Dear BK: I am sure your late father had influenced the beekeeping surge in our area in the early sities. I won't be surprised if our father had lessons from yours.
Bees in Europe and North America have been devastated in recent years by the Varroa Mite. It is a tiny critter, a 'sikora' in Assamese, the size of a pinhead. They latch on to bee larvae and emerged adults, sucking their blood out. Although they don't kill the bee, they get deformed and unable to fly and forage. When the infestation becomes widespread, the whole colony collapses. Fortunately there are plant based chemicals available today, to treat bees against the Varroa mites, in addition to what is called IPM ( Integrated Pest Management) strategies. In fact I am treating my hives with Apiguard, a chemical manufactured in Britain, right now. This can be done only after the honey extraction season is over and no honey would be collected for human use during treatment. In addition to mites the other major bee maladies are European Foul Brood, American Foul Brood and Nosema spore infestations, all of which require antibiotic treatment. I too noticed the lost enthusiasm for beekeeping in our village and the surrounding areas. I suspect, it is a combination of the effort that goes into it, lack of adequate knowledge, resultant low yields and perhaps even low price fetched by the harvests. I understand a litre of honey in Assam these days cost around Rs. 200. That is fairly good for the villagers, but the buying power of Rs. 200 these days of essential goods not locally produced, is virtually negligible. Thus the incentive is not there. Incidentally, India is the largest exporter of honey to the USA. There is huge discontent among US beekeepers raging these days, because of Indian merchants laundering banned Chinese honey ( due to excessive use of prohibited antibiotics) and dumping in US markets at low prices, thereby driving down price of American beekeepers' produce. s On Aug 27, 2011, at 9:45 AM, bbar...@aol.com wrote: > Dear Chandan > > Thank you for taking the trouble to write about your experience as a > bee-keeper. I am pleasantly surprised. My late father managed to become the > President of Sivasagar District Bee-Keepers association and I think he > managed to obtain some grant as well from the government. Quite a few of the > villagers started keeping bees but the tempo was lost after the death of my > father. After his retirement my brother Umesh maintained a few hives but last > time I went home, he had only one hive in good health. > > A couple of years back here in UK bees were not thriving but the environment > seems to have improved since then. There is a sort of co-operative of > bee-keepers at our next village, Sidcup, in the same borough > but I have not contacted them. I don't simply have the energy now. > > Best regards > > -bhuban > > > > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > assam@assamnet.org > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
