The experiment was conducted during 2006 and 2007 and involved the author, the tutor and the Scientific Group FAMSA Student Animal Production and the management is discussed Bee Earth in three areas (Ramon Gordo (meliponiario Juanito), El Abra (Mil Cumbres meliponiario Protected Area) and Paddle (meliponiario of FAMSA) by the author’s experience, the tutor and the student group FAMSA Scientific.
The number of hives and Apiary description by area is as follows:
• Ramon Gordo: 17 Hive: The Apiary is located in a small building tables and guano, with earthen floor, enclosed by the north and east. These hives located in a sort of table and boxes are rustic, built by the breeder.
• The Open: 27 hives: This Apiary is located beneath a thatched roof with no walls and dirt floor herbs.
• Paddle: 11 beehives: The construction of this Apiary is wooden, with cement tile roof and walls of mesh Perles.
We analyzed the following aspects
Honey • Flora: The population of honey plants and flowering time was determined by observations of the author with the cooperation of students of the scientific group FAMSA and surveys of residents of the area, also in the three zones using the method of transects 3000 m long , has inventoried the number of existing species of honey plants.
• Management of hives: Through observations at existing hatcheries), which determined the choice of location for placement of the Apiary, a division of the colony, tools needed for the activity, review of the hive, harvesting and conservation of honey.
• Analysis and description of Honey: six samples were sent to the laboratory of the National Institute of Beekeeping for them to be physically and chemically analyzed and the results compared with Apis honey. The description of the honey is done based on the product and its composition. The rules of different countries follow the guidelines of Codex Alimentarius Commission (FAO: 1969, 1997, 2001).
• Natural enemies: They were determined by observations and surveys of farmers, peasants and other villagers, who are or were related to the activity, the following steps:
• Presentation.
• Explanation of the purposes and objectives of the interview.
• Explanation of the method of selection of respondents.
• Presentation of the managing body of the interview.
• Explain that guaranteed anonymity.
• Diseases.
33 samples were sent to the Laboratory of the Institute of Ecology and Systematics CITMA 11 per kennel.
Results and discussion
Behavior of honey plants flowering for the three study areas.
The determination of the species of bees and flowering plants by months is important these issues directly Affect Because bee populations on earth, since these extra flowers food substances and materials for building their houses.
Generally, there are plenty of bees species for the three study areas, having a better performance Canalete area with 53 species, followed in that order, Ramon Gordo with 46 species and finally the El Abra with 35 species, the difference in the number of honey plants is due to the predominate type of plant formation, Which is the Forest Canalete semideciduuo of antler, training as Valdes (2003), is more rich in species diversity than the rest of those represented in the area.
The rich diversity of honey plants, ensures a magnificent view to the development of Earth bee and floral diversity that Constitutes the basis for good food and their development, Which coincides with the approach of Toledo (2005) in their work on the topic in the area .
Behavior of flowering for months for the study areas
The months of better behavior in general, we first have the month of May, followed by the month of April and December. Here is good to note that only refers to bees species, ie species that the bees visit in order to collect pollen and are capable of Contributing to the production of honey, these results Reaffirmed the principles of IUCN (1978).
Significantly, the flowering peak months correspond with the changing seasons, ie in May, the beginning of the rainy season, as the month of April, Which is drier, but the shift has occurred spring and then follows the month of December, with the presence of many species of vines that are visited by bees, these results confirm those Obtained by Sablon (1999) in other areas of the country with similar vegetation.
Characterization of flowering in the area of Ramon Gordo
This indicator may be important from the perspective of the number of species of plants that can flourish in a given year lessens and that of course is dependent on natural conditions of the area in question in question.
Areas can display at one time a behavior is not uniform, Which may be influenced by their floristic composition.
During the journeys made to inventory were observed grazing areas where the main species was Sacasebo (Paspalum notatum), semi-deciduous forest areas of antler, with a high degree of anthropization.
Behavior of flowering Ramon Gordo
This area is typical behavior that appears very similar to what happened in the analysis of the three areas as a whole, as the months of May, with 32 species that bloom, April and December with 19 species, with 16 species are the months of better behavior in this aspect.
Behavior of flowering in the El Abra
In analyzing the vegetation of the area showed a formation of Referent or gallery forest near San Diego River, with good cover, but poor in species, since it was formed almost solely by Pomarrosa, close to present a training apiary pine forests that develop on soils derived from shale and have a tree layer, consisting of male pine (Pinus caribaea) and female pine (Pinus tropicalis) endemic species occupying the more arid lands. Agricultural areas were planted with coffee and tubers (sweet potato, cassava, rice, corn, beans, vegetables, Malanga and Rice) and a small area of orchards, planted with mangoes, oranges, papaya, bananas, grapefruit, lemons and other .
In this area, the difference is more pronounced in relation to the rainy month, and that Mayo rises to 37 species and the months of April and December with a very similar behavior. Noteworthy is the behavior of the months of February and August only 8 species that bloom, perhaps motivated by the low rainfall that occur in both months of the year or the flowering of the coffee planted areas are nearby, This approach is in line with those of Alan (1994) in their work in coffee growing areas of Costa Rica.
Behavior of flowering in the area Canalete
In the area of three formations are present Canalete plant, the first the semi-deciduous forest, very upset, resulting in secondary vegetation, where virtually absent value timber species, such approaches are consistent with those of Alvarez and Varona (1988). However, there are still areas of this type of vegetation, some well preserved, as in Sierra de Macaw.
Species were observed as the cedar (Cedrela odorata), Bari (Cordia gerascanthus) ATEJE (Cordia collococca) Ayua (Zanthoxylum martinicensis), among others, also abundant in the shrub layer Yaya (Oxandra lanceolata), Guara (Cupania americana), Siguaraya (Trichilia havanensis), Cabo de hacha (Trichilia hirta) and others.
In hummocks vegetation is present flora of species-rich semi-deciduous forest, xerophytic open, trees and shrubs, with few herbaceous plants were observed la Palma de la Sierra (Gaussia princeps), Sierra Cuaba (Ceratopyxis verbenacea) the ceiling (Bombasts cubists).
Also present Encircle training on a small scale and is developed on acid soils in Ceja del Rio, has a tree layer consisting oleo ides Quercus, var. sagraeana associated with Almacigo (Bursera simaruba) Peralejo (Byrsonima crassifolia), among others, presenting a rich herbaceous layer, consisting of Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), Pangola (Digitaria decumbens), Sacasebo (Paspalum notatum), Grass (Cynodon dactylon ) Pajama Male (Sorghum stipoides), used for the postindustrial.
This training is excessively influenced by human, for man has used for animal husbandry, building on the production of acorns in Encino, for feeding pigs.
In analyzing this area, as in the past, the month of May has performed better than the other months, but this time only with 26 species. It is also noteworthy that the second place in terms of the deal flowering in this case the month of December with 21 species and follows the month of April with 17. It noted further, the misbehavior of the month of August with only 4 species flowering and the months of July and October with 8 and 9 species respectively, these results corroborate those of Toledo (2005).
Management of beehives
In this section covers the results obtained in the three apiaries, not offered separately as they coincide in their derivations, develop the following topics: Site selection for placement of the apiary, a division of the colony, tools, review the hive and harvesting and conservation of honey.
Description of Melanoma present in the area
Sting less bees, and introducing this instrument calls for defense stunted, are true social insects, colonies have a queen mother, several generations of operators, as well as males depending on the overall condition of the population.
Generally males are times where there is enough food and the presence of queen cells, signals that have been fertilized queens shortly. The males are smaller. The workers live on average 30 to 40 days and are almost white when leaving the brood cells, darkening with the passage of time. The queen is fertilized when it presents its belly distended and can be located easily with the naked eye, usually inhabit the breeding area, moving between cells.
Earth Bees build their nests in hollow trees, abandoned nests, and in numerous places where they find sufficient space and security for the development of the colony (poles, walls, walls, logs).
In preparing the nest, the bees use different building materials such as pure wax, ceriman (wax + propels mixture) or in some cases bitumen (mixture of propels + clay), for the delimitation of internal space.
Within the nests, honey and pollen stored them in jars, oval wax and propels. These are located next to the brood cells, based on available space in the colony.
The brood cells are usually arranged in a stacked discs, being that some species have spiral cells or in chunks.
Site selection for placement of the apiary
To choose the place the breeder must observe certain characteristics such as:
a) Source of food: all the bees need to visit flowers to collect pollen (protein source) and nectar (sugar source) which will then be taken to the colony. Because of these requirements is important that the location has a lot of flowers attractive to bees.
b) Wind: boxes should not be in local intense and frequent exposure to the winds, mainly the north. The existence of barriers such as trees is essential to break the wind currents.
c) Shadow: the ideal in the breeding of these bees is the placement of local shaded boxes, either in warehouses or exploiting natural shade of the trees, we must avoid direct and continuous exposure to sunlight. Boxes placed in outdoor boxes must be protected with a cover (sheet, tiles, wood) and that excess sun can melt the wax and kill the breeding fermented honey.
d) Pollution: Bees should not be bred in places exposed to toxic chemicals, we must be especially careful in the use of pesticides or chemicals, because it is one of those responsible for the extinction of several species of insects.
e) Security: care in the prevention of theft in Meliphonario have to be taken by the breeder, it is much easier to steal the boxes of these species swarms of Apis mellifera.
After choosing the location, the breeder colonies must acquire through purchase or capture of natural swarms, a much less expensive alternative, but requires more work. After locating a swarm must carefully remove the material (stone, wood, trunk) that covers the home of the bees to come into direct contact with the area of the nest.
Initially should be transferred to the hive box or breeding areas, being careful not to crush the dishes containing the pups nor spin. Much attention is needed at this time since the Queen is walking the course of rearing. If we find the queen never touch it with your hand that could lead to workers do not accept it back into the nest.
Then he must transfer the pots of food which they were closed, fixing the broken pots or open for use at another time. Open pots with exposed food attracts ants, bees and other flies that contaminate the honey.
Finally boxes shall be closed or sealed with tape or mud, if possible, wait until dark to carry the boxes to the final place as they will be the total of the bees in the hive.
Division of the colony:
Alongside the process of capturing the breeder can increase the number of boxes of Melioration through the division of colonies. The division is only recommended for strong colonies and in times of great flowering.
We recommend the following steps:
a) Monitor the breeding area if there are real cells, which are larger cells, located at the extremities of the discs and give rise to a new queen.
b) transferring the disc or plate where the queen with two or three plates of lighter coloration and dark background (breeding born) for the colony daughter or empty box.
c) dividing the pots of food between the two boxes.
d) keeping the mother colony to stay with the Queen for a place distant from 3 to 6 meters from the daughter colony. In this way we will strengthen the new box with the arrival of the bees who were working for the division.
The queen cells Meliphonas do as the queen cells are born equal to those of the workers, so the breeder should simply divide the number of plates between the colonies, taking care to place the older (more white and dark background) in the daughter colony.
Review of the hive:
From time to time the breeder needs to make an inspection to see how the bees are living, this inspection or review should always be done on sunny days, no wind, at times more fresh (preferably morning). The duration of this task should not be long, since the mere opening of the hive causes great internal derangement of the colony.
During the review must make some comments in and out of the hives as:
a) number of dishes for breeding – in this case the deficiency colony numbers of records, we can strengthen this nest with 1 or 2 courses nascent breeding (ready to be born) from other boxes.
b) excesses of involucre – in this case if it is taking up too much space in the nest, we removed part of this layer of wax so that the number of plates breeding conditions may have increased.
c) number of pots of food – where little food in the warehouses, the breeder must incorporate artificial feeding, especially in times of low flowering. In case of food available from other colonies nearby, the breeder can transfer some pots, always taking care not to bring together those Bee colonies.
d) Dead Bees on the floor – this may be due to disease or presence of natural enemies. The placement of insulators allows security against attacks mainly ants.
We should note whether any kind of parasite in the colony (mites, nematodes or larvae), or an error in the location of the hive (too much sun or shade) and management.
All these revisions should be recorded by the breeder so that it can have a good control of their hives. This will help identify and resolve more quickly the problems that can endanger the “life” of its Meliphonario.
Harvest and storage of honey
The honey crop should be done in time with abundant flowers, when the pots are many and are closed, filled with honey. You can harvest the honey in the following ways:
a) with a syringe: the breeder should open with the tip of a spatula or knife honey pots (they are the darkest), then aspirated with a sterile syringe content, immediately putting the honey in the correct containers.
b) draining the honey in this method after a gentle slope of the deposit the contents of the pots and open containers will be drained to previously conditioned. It must first pass through a strainer to remove any materials accompanying honey. It is advised to remove the pots as these can again be used by the bees again and loaded with honey.
Once removed this honey should not be exposed to air for more than 10 minutes and should be conditioned in a refrigerator.
Analysis and description of Honey: Compared to honey bees, sting less bee honey is more fluid and could be said in simple terms it looks more like a honey oil.
The results of laboratory tests conducted at the National Institute of Apiculture are provided in Table 1. These results were compared with Apis honey, taken from Alan (1994).
The definitions and descriptions of food are appropriate for your needs. It’s almost reasonable to think that the honey of Apis mellifera were the most traded and therefore acquired the exclusive rights to be called honey. However, considering that other species of bees also processed sugary substances available in nature and stored, it is also reasonable to talk about other species of honey bees.
Actually, this is an omission in time, which can be corrected gradually as other honeys are incorporated in the standards of the countries that produce or import them therefore in Cuba Meliphonas honey has every right to define themselves as such.
When comparing the sting less bee honey with honey from Apis mellifera, its moisture content is usually greater than that allowed in the rules of honey as can be seen for the values of the two honeys analyzed here, with 24.5 and 28.3 g water/100 g honey. It is confirmed that the standard proposed by Vit et al. (1994) with a maximum of 30.0 is suitable for moisture content, the higher humidity of Meliphona honey may explain the higher acidity of this substance.
The content of fructose and glucose is similar for the two honey bee species, but the sucrose content doubles in Apis mellifera honey, which is found in taste sweeter. Both honeys have low ash content, especially honey M. beecheii, which may indicate different foraging behavior of bees or even differences between the locations of soil sampling.
Behavior of natural enemies
Natural enemies in the case of the Bees can have a significant influence on the people and productions of them. But these should never be a limiting factor to achieve levels of removal of species in their natural ecosystems.
What follows is a description of how these natural enemies are capable of preying on bee populations on earth.
Picture Honey Buzzard (Talmarchus caudifasciatus and Tirana’s Dominicans). These are two species of perching birds like to hunt near the apiary bees in flight. Have a preference for the queens and drones.
Lizards and Capuano (Anoles sag Riana and Leiocephalus craniates). These species of reptiles, iguanas, like to hide under the covers and out occasionally to hunt bees at the entrance.
Toads (Bufo sp.) They hide beneath the hives and the bees go out to hunt at night in a very peculiar, sticky tongue stretching and she quickly caught the Bees that are swallowed one by one with high accuracy without moving the site.
Sentinels ants. These bees sting and enter the hives, eat honey and kill the pups.
Then will then analyze the behavior of natural enemies for each of the areas that were taken for study.
Natural enemies in Ramon Gordo
In this area there were 49 attacks in the study period.
Natural enemies, ants caused most of the attacks, after the conclusion of the investigation, on a visit to the apiary, we observed that these attacks caused the destruction of 75% of existing hives.
The attacks of ants can avoid smearing the colonies supports motor grease.
Natural enemies in the Open
In this area, during the investigations were observed 39 attacks by predators above.
In this area, the top predator also remains the ant and in that order remains Toad, lizards and Picture a lesser extent, here in the areas of paddle is remarkable to emphasize that the influence of natural enemies is more divided between the four mentioned above, so that the weight of ants is not as significant as in the previous study area, the cause may be that the apiary is in the open only defended by a small roof.
Natural enemies in Canalled
In this area, during the investigations were observed 60 attacks from predators above.
In this area, remains the ant as the preponderance of natural enemy, but this time it closely follows the kingbird, on balance these two elements will be more careful about the healthy development of bee hives land.
Diseases
Of the 33 samples sent to the Laboratory Institute of Ecology and Systematic CITMA diseases and parasites did not appear, this shows that these aspects can influence the development of the bee land in the study area.
Conclusions
• The methods of handling bees Earth in the three apiaries are coincident, so it should tap the procedures that have had positive results (ie putting mesh in the walls of the apiary) and despise those with negative results (eg not take steps to prevent attacks by ants).
• In the study area there is great diversity of plant species enough honey to feed bees as much as those that already exist are underutilized.
• The largest proportion of flowering plants bees from the study area corresponds to the months of April, December and May, the latter being the peak month quantity of flowering plants.
• It was noted the destructive actions of natural enemies, supported by the views expressed in surveys and correspond with the results and findings of this work, these natural predators can destroy the apiaries of bees of the world if not taken action.
Ing Matanuska Ravel Pimentel and Dr. C. Fernando Hernandez Martinez – Cuba
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