Bees, Bees, Bees

Having kept bees back in Indiana, enjoying honey, thinking about income generation projects and being somewhat fascinated by insect colonies, I thought I should tell you about the bees in Africa. First, some Africans have this thing about them where the only good bee is a burnt one. When they think of bees they think of fire. I guess it might protect them from getting stung, but it sure is hard on the population and the quality of honey.

For some time I have enjoyed watching the bees that have colonized our office neighborhood. The first batch is in our neighbor’s roof and they will probably stay there until the world ends because you would have to tear the cement roof sheets off to get them. The second batch had found an upside down garbage can and moved in. It was a big group because when they flew in the afternoon light, there were hundreds in the air at any one time. Well, we got a new tenant next door and they lit a fire and “burned out” the bees.

Next thing we knew, there were bees colonizing our small back yard shed behind the office. Nothing big, but a regular flight pattern in and out. So, I suggested we should move them before the colony gets too big. Good idea, we will call the exterminator. Well, what if the local bee keepers will move them for free? When I went to check it out, I found out what a “western” idea that was. No, the bee keeper technical person wanted $180 to move the bees and of course, we did not want to pay that much. Not that I would blame them. (Never mind they get the bees and the honey.)

So now what to do? As we are discussing informally, we get a visit from a co-worker who says, "ah, just start a fire, burn them out and they will leave." (I was not a part of this conversation.) Never mind they are behind a 4 inch solid concrete wall. When we arrive at the office Monday morning we see this blackened wall and burned bushes with boxes and pallets spread all over the back yard and two clusters of bees, one eating honey and the other clinging to the side of the shed. We say WHAT? "Oh, we dug the bees out and will just wait until they leave."

Later that afternoon one of the guards starts to explain why they had done this. His father had apparently raised bees and he knew what to do. We could not keep them because apparently African bees don’t like the smell of anything that is “fresh” cut like grass. When he would try to cut the grass in the back yard, the bees would attack. So you can imagine the tall grass we had there. Apparently this stems from the practice of mashing up cassava leaves and putting them in front of a bee colony and the cyanide that comes off the fresh leaves kills the bees. That was his explanation anyway. Hmm, no wonder between the fire and the cyanide that African bees have not had much chance to become domesticated.

With all the bees around I am seriously thinking about putting up swarm boxes that I saw in Zambia and helping people start bee and honey projects. Honey is quite expensive here, even if bees have no monetary value.