Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Apicultural society wants 1000 beekeepers with 100,000 bee colonies
By Lin-Jay Harry-Voglezon
At the honey show last Saturday at Muneshwer’s Water Street pavement, Secretary of the Guyana Apicultural Society, Aubrey Roberts, said that the local honey industry requires at least 1000 beekeepers to satisfy the local market and come close to even Jamaica, the Caribbean’s leading honey producer, within five years.
“Our per capita hive ratio is low, approximately 4.5 hives per keeper …For the industry to take off we need about 1000 bee keepers with approximately 100 hives per keeper” he said.
One of the many booths that displayed locally produced honey.
Karl Persaud, the chairman, noted that Guyana produces approximately 30,000 pounds of honey per year but the domestic market requires approximately 300,000 pounds.
He added that besides Uttar Pradesh, an Indian State, Guyana, is the only other place whose honey is organic. “There is nothing artificial about Guyana’s honey, no genetic modification, no corn syrup, no maple syrup, no chemicals, no pesticides, no medications, no diseases, no pests….and our honey is in demand internationally as far as Yemen” , he remarked.
He added that Guyana is unable to respond to international demand essentially because the industry is unable to access desired quantities of land and financing.
In narrating a number of frustrating experiences in his tries to get land, the chairman indicated that the decision makers seem not to understand the essential connection between a thriving honey industry and the rest of the agricultural sector.
Increased agricultural production of citrus and cash crops for example, requires among other things, increased rates of pollination which are done through the work of bees. He suggests that in planning for increased production land for bee hiving should be allocated within proximity of other agricultural lands, for the rate of pollination is determined by both the proximity and population size of bees.
But there is concern that such a policy would make other farmers uncomfortable as there seems to be a general fear of bees, particularly the Africanized Honey Bees known as ‘Killer Bees’ and the most prolific honey producers.
Aubrey Roberts said that there is a general misunderstanding of bees, particularly the Africanized Honey Bee which is a hybrid between the African Bee and the honey bee of this part of the world. The hybridization started in Brazil in 1956, reached the South Western US by the 1990s, and has been responsible for a few deaths of people and animals along their travel in countries including Guyana.
An Africanized Honey Bee is not aggressive but ultra-defensive; it attacks only when disturbed. The key, according to one keeper, is to know how to handle bees. He suggests that instead of disturbing bees one should smoke them.
Bees are afraid of fire, Roberts said, so on the encounter of smoke their communication within the hive is disrupted and they concentrate on protecting the queen rather than defending their hive. Yet once disturbed they cannot be controlled.
A senior source within the Ministry of Agriculture who preferred to be anonymous expressed that the Ministry recognizes the critical value of the honey industry to the agricultural sector and would like to be more supportive. But the Ministry is currently caught up with the cattle industry and has to invest substantially in creating new cattle pastures since the housing drive has taken up most of the traditional pastures. In the meantime efforts are made to facilitate greater representation of beekeepers in the Ministry, the source said.
The Guyana Apicultural Society, which was founded in 2010, with a membership of approximately 220 persons, staged the show to “exhibit the various types of honey from various parts of Guyana…several value added products” and teach about the “amazing Africanized Honey Bee and its role in agriculture”. In addition to the honey extracting technology, on display were attractively labeled honey wine (mead), honey soap, honey barbeque sauce, basic elixir for cold, arthritis, cholesterol lowering and gas expulsion.
There were also, candles, hair foods, soap, and skin lotions from honey wax which is also used for making wax ornaments, and waxing crops such as pineapples for export.
In attendance were Prime Minister, Sam Hinds, Minister of Health, Bheri Ramsaran, Guyana Livestock Development Authority’s CEO, Dr. Permaul, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, George Jervis, and IICA Representatives.
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