Bee flora resources and honey production calendar of Gera Forest in Ethiopia

Bareke T, Addi A. 2019. Bee flora resources and honey production calendar of Gera Forest in Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 69-74. Gera forest contains substantial coverage of natural forest and known as a Key Biodiversity Hotspot area for Coffea arabica conservation and one of the potential areas for beekeeping. The study was carried out to assess the bee flora and flowering calendar to harvest more honey following the flowering plant cycle. Semi-structured questionnaires, participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques, and field observation were used for data collection. Honey samples collection was also made to identify the botanical origin of honey through honey pollen analysis. Seventy-four bee plant species were identified, which belongs to 41 families. Among the identified plant families, Asteraceae (29.3%), Lamiaceae (14.6%), Acanthaceae (12.2%), and Fabaceae (9.8%) are the most frequent families, represented by the highest species composition in the area. Four major honey harvesting durations were identified (January, March, April, and early June for Vernonia, Coffee, Schefflera, and Croton honey respectively) using the flowering calendar in Gera Forest. The pollen analysis of honey revealed that four types of monofloral honeys were identified comprising Schefflera abyssinica, Vernonia amygdalina, C. arabica and Croton macrostachyus in Gera forest. This is due to their abundance and potentiality for honey production. Therefore, the beekeepers should follow the flowering calendar of the plant to exploit the potential of the forest for honey production. Furthermore, market promotion for monofloral honeys of the Gera forest should be made as an incentive for the beekeepers to sell honey with premium prices and branding and labeling of honey of the area

Review: Floral resources diversity and vegetation types important for honeybees in Ethiopia

Addi A, Bareke T. 2019. Review: Floral resources diversity and vegetation types important for honeybees in Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 64-68. The high biodiversity of Ethiopia is attributed to its wide range of altitude and great geo-morphological diversity. This has resulted in the existence of a high diversity of floral resources of which majority of them are visited by honeybees. This paper aimed to review existing studies on bee floral resources in Ethiopia to understand the types of bee plants, floral diversity, flowering period and food source offered by the plants. Over 1500 species of indigenous and exotic plants belonging to 105 bee plant families have been identified. The growth form of bee forage comprises 41.6% herb, 28.7% shrubs, 21.7% trees, and 8% climbers. The majority of bee plant species flower from September to November and April to May, resulting in two major honey flow periods in the country. From this information, Ethiopia has rich bee forage diversity across different vegetation types, however, further collection and documentation of bee flora are required in unaddressed areas of the country. Thus in situ conservation by ecological restoration, and raising and planting of seedlings of bee forages should be promoted for sustainable honey production.

Review: Floral resources diversity of honeybees in important types of vegetation of Ethiopia

Addi A, Bareke T. 2019. Review: Floral resources diversity of honeybees in important types of vegetation of Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 64-68. The high biodiversity of Ethiopia is attributed to its wide ranges of altitude and great geo-morphological diversity. This has resulted in the existence of the region has diverse floral resources of which majority of them are honeybee flora. In this paper bee resources identification and reviewing bee forages were made to determine types of bee plants, floral diversity, flowering period and food source offered by the plants. Moreover, pollen analysis of honey from different regions of Ethiopia was analyzed for determination of major and minor honey source plants. Accordingly, over 1500 species of indigenous and exotic of plants belongs to 105 bee plant families were identified. The growth form analysis of bee forage comprising 41.6% herb, 28.7% shrubs, 21.7% trees, and 8% climbers. The majority of bee plant species flowered from September to November and April to May resulting in two major honey flow periods in the country. Melissopalynological analysis of the honey samples indicated that Schefflera abyssinica, Croton macrostachyus, Syzygium guineense, Vernonia amygdalina and Coffea arabica contributed for 80%, 64%, 86%, 77% and 75% of the total pollen count respectively from southwest and southeastern part of the country while Becium grandiflorum, Hypoestes forskaolii, Leucas abyssinica and Acacia spp. an accounting for 71%, 75.1%, 62%, and 70.5%, respectively from northern Ethiopia. On the other hand, Eucalyptus globulus and Guizotia scabra honey were from central Ethiopia, contributing to 94% of the pollen frequency. From this information, Ethiopia has rich bee forage diversity different vegetation types however, further collection and documentation of bee flora are required in unaddressed areas of the country. Thus in situ conservation, by ecological restoration, and raising and planting of seedlings of bee forages should be promoted for sustainable honey production.

Bee-Plant Relationship in Early Childhood: A Study through the Analysis of Children’s Drawings

Bees play a key role for humans, since crops pollination relies heavily on them. However, bees’ population is diminishing dramatically. Therefore, conservation actions are needed to protect them, including educational ones. Childhood Education is a crucial period to learn and strengthen values about nature and the environment. In fact, it is believed that early exposure to scientific explanations on natural phenomena and on different living species can lead children to value and respect more the environment. The aim of this paper is to study, through the analysis of drawings, whether young children establish the relationship between bees and plants, the basis of the pollination. 47 five and six-year-old-children took part in the study. Results showed that children begin to establish relationships between bees and plants in early childhood, which is a valuable starting point to work with them through educational programs on the role of bees in pollination and on the importance of bees’ conservation.

Seasonal Variation in Bee-Plant Interactions in an Inselberg in the Atlantic Forest in Southeastern Brazil

Studies on bee-plant interactions are relevant to the understanding of temporal patterns in neotropical communities. In isolated habitats such as inselbergs little is yet known about the temporal dynamics in the availability of fl oral resources and interacting bee. In the present study, the objective is to verify the eff ect of seasonality on the bee-plant interaction in an Atlantic Forest inselberg in southeastern Brazil. The bees were sampled monthly in the dry (April/2008-September/2008) and wet seasons (October/2008-March/2009) using an entomological net. A total of 322 bees of 33 species were captured on fl owers of 34 species of plants during the year. Bees richness was similar between seasons (22 species in the wet season and 21 in the dry season), but abundance was higher in the wet season (60% of individuals) and higher diversity occurred in the dry season. Augochloropsis sp1 were the most abundant species and visited the largest number of plant species at each season. In the interaction network, plants with the highest degree were distinct between the seasons. The number of possible interactions was higher in the dry season compared to the wet season and connectance was similar; nestedness however varied between the seasons. The composition of plant and bees species was distinct between the seasons, as well as the interactions between them, mainly due to the alteration in the composition of the plant species and the change in the choice of the bees for the floral resources between the seasons.

Effectiveness of Oxalis bee and Ecostop for prophylaxis and control of varroosis in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

The objective of the present study is to determine the effectiveness of Ecostop (plates) and Oxalis Bee - plant-based products for the prevention and control of varroosis in bees (Apis mellifera L.).The study was conducted at the end of the 2017 Beekeeping Season of the Beekeeping Experimental Training Center at the Faculty of Agriculture, Trakia University, Stara Zagora. Two products were used: Ecostop containing peppermint oil (2 ml/plate) and timol (5 g/plate), and Oxalis Bee - zootechnical feed additive for bees, including plant extracts, organic acids and invert solution from bio-sugar. The dosing of the products is in accordance with the instructions of the producers Primavet-Sofia Ltd., Bulgaria and the company Vechni pcheli Ltd., Bulgaria. The development and extensinvasion of bee colonies at the beginning and the end of the study and the effectiveness of the applied products were determined. It has been established that the development of bee colonies is normal for the end of the beekeeping season. The comparative analysis of the acaricidal effect of the test products against Varroa destructor shows 98.55±0.30% for Ecostop and 78.15±8.76% for Oxalis Bee. The reported difference in efficacy of both preparations is reliable at p≤0.05.