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Hiroto Fujiyoshi |
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The honeybees we beekeepers keep nowadays are called Apis mellifera, a species of bee that was first brought to Japan in the Meiji era (1877). However, there is also a native Japanese species of honeybee called Apis cerna japonica. You can actually find documents from the Edo era that describe how they should be kept. Japanese honeybees are very nervous. They become easily upset and flee their beehive if the beehive is peeped into many times or attacked by a hornet. This type of bee is not suitable for beekeeping. However, these bees are also agreeable in that they seldom sting people, and if you place a hollowed log or empty box out in the open, a group of bees that has swarmed will naturally occupy it. Therefore, there seem to be many people in Japan who keep them as a hobby. Apis mellifera we keep can also be divided into many types, and if you peep into the beehive, you can see that many bees with yellow stripes and almost black and white stripes in the abdominal region are mixed. This is because today's bees are a mixed breed from the Italian type, Carniolan type (native to Yugoslavia), and Caucasian type (native to the Caucasian region of the Russian Federation). When a queen bee is born, it flies out of the beehive and copulates with multiple drones waiting in the air from their beehives nearby. Thus, honeybees born in this manner have mixed blood.
How was this honeybee of African bee born? Brazil is a country of immigrants. According to certain literature, honeybees in Europe were first imported to Brazil from Portugal in 1839. However, these bees were apparently not suited to the tropical or subtropical climate of Brazil. Thus, to improve this particular breed, honeybees of the African type with greater nectar collection ability and more fertility were introduced to the laboratory of the University of Sao Paulo at Rio Claro in the state Sao Paulo in 1956. They were at first isolated, but those few that managed to escape from the laboratory became wild and the African bee came about through the natural crossbreeding with Apis mellifera that was traditionally kept. However, in contrast to bees, for example, of the European type that have a long history of domestication by selecting only mild bees, honeybees in Brazil are so nervous and fierce that they will sting anyone who approaches their beehive. Nonetheless, they do not have the power to kill, as the name "killer bee" suggests. Also when these bees sting, the pain is as same as that of ordinary bees. Today, almost all honeybees kept in Brazil have African origins. Their special feature is the fact that they excel in collecting propolis compared with the European bees. Before propolis attracted attention, bees that do not collect much propolis were also selected because propolis is sticky and hinders work. However, after propolis became a popular catchword worldwide, beekeeping in Brazil has changed dramatically. Now, the honeybee of African bee origin that produces high-quality propolis is indispensable for Brazilian beekeeping. There are many other types of honeybees in the world. I'll introduce them to you next time. |
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Yamada Bee Farm (Kagaminocho Pref. Okayama)
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