Beekeeping from Jamaica

[Lburou]

Since year, the beekeeping industry in my country haas taken a big blow. The mites have taken over.The beetles have moved in on the weaaker hives. Truth be told though, I broke my brood cycles and then continuously did splits. So I'm one of the few beekepers smiling. Most of the older guys just go by routine and even when I've tried to share with them some are not receptive.

Well I started off with 10 single brood chambers and 20 5 frame nucsss in February as an experiment. I am now at about 90 with a feww nucs. Soundss crazy but I'm trying to reach 200 before december. I don't let them go lazy on me and I give them lots of work to do by building fresh combs to expand. I extract not crush the combs. I havnt fed once for the last 2 years can u imagine if I did?

Oh apart from the mites, bettles and ants we have foul brood. I had it about 5 years back but I shook them down phased out those beess and purchased this new stock which I have tested for being hygenic and they are in majority. My queens are replaced after a few months and they out breed most pests...oh ya we have some birds we call pitcheries. I pay my little cousins for shooting them with the sling

Thank you for the reports, they are very interesting. We old people are resistant to change....I guess it applies to bees too.

[finesherb]

Great post Duhaje!! I've been to Jamaica several times and it is one of my favorite destinations in the world. Your posts were very enlightning I like the honey glazed jerk idea and think I'll be making that here this weekend! Your welcome to come over.....LOL Cheers.

[Duhaje Jennings]

I can see you all like your jerk chicken! Hahahha wish I could but juggling between being a teacher and keeping bees....ai sah! Here we only have a handful of beekeepers who do only beekeeping. We don't have pollination services like in the US. Most beekeepers only rely on honey. On the average we sell a 750ml bottle of honey for $800..holds about 2 pounds and woorks out to about $9US dollars. I am thinking I can go full time with 200 hives. Not just honey but pollen and other things.

[Duhaje Jennings]

One day I will invite you all to my country and we go to the beach everyday and eat... u guessed it honey glazed jerk chicken!!! Im at Disney World almost every Easter with my family, i just cant get enough of that place.

[Duhaje Jennings]

[Duhaje Jennings]

The one to the left is a mixture of different honey sources. The one to the right is the honey most people know jamaica for, Logwood Honey. its a very ...hmmmm...cant really describe the taste but really nice!!! we have a few weeks shot of getting this honey. overall the honey from Jamaica has a more full taste or more parts of your taste buds are involved. sorry for my lack of proper descriptions. Hope i can send up samples for you all! the picture in the next post will wow some! well it did me...drum roll!!!! YES MAN!

[Duhaje Jennings]

PINK HONEY!!!!!! Older beekeepers say its from a vine that doesnt bloom every year im doing some research into this.

[Duhaje Jennings]

This is the deadly ant im talking about!!!!!!!!!!

[Drotski]

Hey, I just sent a PM, but wanted to share our experiences with the others...I have requested to view this apiary on my trip to Jamaica at the end of August/early September...I am a beekeeper in the NE US (Maine), and would love to learn of beekeeping in such a drastically different climate. I also would love to buy some honey to share with the local beekeeping organization (www.androscogginbeekeepers.org). I currently keep 7 hives in Lisbon, ME.

[Drotski]

Sorry for the delay, please check your inbox for a reply.

[Eyeshooter]

Hi, Duhaje.

I have loved reading your reports. My daughter is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Free Hill working on various projects including organic agriculture. She mentioned they lost hives to the ants. When we visited earlier this year, I was amazed by the beauty of your island. If the folks who have mentioned how much they like Jamaica are only visiting the resorts, rent a car and really see Jamaica! Do not bring honey to share, though. We brought some honey for our daughter and as part of our gifts for her host family. Customs made us throw it away. Evidently the bees were devastated a while ago and now they have locked down the country from importing bees, honey, even a lot of beekeeping supplies. Can you write about what happened , Duhaje?

Best of luck!

John

[Duhaje Jennings]

Hello. You are right. The government had placed restrictions on the importation of honey and wax as well as bees. This was to protect the Island from the introduction of diseases and pests. It is also to protect a very vital but possibly fragile industry. It started with the first observations of American Foul Brood.

[Duhaje Jennings]

Hi everyone. I need some assistance in figuring something out. My bees whether location or type do not seem to break brood production since we have no distinct seasons. Does anyone recommend breaking the brood pattern more than once for the year. Last year I broke it by removing the queens and allowing the colonies to raise their own. I'm trying to go treatment free for varroa. All hives have screened bottom boards that I leave without a base all year round.

[Lburou]

.... I'm trying to go treatment free for varroa. All hives have screened bottom boards that I leave without a base all year round.

How are you monitoring for mites? Did a break in brood rearing work for you last year?

I'm adopting the "IPM" philosophy for varroa mite control. You will find some good reading here & here about mites, their strengths and vulnerabiliities.

[Duhaje Jennings]

Thank you. I stand corrected using the terms treatment free. What I really want is to not use the chemicals like apistan. Its been over a year since a very few of the mother hives were treated. I did many splits and took out the queens for many of them. I now know that the combs are very low in termms of chemical residue and non existent in some hives. So far I have placed a hygenic queen's offspring in more than half of the colonies. Not more to lessen inbreeding. What I will be embarking on now is the actual monitoring of the hives with sticky boards to see the best and mark them tobe bred from next year

[clgs]

Your photos are wonderful, thank you. The colored honeycomb picture is amazing!!!! Best of luck to you in building your business! Your students are lucky to have such a creative teacher who obviously likes to engineer and experiment.

[AmericasBeekeeper]

You could come to Disney World around March and stop by the Florida Bee College at Marineland/St. Augustine. William Masterton from Laughland, St. Ann has been coming for a few years now. I was in Jamaica last December teaching queen rearing.

[Drotski]

Thank you Duhaje for showing me a couple of your apiaries, and being such an informative and hospitable host. You have made this visit to Jamaica the best yet. You are definitely going places with your bees, and have a ton of knowledge to offer. Keep up the good work, and keep us updated on your discoveries!

[Duhaje Jennings]

Im glad you enjoyed yourself. I wouldn't mind if many more persons from this forum came to Jamaica.

[Duhaje Jennings]

Hello everyone! These ants may be of some benefit I am now finding out. the truth be told I am now seeing these ants targeting anything that comes from the hive. I am yet to see if they will consume mites that fall from my screened bottom boards. I have seen them attack a small hive beetle. quickly carrying it off. I have also seen where a smaller type that we call biting ants here actually clean up dead bees from the hive that gets stuck between the frames and the cover. I doubt these bees are much of a bother to live brood and bees due to finding them even in very small 2frame nucs that are easily killled. Maybe they will help to become apart of an IPM strategy. back to the red ants I have asked the question whether these ants are carriers of the american foulbrood in the hives. They will kill a weak hive so my thinking is they probably bring spores from the weak hive to other hives thus spreading. (ya not such an advantage here now). im just posting ideas maybe I will one day get to do some research.