These photos clearly show the need for top bar hives in developing countries, regardless of the silly opinions I read from some of the rich in the world. The beekeeper was selling honey in used soda bottles, so it is a good bet that buying an extractor was not, and is not, an economic option.
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| Some hives had scrap metal covers, some had wire mesh on the backs. I could never figure why they were configured differently. |
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The bees are German, which
surprises me. I would have thought
a bee better suited to the tropics
would have been imported and
spread by now.
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It appears that the beekeeper harvested only the comb he could reach from the open ends of the logs. Since he did not destroy any hives when he came for honey, he would have had very little he could harvest from each hive. A top bar hive or two would have greatly increased the harvest and made it much easier to get at.
My command did not see the importance and ease of helping this beekeeper improve his hives and denied my request to build them. I blame myself for not bringing it up earlier and more often. Unfortunately the beekeeper and his family are the ones that are paying the price.
Next time I will be louder and more assertive. I think I owe that to the beekeeper.
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| Comb can be chaotic. This certainly does not fit the nice ordered calm we have come to expect in the developed world. |
