| BeeKeeping News & tips 2013 | | | Discover the beauty of farming bees | | | | | This edition is packed with highlights of my trip to Kyiv, Ukraine for the massive beekeeping conference called Apimondia!
After about 20 hours of travel I arrived in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. A few days before early registration took place on Saturday the 28 September I toured around the city. Beautiful history spanning over almost 1600 years since the city was founded is everywhere around you. Some of the must-see sights are St. Sophia’s Cathedral, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Independence Square and the Commemoration Memorial. | | | | | The registration process was poorly executed
throughout the conference with no early registrations taking place on the
Saturday as advertised and effected the opening ceremony as thousands of
pre-registered delegates still stood in queues outside on Sunday while the
conference began proceedings.
On the Monday of the conference we arrived at 09h00 to
find a queue for registration still in place over 100m long. Finally, after
three-and-a-half hours, the conference and exhibition centre was now open to
us. Unfortunately, most of the
Apitherapy presentations that appealed to me took place while waiting in the
queue outside. |
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There were a phenomenal amount of presentations included in the scientific programme over the course of Apimondia 2013. Each presenter had to submit their paper to a committee before being approved and anywhere from 300-500 papers had to be considered to reach the top 50 in each category. It meant that every 20 min in 4 different halls someone was presenting their paper to a room full of interested delegates from all across planet all about beekeeping facets. Halls opened at 09h00 and ended at 18h30. Some amazing work on bee development, apitherapy, bee health and technology were openly discussed and scientific findings made available. One young lady discussed how as a taxidermist she had discovered the 20,000th species of bee working in the field. A Ukrainian monk discussed an age old tested system of multiple queen based hive stacks made of six colonies that are all interconnected.
A Romanian woman discussed how she had cured cervical spine lesions in 5 medical cases using a borage of propolis, bee venom and healthy diet within 12 months of starting treatment as indicated using MRI scans. There were some phenomenal discussions across the board however due to the vast number of speakers and halls I was limited to who and what I was able to hear. |
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As for the exhibitions, 400 stands occupied the hall with displays from the run-of-the-mill bee hives, nuc boxes and extractors to the beautiful fully automated extraction lines. Innovative stands displaying medicinal and pharmaceutical products made from by products were spread around the hall. Some really interesting stands included bee venom extraction equipment as well as hi-tech hive monitoring equipment with GPS tracking chips built into bee hives.
There was a small African delegation representing our continent consisting of Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania. To my surprise, there was not one representative from South Africa or even a speaker presenting for the scientific programme from our country. This leads me to believe that much work is to be done to educate and expose the potential beekeeping has as a contributor to the agri business sector in the country as well as the continent. The food security benefit that bees provide to crop farmers and orchard growers is phenomenal. As beekeepers, retailers and commercial operators we should develop the industry to be much more formal and focused - collaborating with farmers, government and each other. Wouldn’t it be great to bid for the 2019 Apimondia to take place in South Africa?! ©2013 Copyright Bee WARE t/a Hollow Space Creations cc. All rights reserved. |
| | | | | | | | Southern hemisphere focus is on harvesting of honey, managing very busy apiaries working hard on gathering nectar and pollen. Ensure you are monitoring your colonies when they are full of ripe honey that you replace the full super with empty supers. | | Northern Hemisphere focus should be on feeding your bees to get them strong to survive the coming winter. Prepare by making any final harvesting from the super chamber only!
If the bees have honey in the brood chamber leave it there for their winter stores. If your weather goes below zero then you should consider insulating the bee hives in your apiary! | | | "all for bees ~ bees for all" | | | | | | | | Bee DVDs with over 145 minutes of footage available for sale for R320 + Postage! | | | | | | | | |
