Stingless Bee-keeping - Tanzania's Opportunity
Honey bees are difficult to keep, they attack people, so they cannot be kept near to homes. But there are several varieties of Stingless Bee which are safe even around children. Some countries like Ghana have established Stingless Bee-Keeping and are marketing a lot of their honey. In Tanzania there are not yet many Stingless Bee-Keepers but the opportunities are considerable, as there are varieties which thrive in the hottest places, like the House lf Pearls, and also at higher levels such as Marijani Home and even higher on Kilimanjaro. Fisherfolks Trust hopes to promote Stingless Bee-Keeping at many other sites.
In 2014, The secretary and the Bee-keeping and Conservation officer at that time attended the Apimondia Symposium on African Bees and Bee-Keeping in Arusha. They visited Baraka Nkini's bees in Siha, on Kilimanjaro. The secretary was also able to visit Mikindani Old Boma and meet their Bee-Keeping Officer, Saidi, who offered to advise us on setting up Stingless Bee Hives.
In August 2016 Saidi came to Tanga with both mini- and micro-bees. He also collected several colonies of micro-bees around the House of Pearls site and left hives of both kinds with the staff, before visiting Lushoto to inspect the hives there. FCDT are extremely grateful to Saidi for his generous gifts of bees as well as his guidance and advice.
Very dry weather affects the bees, as they are not able to produce enough food to reach the stage of 'division'. However, flowering trees and plants which are more resistant to drought have been increased at the House of Pearls, and by mid-2020 the FCDT secretary and Administrator, Steven Nicolas, had been able to divide the hives of micro-bees repeatedly and reached a total of twelve hives, which are hanging round the building. In January 2021 the Bee-Keeping and Conservation officer and the Administrator harvested the honey from two of the micro-bee hives, filling a standard size jar with the filtered honey (photographs below).
It was hoped to have more hives of both kinds at the House of Pearls and also at Marijani Home in Lushoto. However the mini-bees do not always co-operate, several times they have swarmed and found themselves new homes in the trees, no doubt to protect their honey. In the rainy season and for a while during the following cold season, there are few flowers in Lushoto and the bees have to live on their store of honey, so very little could be harvested from the hives of mini-bees. By comparison the ones in Mikindani where it is always hot and flowers are abundant, have provided delicious honey for sale. Similarly, the climate at the House of Pearls never gets as cold as Lushoto, and the bees are able to produce honey all the year round. Some of it will be enjoyed by residents of the House of Pearls, and it may be possible for some of the young mothers to receive a starter hive of bees if they will have a suitable place to keep them.
Above: Mikindani Old Boma Hotel Stingless Bee Hives in 2014 FCDT Bee-Officer in 2015, preparing to take down a hive for opening
Stingless Bees can be kept in much more people-friendly conditions than Honey Bees, close to buildings where they can be monitored and cared for. They are only found in the Tropics, and they produce a much smaller amount of honey than Honey Bees. We started with two types, which we call our mini-bees and micro-bees. Four mini-bees fit on a fingernail; micro-bees are the same size as fruit flies and difficult to distinguish from them without a magnifier. The mini-bees tend to swarm and find a new home in the woods but the micro-bees are much more co-operative and steven now has more than a dozen hives. and will be able to divide and propagate again annually. Honey from the stingless bees is thinner and less sweet than from Honey Bees, but is considered to have greater medicinal properties and is therefore a lot more expensive. Honey is not the only bee product that we can make use of, as they also collect a lot of pollen which is a good food supplement for infants.
The first two mini-bee hives in Lushoto were provided by Baraka Nkini. Unfortunately one of these hives swarmed and the other was predated by a hornet, but not before they had been divided once, and hives given to other people in Lushoto are flourishing. Meanwhile additional flowering trees have begun to mature around the Marijani Home, and we are hoping to obtain new bees and try again with both kinds in 2022.
Above: Micro-bee Hives hanging alongside the House of Pearls Above: Honey harvested from two of the Micro-bee Hives
Below: harvesting honey, 6th January 2021