Bee CultureFebruary 2000

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Stephen Petersen

My face was glued to the win-dow as the bus bumped along acountry road in China's southernYunnan Province. We were passingthrough the small village of TanCheu, some 30-40 kilometers eastof Yunnan's capital, Kunming. Ispotted a log hive secured under theeaves of a house we were passing.

"Pheung! Pheung!" I cried out.That's Thai for "Bees! Bees!" - atleast that's what I was trying to say.In Thai, a tonal language in which Iwas struggling to order a meal andfind a place to sleep, 1 could havebeen hollering (with just a slightchange in tone) either "Guns!Guns!" or "Stomach! Stomach!" Inany case, it was enough to bring thebus to a halt only 100 meters pastthe spot where I'd seen the bees.Frankly, hollering "Bees!" Is not suf-ficient reason to stop a bus in China(perhaps "Guns!" would), but I wason a tour with 17 Thai beekeepersfrom the Northern Thailand Bee-keepers Association. This tour wasa linguistic challenge for me, butseveral of the Thais spoke Chinese- probably due to the fact that somehad come from Taiwan in the early1980s to take part In Thailand's api-cultural boom.

We doubled back to where I'dspotted the rustic hives and struckup a conversation with the Chinesebeekeeper. Chew Ee Koon. I gleanedbits and pieces of the conversation.translated from Chinese to Thai toEnglish for my benefit. Mr. Chewkeeps nine colonies of Apis cerana,the Eastern Hive Bee, in rustic hives.Although some of the colonies werein Langstroth-appearing boxes, theydid not have movable frames, so theywere no different from the six orseven hollow logs slung from hishouse walls. The colonies were thestrongest A. cerana colonies I'd seenin Asia. He'd been feeding sugarwater to build up the colonies in an-ticipation of the end -of- the -year

honey flow. For the last couple ofyears, honey yields had been low dueto drought and poor forage condi-tions - he hadn't been able to takeany honey off the colonies. Normallya rustic hive might yield only threeto six kilos of honey (seven to 15pounds), but with his strong colo-nies (provided they don't swarm - an-other dilemma with rustic hives), heanticipated a harvest of 10 kilos percolony if the forage and weather co-operated.

Yunnan Province boasts thelargest concentration of Apis ceranain the world - between 800,000 andone million managed colonies, plusa large feral population. In additionto the A. cerana, Yunnan Is home toseveral other species of honey beesincluding the Giant Asian Bees (A.dorsata and A. ktbortoso), the two spe-cies of Dwarf Asian Bees (A. Jloreaand A. andrentformis), stingless beesof the Trigona genus and the im-ported European honey bee (A.meltt/ero). Many of the ethnic minori-ties (in fact the Han or Chinese arein the minority in Yunnan - the bulkof the inhabitants are from the nu-merous minorities) do some honeyhunting especially of A. dorsata andA-Ioborioso, the Giant Asian Bees.

The "modernization1' of the bee-keeping industry, I.e., the transferof A. cerana colonies from rustic hivesto modern movable-frame hives, hasincreased honey production in

, Yunnan from A. cerana colonies. In1990, the honey production was4,600 metric tons; by 1998, this hadincreased to 6,000 tons due to in-creased management skills andtechniques. Using these new meth-ods of A. cerana beekeeping, the av-erage per colony yield has increasedfrom five to 10 kilos per hive to 15 to25 kilos per hive.

Since 1992, there has been a"new era" in Yunnan beekeeping -together with A. cerana colony man-agement innovations and the in-

troduction ,of A, melU/era colonies ona larger scale, there has been an up-surge in new companies and jointventures dealing with traditionalChinese medicines and new uses forhoney.

I'd picked up a nasty bronchialinfection somewhere tn my travelsand turned to some traditional Chi-nese medicine for relief. In additionto a long list of medicinal plants (alllisted with their Latin names), themain Ingredient of the syrupy con-coction was Apis cerana honey. Wealso spent time at a burn center and

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Typical log hive attached to bufldlng,top; modem hive, below.

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February 2000

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Chinese medicine center wherehoney played an important role intreatments.

Yunnan is rich in its floral di-versity - more than 10,000 speciesof plants, many of which are impor-tant to bees, have been noted In theprovince. Because of this rich floraldiversity and the mild climate, morethan 100.000 colonies of A. meUiferaare brought to Yunnan each year foroverwintering from all over China.

The provincial capital, Kunming,Is a clean, modern, bustling me-tropolis and home of the YunnanAgricultural University and Apicul-tural Research Center. Our group ofNorthern Thai beekeepers visitedthe center for an afternoon of intro-ductions, speeches and countlesscups of green Chinese tea.

The Apicultural Technician Pro-gram, established in 1985, currentlyenrolls about 100 students in athree-year program. After their train-ing, students are posted all oversouthwest China passing on theirskills In beekeeping extension pro-grams. Some students stay on at the*university for further research intoareas such as selection of stocks forincreased honey production, queenrearing with A. cerana, medicinaluses of honey and disease study.The Yunnan Apicultural Association

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was founded in 1980 and currentlyhas about 500 members. Their pub-lication, The Journal of Bee, has beenpublished for the last 20 years (inChinese) and deals with aspects ofA. cerana beekeeping, medicinaluses of honey and herbal medicines.

Beekeeping with A. cerana doesnot have the long tradition associ-ated with A. meUsfero. beekeeping (theEgyptians managed bees about 4,500years ago along the Nile River). Bee-keeping in China is said to have be-gun about A.D. 500 according to Dr.Eva Crane in her book The History ofBeekeeping. Honey hunting of feralcolonies has been practiced for

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much longer, exploiting the re-sources of the large, single-combspecies such as A. dorsata and A.lofaorioso. These activities are stillcarried out today over most of Asia,but loss of habitat, competition fromthe introduced A. jneUifera species,increased hunting pressures andpesticide use have made wild honeyharder to come by and may be threat-ening the biodiversity of bees inAsia.

While the northern Thai bee-keepers were visiting the apiculturalcollege, the students had the oppor-tunity to hear and learn a little aboutbeekeeping outside China. Profes-sor Siriwat Wongsiri from the BeeResearch Department atChulalongkorn University inBangkok spoke on.the importance ofhoney bee biodiversity in Asia. Healso extended an invitation to the

students, faculty and researchers atYunnan Agricultural University toattend the Asian Apicultural Asso-ciation/International Bee ResearchAssociation conference to be held inChiang Mai, Thailand, in March2000. This conference (from March19-25) will bring together scientists,development specialists, research-ers and producers from all over Asiato focus on bees in Asia as we enterthe next millennium. Workshopsduring, and tours before and afterthe conference, will allow partici-pants the chance to see what's newas well as traditional in Asian api-culture. The Chinese plan to send alarge delegation to Chiang Mai andwill also be the hosts for the nextconference in 2002.

Jan Van Hoof, an ex-pat Dutch-man, recently retired from beekeep-ing in New Zealand, spoke on NewZealand honey production and bee-keeping. I gave a brief talk on thetrials and tribulations of keepingbees in Alaska's interior. The stu-dents were full of questions mainlyhaving to do with production costsand sale volumes. I mentioned thegreat retail price we get for our Alas-kan honey ($5.50/pound or about$12/kilo), and when it was trans-lated into Chinese there was anaudible gasp from the audience.

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With my next comments on produc-tion costs (e.g., pkg. bees $60/pkg.,sugar $0.40/lb etc.), high freightcosts, short Summer season andlong Winters (seven months), therewere nods of understanding.

During the four-day tour I gaineda brief insight into A. cerana bee-keeping and made some valuablecontacts. I was also able to pick upsome beekeeping books and litera-ture in Chinese - information for myChinese friends in the MalaysianCameron highlands which, after afew weeks in Thailand looking forbees (or guns or stomachs depend-ing on the tonel), was to be my nextstop.Eil

Stephen Petersen is on Alaskan bee-keeper currently touring Asia looking atthe biodiversity of honey bees in Asia andescaping the Alaskan Winter.

40 iBEE CULTURE