Good morning from a sunny South Africa.

[Beezoom]

Good morning. We live in the Northern Cape province in South Africa. My wife started with beekeeping a year ago. I was forced to join her as she could not handle the heavy equipment. She manage 11 hives now and 4 feral hives. The Apis mellifera Scutellata (or “African bee”) is the local bee species. With the last honey extraction she removed an average of 8kg honey from a medium super. I find your forum interesting and helpfull.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[REDWOOD]

And good morning from cloudy and raining South Wales,
Talk about in at the deep end with 11 hive !!!
welcome to the forum and hope you enjoy
There is a member here who done some charity work down your neck of the woods helping locals set up and manage bees

 

[eric]

Welcum Boet

 

[madasafish]

 

[B+.]

Good morning.

to the madhouse Beezoom

I'm not sure how relevant this forum will be to your bees, but, dive right in and have fun.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

to the madhouse Beezoom

I'm not sure how relevant this forum will be to your bees, but, dive right in and have fun.

well, they seem to live with SHB without any dramas, coexist happily with varroa, are not that agressive and have an endearing habit of stepping outside the hive at the least whiff of smoke to leave you do your inspection - at least they do in the Kingdom in the Clouds anyway
So maybe the OP could pass on some good stuff to us

Lumela N'tate

 

[Beezoom]

well, they seem to live with SHB without any dramas, coexist happily with varroa, are not that agressive and have an endearing habit of stepping outside the hive at the least whiff of smoke to leave you do your inspection - at least they do in the Kingdom in the Clouds anyway
So maybe the OP could pass on some good stuff to us

Lumela N'tate

Thank you for the welcome. The ladies were a bit aggressive when we started off but lately are very subdued. We are blessed that we dont have any pests or mites at this stage. Ants try their luck sometime. We had to deal with a lot of cross comb as some of the hives were quite old and not attended to. We use Langstroph hives. Some hives have a fixed bottom board and fixed queen excluder which prevent us from the brood chamber. We still trying to figure out this problem.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We had to deal with a lot of cross comb as some of the hives were quite old and not attended to.

You will probably find that the spacings between the frames are the wider European spacings (37mm) and not the narrower 32mm spacings that Adansonii prefer. I still can't understand why all the frames out there are still produced with European bees in mind - most of the time there's no problem - especially if foundation is used, but when they decide to go 'free hand' - oh boy!!!

 

[Madge]

... that Adansonii prefer. ...

Jenkins, why do you call the SA bee adonssonii rather than scutellata? I know there was some sort of mix-up with the names - but perhaps you know?

Eva Cramer seems to indicate that scutellata's home is from SA up the east coast of Africa and adansonii on the west coast - but not in SA. As far as I know beekeepers in SA (including Martin Johannsmeier whom I once met) call them scutellata.
Kitta

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The names are interchangeable -Scutellata seems to be a fairly recent name the original name was Apis adansonii - just wonder whether there is some unwanted colonial reference?
I have two beekeeping books in front of me here - one on beekeeping in Africa printed by the UN in 1990 and the other 'Beekeeping in Southern Africa' written By Frank May (a South African bee farmer) in 1960 - neither mention scutellata, they both refer to the 'indigenous' brown bee found in South Africa as adansonii it also refers to the second species unicolour the black bee which is now referred to as capensis

 

[Hivemaker.]

The names are interchangeable -Scutellata seems to be a fairly recent name

.....

Apis mellifera scutellata, classified by Lepeletier, 1836 - (African honey bee) Central and West Africa,

Apis mellifera adansonii, classified by Latreille, 1804 - originates Nigeria, Burkina Faso

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm only relating what Southern African beekeepers have called them in the past, and a lot still do.

 

[Anduril]

I'm only relating what Southern African beekeepers have called them in the past, and a lot still do.

From all the articles online, they are the same bee quoting Ruttner 1981. Adansonii were the ones sent to Brazil in 1956.

 

[Madge]

The names are interchangeable -Scutellata seems to be a fairly recent name the original name was Apis adansonii - just wonder whether there is some unwanted colonial reference?
I have two beekeeping books in front of me here - one on beekeeping in Africa printed by the UN in 1990 and the other 'Beekeeping in Southern Africa' written By Frank May (a South African bee farmer) in 1960 - neither mention scutellata, they both refer to the 'indigenous' brown bee found in South Africa as adansonii it also refers to the second species unicolour the black bee which is now referred to as capensis

I think scutellata is the correct name for the South African honey bee; Adonsonii for the west African coastal honey bee; and Unicolour is the native Madagascar bee (a long way away from capensis!). But there was some sort of confusion - I'm don't know what.

Johannsmeier is a beekeeper and researcher who wrote a reference manual on beekeeping in South Africa (the Blue Book), as well as books on plants for honey bees. I'm fairly sure he called them scutellata.

 

[Anduril]

Some hives have a fixed bottom board and fixed queen excluder which prevent us from the brood chamber. We still trying to figure out this problem.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Welcome. Could the floor and queen excluder be stuck in place by propolis, or are they nailed or screwed in place.

 

[Hivemaker.]

The African honey bee, Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier, is a subspecies (or race) of the western honey bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus, that occurs naturally in sub-Saharan Africa but has been introduced into the Americas. More than 10 subspecies of western honey bees exist in Africa and all justifiably are called 'African' honey bees. However, the term "African (Africanized) honey bee" refers exclusively to A.m. scutellata in the bee's introduced range.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/ahb.htm

A. mellifera scutellata was imported from Africa to Brazil in 1956 to increase honey production, and 26 swarms accidentally escaped into the countryside where the queens mated with drones of the European honey bees. The subsequent poly-hybrid bees...

http://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/6362

 

[Anduril]

I think scutellata is the correct name for the South African honey bee; Adonsonii for the west African coastal honey bee; and Unicolour is the native Madagascar bee (a long way away from capensis!). But there was some sort of confusion - I'm don't know what.

Johannsmeier is a beekeeper and researcher who wrote a reference manual on beekeeping in South Africa (the Blue Book), as well as books on plants for honey bees. I'm fairly sure he called them scutellata.

This is what I read
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pd...#/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.en.23.010178.001055

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2409307?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Both articles state Adansonii sent to Brazil

 

[Madge]

From all the articles online, they are the same bee quoting Ruttner 1981. Adansonii were the ones sent to Brazil in 1956.

As I said, Eva crane lists them as two different bees in two different parts of Africa.

She also said 48 scutellata queens and one from Tanzania (I don't know what that was) was successfully introduced in Brazil in 1956 (Eva Crane - Beekeeping and Honey Hunting). Johanssmeier told me the scutellata queens were from Pretoria.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think scutellata is the correct name for the South African honey bee; Adonsonii for the west African coastal honey bee; and Unicolour is the native Madagascar bee (a long way away from capensis!). But there was some sort of confusion - I'm don't know what.

Johannsmeier is a beekeeper and researcher who wrote a reference manual on beekeeping in South Africa (the Blue Book), as well as books on plants for honey bees. I'm fairly sure he called them scutellata.

Exerpts from the book 'Beekeeping in Southern Africa' by Frank May - endorsed by the Western Province Beekeeper's association as 'the book the South African beekeeper has been waiting for since 1934 :

South Africa has four indigenous kinds of bees which produce edible honey. They are the brown bee, the black bee, the fly-bee and the gnat-bee.
The first two species are found all over South Africa

The brown bee called apsi adansonii is the largest

It is alleged that the black bee apis unicolor had its origin in Madagascar

The interesting part (which makes me wonder whether they confused unicolor with capensis is:

It has been proven that in certain circumstances, probably when the hive is queenless...................develop what are known as laying workers.at one time it was thought that these laying workers only produced unfertilised eggs.......the South African black bee (apis unicolor) is capable of laying eggs which....produce queens

There was a developing problem with cape bees spreading outside the cape due to unthinking migratory beekeepers but I never got to see one.

 

[Beezoom]

Welcome. Could the floor and queen excluder be stuck in place by propolis, or are they nailed or screwed in place.

It is nailed togerher.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk