Bee farmers urged to rear queens to get over Melissa’s sting

WESTERN BUREAU:

Beekeepers who still have working equipment after Hurricane Melissa are being encouraged to focus specifically on rearing queen bees in order to fast-track the restoration of Jamaica’s apiculture sector.

Hugh Smith, chief plant protection officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining’s Apiculture Unit, said the approach would help beekeepers multiply their stocks at a faster rate as the sector continues to recover from the hurricane’s impact.

“What they should do is that they select the best colonies, the more productive colonies, the calm colonies, and extract the material from those and then use that material to produce queens to do multiplication along the line. Queen production will increase your stock at a faster rate than how you would normally do it,” he noted.

Damage valued at $74.5 million was done to Jamaica’s apiculture sector during the passage of the Category 5 hurricane last October, resulting in a reduction in the local bee population and a shortage of locally produced honey. Jamaica currently has more than 4,000 bee farmers actively involved in the sector.

Smith was speaking with The Gleaner on Thursday at the St James Bee Farmers Association’s fourth annual Healthy Lifestyle Day in Montego Bay.

Revive industry

He said a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) project aimed at providing beekeepers with tools to revive Jamaica’s beekeeping industry is to be implemented by February next year.

“We have a certain number of clients who will be receiving queen bee-rearing kits and beekeeping equipment out of an FAO project that is on the ground. Some of those standard operating procedures and the whole issue of managing pests and diseases will be properly documented,” said Smith.

Smith said the FAO initiative is among several projects in the pipeline to resurrect the beekeeping industry, which took a battering during the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October.

“For the FAO project, which will focus on using women and youth in rebuilding the industry, and putting in plans so that they can recover faster in terms of climate issues, we are looking on that project for within the next six to eight months. We will be having a rapid assessment session in St Elizabeth on August 25, and we have already done preparatory work for that,” he explained.

The agriculture ministry’s Apiculture Unit, which manages and regulates the local beekeeping and honey industry, has also been urging Jamaicans to help sustain the bee population to boost food security efforts by way of backyard gardening and planting more flowers.

Smith said increasing production will also be critical to restoring Jamaica’s ability to supply overseas markets.

“The export market is always critical, but we are not having the quantity of product to be exported, especially as we are talking about honey. To get the product, we have to now increase our production,” Smith added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com