Chat with beekeeper Patrick Samson |22 June 2020
Frame of capped honey
‘Keeping bees is so rewarding and fun!’
“The bee collects honey from flowers in such a way as to do the least damage or destruction to them, and he leaves them whole, undamaged and fresh, just as it found them” – Saint Francis de Sales.
Last year we published an article about the importance of bees in the environment. Today we have a chat with Patrick Samson, a beekeeper who recently had a wonderful harvest. He tells us more about beekeeping, honey harvest and the different type of hives among others.
Seychelles NATION: Please tell us what is beekeeping and honey harvest
Patrick Samson: For as long as people have settled in Seychelles, they have made use of honey. In fact people have been taking honey from bees in all cultures for so long that nobody knows when it started. It is not clear from records whether bees are indigenous to the Seychelles or whether they were introduced by man. Recent genetic research indicates that bees in Seychelles are closely related to bees endemic to Madagascar (Apismilifera unicolour). In any case bees have been here for as long as people have been here. In the past, honey harvest was a matter of life and death for the bees as many were killed in the process. Comb full of larvae were removed at the detriment of the colony. Eventually, people figured out that they could get more honey in the long run if the bees were allowed to survive, and built hive boxes with movable frames with this in mind.
Seychelles NATION: When is it the right time to harvest?
Patrick Samson: People keeping bees quickly turn into botanists. Beekeepers are mindful that bees need flowers to produce honey and quickly learn to recognise flowering seasons and flowers bees like. There are two main flowering seasons in Seychelles and this is linked to the change in season. The first one is in March/April as the season changes from northwest monsoon to south east trade winds and the other flowering season in September/October as the northwest monsoon comes in. Bees will work nonstop during this time to ensure that they store enough honey for times that there are no flowers. At this time bees will quickly build wax combs in which the queen will lay her eggs and worker bees store honey and pollen. Honey and pollen are what bees use to feed the colony with. Wax used to make comb are secreted in glands under the abdomen of young bees. They need to eat a lot of honey to make combs. As the bees in the hive build combs, other workers are out collecting nectar. The individual cells in the comb are filled and once full the bees will flap their wings to ensure that excess moisture is evaporated from the nectar. When bees see that the honey is ripe, usually less that 18% moisture, the combs are sealed with a thin layer of wax, just as if they had lids over them. The best time to harvest is when all the honey cells have been sealed (capped). If honey is removed before then, it will ferment because the moisture level is too high. During the time bees are collecting and ventilating the nectar there is a wonderful sweet smell in the apiary.
Seychelles NATION: How to harvest and what are the mechanisms?
Patrick Samson: Smoke is used to calm the bees and move them away from the honey combs. Mindful not to use too much smoke as this can give the honey a smoky taste. The honey combs are then removed and processed to remove the honey. There are different techniques used. The most common one used locally is press and strain. The combs are cut out, squeezed by hand to remove the honey and honey strained to remove pieces of wax or other debris. This process is destructive as the combs are destroyed and empty frames given back to the bees to start building comb all over again. The other method is to use a honey extractor, where the cappings are removed and the frame placed in a honey extractor. The extractor spins the frames and honey forced out and collected at the bottom of the extractor. The comb remains intact and can be given back to the bees to be filled again. Good beekeeping is understanding how much honey can be removed. If too much is removed the bees will starve during times of no flowers.
Seychelles NATION: Please tell us about the different type of hives
Patrick Samson: In the past people simply built a box either with some sort of frames or simply adding pieces of wood on top on which the bees built their combs. Bees did well in these boxes but it was difficult to inspect the hive or remove the combs as bees had the tendency to stick everything together. Honey harvesting was also difficult and messy as comb had to be cut and in cases brood (bee larvae) had to be cut out from honey comb. Over the years, people learned more about bees and modern beekeepers have a variety of hives at their disposal. Beekeepers realised that bees would move upward more readily than down. Beekeepers would start with one box that they call the brood box and this is where the queen will be laying her eggs. Workers will also store pollen in this box as this pollen is used to feed the developing larvae. They will also store some honey in this brood box. In most bee box there are ten frames. When all the frames are full of comb more space is provided to the bees by adding another box on top of the brood box. Beekeepers call this a super. In some cases a queen excluder is added between the brood box and the super to ensure the queen cannot go up to lay eggs in the super. The queen is bigger than the worker bee. The queen excluder has holes in it that worker bees can go through but not the queen. The super is where the bees will store the honey. When the first super is full a second one can be added. Since the queen is not laying in this section no pollen is stored there either. This technique ensures that the combs in the super is hundred percent honey.
Seychelles NATION: Please share your beekeeping experience with our readers
Patrick Samson: I have been keeping bees for 10 years and I often wonder why I had not started earlier. It is so rewarding and fun. It is hard work and any beekeeper will quickly discover that a good honey harvest depends on the regular upkeep and caring for their bees. I use to have a hobby farm with many animals – ducks, geese, quail, chickens etc..and when I stopped I was looking for something that required less time than caring for chicken or ducks. I was dead wrong, and working in this tropical heat, under thick protective clothing is not easy at all. However, where there is love, nothing is too much trouble, and there is always time. You quickly become attached to each different hives, they all have their personalities. Some are calm, some not so much. Regular inspection ensure that the colony remains healthy. And when the time comes to steal or as we say harvest the honey we have to ensure we do not take it all. If all the honey is taken from one hive the bees will starve to death and come the next season they will not have the required population to store excess honey. You treat them with respect and harvest with care.
Seychelles NATION: Why is it important to take care of bees and also produce honey locally?
Patrick Samson: There are many factors threatening bee population globally from diseases, climate change and the use of pesticides. The decline in honeybee colonies in Europe and the USA commonly referred to as the colony collapse disorder (CCD), has alarmed the beekeeping community, governments, conservationists and the private sector alike. The possibility and effects of a similar decline in Seychelles would seriously harm the Seychelles honey production, the farming community and pollination of many endemic and fruit bearing plants in general. Seychelles is one of the few remaining islands in the Indian Ocean and the world not affected by the Varroa mites, a bee parasite with the ability to weaken or exterminate an entire bee colony in a relatively short period of time. Other bee diseases such as American fowl brood and many others have not yet reached our shores. It is thus important for everyone to understand that many of these pathogens can only come to Seychelles on the back of a bee or on other bee products. Innocently, a beekeeper can smuggle in a queen bee in the hope of improving production. This queen can bring varroa and other bacteria and viruses. Visiting a local market in another country one can be tempted to buy comb honey and this also has the potential to bring in all sorts of bacteria and viruses. The alternative is to encourage local honey production and other hive products such as wax. Wax is in high demand locally but not always available. It is against this background that the Beekeepers Association of the Republic of Seychelles came into being to upgrade the beekeeping industry and ensure the proper conservation and promotion of honeybees in Seychelles.
Compiled by Vidya Gappy
