Apiculture, Part 2

Why Apiculture

• Increases farm productivity
• Farmers seek to manage the soil, water and pests but are often unaware of the importance of pollination
• Fruit and vegetable yield can be increased by 30% to 70% by using bees as pollinators.
• Apiculture goes hand in hand with our Natural Farming program, as part of its holistic approach to increasing productivity by natural means.
• Better and more environment-friendly alternative to gathering bee products from the wild.
• Decline of beekeeping in the 1980s and increased bee product demand now offers lucrative opportunities.

Why the Philippines

Climatic and Geographical Advantages

• Varied rainfall distribution assures year round pollen and nectar sources in different parts of the country.
• 6-month honey season, longer than in most temperate countries.
• No winter and can supply packaged bees when these are unavailable from temperate countries.
• The Philippines is a producer of sugar, which is given to bees as a supplemental feed specially during the rainy season when foraging activity is limited.
• Strategic location near Asian trading hubs and with major air and sea ports.

Demand from Plantations and Orchards

• Major mango and coffee producing corporations are intent on using honeybees for pollination (13 hives per hectare).
• Vegetable and seed producing companies are expanding production using honey bees (3-6 colonies/ hectare).
• Only a number of colonies are available for contract pollination services.
• High demand for coconut oil-based products; beekeeping was introduced to coconut growing area to boost coconut production.

Apiculture and Coconut Farming

• More than half of the three million hectares of coconut plantations in the Philippines are bearing year-round. For this reason, honeybees, particularly Apis cerana, tend to build their colonies in coconut plantations.
• Bees are drawn in large numbers to coconut plantations during toddy tapping (for making tuba and lambanog liquors), attracted by the smell of the flowing coconut nectar. The increased bee activity fertilizes more flowers, thus resulting in more nuts.
• A single coconut tree produces an average of 1 liter of coconut nectar per day. This is enough to support the nectar needs of two strong Apis cerana colonies. A colony of this species has the potential to produce 15 - 30 kilos of honey per year from a single coconut tree
• Coconut yield increases by up to 30% or more.

Apiculture and Natural Farming

• Apiculture provides the pollination component in Natural Farming.
• Bees will be at their healthiest on a farm that uses no chemical pesticides.
• Honey produced from a farm using the Natural Farming method is guaranteed free of pesticides and other chemical contaminants.

Why Native Bees

Our Native Bees

The Philippines has two species of bees that can be domesticated for apiculture: Apis cerana, the Asian honeybee (aka Laywan or Ligwan), and Trigona biroi, the Philippine stingless bee (aka Lukot or Kalukot).

Apis cerana
The Laywan is distinguished from the European honeybee by its smaller size and coloration, being banded brown and black rather than yellow and black.

Trigona biroi
The Lukot is a tiny bee, about the size of a housefly but mostly black. It has no venomous sting, but can bite like an ant when disturbed. In the wild it nests inside hollow logs and unlike the honeybee which builds vertical combs the Lukot builds its cells in horizontal layers like a layer cake. Unlike honeybees, the Lukot can have multiple queens in a colony.

The European Honeybee
Of the some 6,000 commercially kept hives in the Philippines, the great majority house Apis mellifera, the imported European honeybee. Originally this bee was introduced because it produces more honey than the native honeybee (cerana). However, productivity is not the only factor to consider in choosing which species to raise, as shown below.

Benefits of Using Native Bees

• Apis mellifera is more susceptible to tropical diseases and pests like the varoa mite; beekeepers raising A. mellifera must therefore use antibiotics and pesticides, which can find their way into the honey.
• The domesticable native bee species (Apis cerana, Trigona biroi) evolved here in the tropics and are more resistant to tropical pests and diseases; they do not require antibiotics, and so can produce a purer honey.
• Apis mellifera breeding stock must be imported periodically to prevent inbreeding.
• Native bee colonies can be replenished and reinvigorated by breeding with wild bees.
• Native bee species are better adapted to pollinating native plants, and are vital in preserving plant biodiversity.
• Native bee species are better adapted to the temperature and heavy rainfall of our tropical climate.
• Trigona biroi, the stingless bee, is a very efficient pollinator and while it doesn't produce as much honey as Apis species, it produces more propolis and pollen which sell for higher prices than honey.
• Because Trigona biroi is stingless, it is safe to raise them even in high population-density areas.