# Africanized Beekeeping in Utila, Honduras



## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

I just captured my first two hive boxes today.:applause: It was really exciting to go out in the jungle and dig out the hive from the coral rocks that form the island. I took a generator out there with me and used my bee vac that I bought from Honey Bee Habitat, it worked perfectly and I was able to suck up about 20,000 bees to dump in my two boxes. There wasn't much honey in the hive, most of the comb cells were not capped. I'm thinking that since we don't really have any cold weather here that the bees are still foraging on the sunny days and not storing for winter. There's always something in bloom here in the tropics. I wrapped the two hives in transport nets and brought them home for the night due to the hour getting late. Tomorrow I will move them to the apiary and look for the Queen. Not a bad start I would think, huh?
As for the temperament of the Ferrell hive, they were actually quite calm. I had a helper working with me in a bee suit and the kid that was pointing out the hive wasn't wearing any protective gear at all.:scratch: Actually the kid was sticking his head right down in to the mouth of the hive entrance and helping us all around and never got stung. Me? I wore my suit, hood and all at all times!


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

Very nice, post some pics when you get a chance.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

I checked the hives today to see how things were going. I wasn't able to find the queen in either of the 2 hives. In hive No. 1 I'm not sure that enough bees stuck around for it to make it, we'll see. In hive No. 2 things were more active, and there were more bees at home. I could see where they had secured one of the brood combs to the frame at the top, so it's nice to see them settling in. I'm sure that 3 days is far too early to expect to see any queen cell activity so I fed them with 2 lbs of Brood Builder paste and 10 lbs. of sugar candy fortified with Honey-B-Healthy in a top feeder.
I'm having problems getting my photos to upload. When/if I get it figured out I'll post them.


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## Hector Pinto (Jan 12, 2013)

I live in Honduras too, I'm from Tegucigalpa, I was in Utila last week. Let me know if you need any equipment, I know some places where you can get all the equipment. I would like to visit you next time that I go to Utila. I have some hives around Valle de Angeles and Ocotepeque. 

I would also recommend that you get into keeping stingless bees. While I was there I found some hives of stingless bees. Are you sure they are africanized bees?


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Hector, I'm pleased to hear from you, I could use your guidance and local knowledge. To start with, I'm not dead certain that they're Africanized bees since I'm a beginner. However, I have heard from the locals that that's all that's around here and many have described how they would be chased for an extra special long time when attacked or how they can't get close to a large feral hive. 
What's this about sting-less bees? I've never heard of them and am interested to learn more. I'm going to be off the island for 4-5 weeks,when I get back you would be more than welcome to stop by and say hello.


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## Hector Pinto (Jan 12, 2013)

Captaintat2 you can check out a video a made in Utila of some native stingless bees, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daFgS1XxQOc. People keep stingless bees in logs, you can have them anywhere. If you come around Tegucigalpa, let me know, we could go to valle de angeles.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

I noticed some specs of pollen under hive No.1 yesterday so I opened it up to find all of the bees gone and ants running wild all over the planted frame of capped brood and it looks like they are opening up the capped pollen.









Hive No.2 is looking hopeful though. There is one queen cell being actively developed, no egg or larvae in it yet.









However, there is a little flying creature that I'm told is a bee robbing the hive for the sugar candy and brood builder I put in there. They're going in through a crack between the deep and the lid. Can someone please tell me what this bugger is and what I can do to keep it out?


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## Hector Pinto (Jan 12, 2013)

maybe they are the native stingless bees!


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

For no real reason I stuck my head under my hive to have a look today. I'm glad I did, I found what looked like a swarm clinging to the bottom of the hive.















I'm still not sure that it's a swarm, it may just be that my bees got lost. I don't see it being a cluster for warmth, it's 77 degrees Fahrenheit. So, my motto is 'when in doubt, attack' so I captured them and put them in the hive. When I removed them I could see the beginnings of wax work so I'm hoping that it's a swarm and there's a queen in there some where, I didn't see her. Anybody have any ideas on what's going on here?
I'm leaving the island for a few weeks so all I can do at this point is leave them to nature and hope they're still here when I get back.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

While watching the bottom of the hive I saw that the bees kept clustering in the same spot so I got out my bee-vac and sucked them up. I had an idea and just for chuckles and giggles I set out some hard candy with Honey-B-Healthy in it for an open feeding. It turned out to be a good idea because it got covered with bees in no time at all. I vacuumed them up all afternoon and put them in the hive and plugged the entrance with grass to keep them in. There must be about 60,000 bees i there now! I left the island, but a friend is going to unplug the entrance on Saturday, I'm sure that they will stay. I wanted to trap them in with the feed and brood builder for a few days to force them to work on drawing out comb and rear a queen if there wasn't one in the swarm I caught. 









I think this could be a way to increase population from time to time.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Hector Pinto said:


> I live in Honduras too, I'm from Tegucigalpa, I was in Utila last week. Let me know if you need any equipment, I know some places where you can get all the equipment. I would like to visit you next time that I go to Utila. I have some hives around Valle de Angeles and Ocotepeque.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Well. the 2014 bee season here on the island has started off with a bang. I have already captured seven swarms and got another call this morning. I had to recover from an unexpected flood that wiped out about 50% of my hives, but all is going well. I developed a new apiary and got moved in recently and the bees are settling down to the business of growing.
The jungles here exploded with blooms right after the rainy season gave us a break. Right now the Magic Cacow, Mango, Avocado are in full bloom and the Hog Plum is just starting. It's time to start working on making queens for splits and nuc's.
I'm looking forward to a good year this year.


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## 22DPac (Jun 24, 2012)

Sounds like the captured swarms will you help with your losses. I hope your beekeeping business continues to grow!! It is looking great!!


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

The bee season has taken off with a bang this year. Although it's still a bit early in the season the jungle is starting to explode with blooms. In December the Magic Cacow bloomed and held the bees over until the wildflowers started to bloom in mid- January. Now the Mango, Silver Palm, Bitter Cup, Avocado, and Almond are in full bloom. It's helping me hives recover from the flood damage and build up hive strength, I've been able to make three splits, one nucleus, and one Queen box. Recovery is slow, but steady. When the Hog Plum bloom starts in the next few weeks the honey flow will be in full swing and I hope to get a medium super per week per hive like I did last year. Keeping my fingers crossed.


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## hvdmerwe (Jan 24, 2014)

Hi Guys, Hein here from Mozambique, your bees seem to behave a lot like mine, only I don't have the luck of having stingless bees, but a lot of similarities, our winters are very mild so my bees are active all year round. The first 3 wild swarms I captured in traps all absconded, but now I am established with 7 hives and traps out all over the place, it will be nice to keep in touch and compare notes if you like


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

We had a guest lecture at the bee club last night. Most of the topic was South American stingless honeybees, but they also touched on Africanized bees. Evidently they can be worked if you know what you are doing. They say they use three people to work the hives. One actually does the work, and a second works a smoker on that hive almost continuously. A third makes the rounds of the apiary smoking the rest of the hives. The bees are calm up to a point, and give some signs when they've about had enough and are ready to attack. They read the signs and leave well enough alone when the bees tell them.

The stingless bees can be kept on your front porch, sometimes even inside a home. Africanized bees are not backyard pets ... strictly for outyards. They say the upside is that they rarely see vandalism. 

BTW, the speaker showed us a small fly that is the bane of stingless bee keepers ... I forget the name but it sounded like they make small hive beetles look like welcome guests.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

hvdmerwe Sure, I'm open to share notes with you. It'd be interesting to see the similarities between our bees since our bees here are mixed with local genes and yours are the original strain. 

I usually work my hives by myself, this takes longer because I have to stop and smoke myself down from time to time. We use a huge smoker here and it really is better to have someone on it continuously. Last year there were times when I would take the lid off of a hive and instantly hear the change of intensity of the bees and know right then that it's time to get out of there. They would come out and attack me so heavily that my face shield would be covered and I couldn't see out. Twice I dropped my smoker and ran to my 4-wheeler and got it in 3rd gear in record time! 

The colony strength is a big trigger for mean attack like that. My bees took a hard hit from the flood, so the numbers are down right now. I have also re-queened the mean and lazy hives I had recently. There is another local beekeeper here on the island and we work together a lot. So we are using one of his queens that produces hard working and calm bees. 

Here's a video of transferring a swarm from a full - sized box to a smaller nucleus. They settled in well and are now working hard and growing well.

[video=facebook;412464795563554]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=412464795563554&set=vb.215536728589696&type=2&theater[/video]


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## hvdmerwe (Jan 24, 2014)

wow, I must admit mine have never been that agressive, but they don't hesitate to sting if you are working with them, it's a really good day if you end an inspection or harvesting session without being stung at least once, it's really hot here so I used to work using shorts, but not anymore, too many bees got up the legs and stung me so now whenever I work with the bees I wear jeans, they also get quite agitated when you transfer them from traps into permanent hives. All my hives are TBH and I never work alone it would be impossible, as soon as you start taking out bars to inspect they are all over the place and you need someone to be constantly applying smokeotherwise you are just asking for trouble. I really enjoy them though it is really rewarding when they start getting strong and you see them busy all the time. we can keep in touch by email if you like, my email address is [email protected]


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## hvdmerwe (Jan 24, 2014)

Hi Phoebee, that sounds a little extreme, I have some of my hives quite close together and have never been attacked by the beesfrom other hives while working on a particular one, I only have TBH so I definitely need someone to smoke and even then they crawl out and all over the place, but they are generally not aggressive in fact they have never come at me with direct intent, it's more like they are just naturally inquisitive but I always move calmly and carefully, and use lots of smoke, also never ever go near them in bad weather, if its just a windy day or overcast, they tend to be grumpy. they also tend to follow me around for a long time when I harvest. I had an interesting experience a few days ago, I was transporting a hive at night, had to brake suddenly and the hive fell over, I had to jump out of the pickup and right the hive, no time to put on protective gear, managed to push all the bars back into place and right the hive, got stung about 15 times in the process butthat was the end of it. I transfer them from traps to hives at night because then they are quite calm, and I have found that using a red headlight doesn't bother them, whereas a white light is like a bee magnet. All in all I have to say that for all the bad rap they get they are not so bad.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

In Virgina, USA, we've seen too many movies about "killer bees". Africanized bees have not made it this far north, and we're happy with that. But most beekeepers buy package bees from areas where Africanized bees have shown up, and it is driving an interest in raising nucs locally. A little interest in Russians recently has waned somewhat because they've got a purported Bad Attitude. Many of us sissyies keep sweet little Carniolans, the tamest little sweethearts in the bee world, which usually calm down at the first wiff of smoke and stay that way.

And yet, honey has been popular in Africa probably since humans were not even properly human. And LOOONG before bee veils were invented. I suspect one day we'll learn to appreciate those tough African genes. European bees have a hard time surviving without constant care (with a few brave souls like Michael Bush encouraging them to tough it out). Africanized bees are better groomers, and remove varroa mites by themselves. They can still live in the wild. 

Evidently big smokers help.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Phoebee, I'm glad you touched on the parasite issue. My bees don't suffer from any mites or SHB, our invasive concerns are mainly the wax moth, ants, and this huge beetle that eats the wax and drives out the colony. The biggest and best defense is colony strength, hands down. So if a hive gets infected and lost the question is not 'how to treat for the invader', but 'why was that hive weak enough not to be able to defend itself?' I use migratory tops and put a sheet of plastic under it. The bees glue it down tight and the wax moth isn't able to get in. This also gives me precious bur comb to harvest each visit. Spraying the legs of the stand with used oil keeps the ants at bay and the bees don't seem to mind. I also keep the entrance to the hive reduced to two inches so that they can defend against the beetle and I often find dead ones inside near the entrance. So as long as we keep the hive strong or in a reduced environment, nuc, we don't need any treatment and remain organic.


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## hvdmerwe (Jan 24, 2014)

It makes things a lot easier not having to worry about mites and other pests and diseases, in your climate they may be susceptible to disease. Talking about smoke and no bee veils, the local people around here where I work still go and remove honey from wild hives without any protection just using some smouldering branches from a certain tree, they still get stung pretty badly though.


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## hvdmerwe (Jan 24, 2014)

Capitain I seem to have it good, I only get wax moth if the hive has been abandoned for some reason, I haven't yet seen anything get into a hive and survive here, there is a native animal called the honeybadger but we have none of them around here, I do the same as you for ants, either old oil or creoline works perfectly, a friend of mine made round legs for his hives and stood them in empty jam tins of oil, a bit of a schlep if you have to move the hive.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Well, the bee season has kicked in and is running wild this year. It seems that the cleaned and stacked equipment still has a strong wax smell in it because the swarms will just not leave me alone! I have captured 26 swarms so far this year! They show up as fast as I can remove them, just today I took 2 nuc's out to the field and when I returned to put my tools and equipment away 4 I found 4 more swarms were settling into more traps and equipment stacks!

The apiary is growing great and I can safely say that my bees have recovered fully from the flood damage in December. Only 2 hives are producing honey, but it's still early in the year.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Well, the drought has taken it's toll on the island, there will be no honey harvest this year.:ws: 

On a brighter note my hives are healthy and strong for going into the rainy season as we don't really have a winter here. I think I attached a photo of my glove after an inspection. The wet spot is from me sweating and the stinger go through enough to give me a partial sting. Not really enough to bother me, but after 20 or 30 of them they start to piss me off a bit.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Well, the drought has taken it's toll on the island, there will be no honey harvest this year.:ws: 

On a brighter note my hives are healthy and strong for going into the rainy season as we don't really have a winter here. I think I attached a photo of my glove after an inspection. The wet spot is from me sweating and the stinger go through enough to give me a partial sting. Not really enough to bother me, but after 20 or 30 of them they start to piss me off a bit.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

11 Jan 15 

This year is off to a good start. I have three swarm catches so far.


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

Not all Africanized bees are hyper defensive as depicted in the movies some are defensive and some are calm similar to European honeybees. The reason your swarm didn't stay put is more than likely you are using screened bottom boards that should be closed off when installing a swarm but African honey bees don't always stay put it's just their nature.


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## captaintat2 (Oct 27, 2012)

Slow Drone said:


> Not all Africanized bees are hyper defensive as depicted in the movies some are defensive and some are calm similar to European honeybees. The reason your swarm didn't stay put is more than likely you are using screened bottom boards that should be closed off when installing a swarm but African honey bees don't always stay put it's just their nature.


Dude, what are you talking about? I didn't say anything about them not staying in the box. I realize that they will abscond for no apparent reason from time to time.
I just spent 5 days wrestling with a gigantic swarm of about 80,000 bees. Each day a box or two would take off and regroup with the swarm. But in the end I got 1 hive stuffed with the queen, 1 hive stuffed, 5 NUCs stuffed, and 5 combines of about 1/3 rd of a bucket of bees. I have placed in each box either a capped queen cell or young eggs to make a new queen with.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

I'm just trying to imagine a swarm of this size.

http://www.coxshoney.com/honey-articles/top-10-craziest-bee-swarms


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

Go back to #7 reread first paragraph dude. A swarm with 80,000 bees what are you talking about? Do you have any pics of the swarm? I would truly be interested in seeing the likes of that. 50 yrs . keeping bees never seen the likes of a swarm that large would be a cool pic to have! That would have to be a 18 or 19 lb. swarm wow that's of an unbelieveably large swarm


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