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| One
of the guards found the first log hive up in the trees. And this
very first colony of Monticola bees would show itself to be the
very most important one, as it was the only one on Mt. Elgon
we found that had enough drones for us. It turned out to be the
wrong season for a surplus supply of drones, in late February.
We wanted to avoid the rainy season which would come a little
later. But this season was also kind of an autumn for the bees
here. This bee, especially here on top of Mt. Elgon, has become
accustom to be able to survive on a few short working hours a
day. Footsteps were cut out in the trunk for easier climbing
and harvesting of the colonies in the trees. When doing so, the
hive was normally opened in one end, one year, and harvested
the lenght of one arm into it. Next year, it was opened from
the other side if possible and harvested from that side. |
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| Number
one, M1, we called this colony, had an old queen with worn out
wings. It had prepared 4-5 cellcups for making a new queen. That's
why they had saved such a lot of drones. We were happy, collecting
drones in cages, for later semen collecting when back down on
our 2,200 m (7,200 feet) headquarters. The loghive was fully
built with nice waxcombs with no bracecomb and the bees were
very easy to handle. They were totally black and uniform, and
as it was later to be seen, they were somewhat bigger in size
than the bees lower down the mountain sides. The workers had
very little hair, with very thin hairy bands on the abdomen. |
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| Not
far away was the second loghive, called M2. |
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| This M2-colony
was remarkably filled with honey. From this colony we managed
to save the queen which we put in an Apidea mini nuc, together
with some clusters of bees. This way it was much easier to get
her to survive the whole trip and gave us the possibility to
bring newly laid eggs home to Europe, together with semen. This
second colony turned out to be the one that gave us eggs and
thus virgin queens back home which were inseminated with the
semen from the drones from M1. |
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| The guards found
their job watching over us a little unusual and beneficial. They
brought surplus honey back home, this guard, in his water bottle.
They were also active in helping us to try and locate the hives,
and it was another guard that found two of the three hives in
this place for us. |
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| We also found
a third hive up here at 3,500 m. Here we see the insulation put
back on the hive, and then the hive was put back in its place
in the tree it came from. Brood combs and some food were saved
for the bees and put together with sticks right through the combs
to hold them in place. The bees would fix the rest and the drones
would supply mating possibilities for the new virgins. |
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| When we were
safely back "at home" at "The Green Roundabout",
our headquarters and the only house made of stone in the neighbourhood,
we squeezed drones and collected semen in the light of torches,
as we had no electricity. Bert Thrybom had brought his microscope
for this purpose. This semen was stored in thin small tubes with
antibiotics in the ends, wrapped in toilet paper for the rest
of the trip. The toilet paper was always kept wet to keep it
cool. When possible, it was kept in a refrigerator, though only
a few days in total. |
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| This hive, called
M5, on about 2,500 m (8,200 feet) just below the mountain rain
forest, belonged to a commercial beekeeper about 80 years old,
a Salvation Army Officier, who came and preached for us in the
weekend. It had somewhat smaller bees and it needed somewhat
more smoke when handled, but it was not too bad. It also filled
the hive quite good with combs. Further down the mountain side,
the hives weren't filled very good with combs, which may have
indicated a higher swarming tendency. The cellsize of the wax
I have, later measured on a sample to be 4.6 mm from this hive.
The bees on the mountainsides of Mt. Elgon don't need to abscond
during any season as there never is a really dry season, totally
without nectar. It rained a little most every day, especially
very high up. This 80-year old beekeeper got in return from us,
a bee suit and gloves for his son, who was going to take over
the bee business. |
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| This 80-year old
beekeeper was smart and had developed his beekeeping somewhat.
This loghive, like many others of his close by, were placed this
way to be easier to harvest for him. He had seen that the bees
placed the honey above them, therefore he tipped his hives over
a bit like this, and always harvested from the back. He had also
provided some of his hives, which were not protected by trees,
with metal sheets, against the rain. |
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