 0.2kg of beeswax in Kenyan top bar hives. Observation indicated that the mud hive is cooler especially with a thatched roof compared to the Kenyan top bar hive with zinc roof in controlling defensive bees in the tropical climate as bees can save the time and energy spent and concentrate on collecting pollen and nectar. Thus as bees can be much more active in mud hives which maintains the temperature which they can tolerate, and which reduces the rate of heat accumulation in the hive. Results have indicate that mud hives are ideal in beekeeping in dry tropical climate than wooden hive with zinc.

Because of the less labour required mud hive tend to be more economically viable in poor African society, although less durable and therefore cannot sustain production over a long period of time compared to the Kenyan top bar hive. Low financial cost and less skill is required to construct a mud hive.