Egerton University starts project to raise queen bees

Egerton University is working on a bee project to enable farmers to buy mature queens instead of waiting for the insects to colonise their hives.

 The Queen Bee Rearing Technology (QBRT) is being undertaken by the university’s Bee Research and Demonstration Unit (BRDU) at the Njoro main campus’ agroscience park.

The aim is to increase the number of young queen bees per colony, hence raising the number of eggs laid in a hive to 1,000-2,000 per day.

 Acting deputy vice chancellor in charge of research and extension Prof Bockline Omedo Bebe says the initiative is part of the university’s bold action to protect and conserve bee colonies.

He says bees and the environment must be viewed through the lenses of food security.

“Although these insects are often associated with honey, pollination accounts for about one in every three bites of food. Bees are responsible for an estimated 80 per cent of pollination,” the deputy vice chancellor says. 

 Prof Bebe reiterates that bee colonies in Kenya are facing threats due to the use of pesticides, land degradation and habitat loss.

Climate change and deforestation have resulted in prolonged drought, which has led to a reduction in foliar for the honey-producing insects, he said.

Bebe explains that the technology involves selecting 10 hours-old bee larvae, which are moved to virgin queen banks, where they are bred in compartments.

 “Once they mature, they are taken to separate compartments, then mated and left to lay eggs," the deputy vice chancellor says.

Young queen bees bred at BRDU, he sayd, are being used to replace old queens and reduce the swarming impulse as well as exchange failing queens with vigorous ones to prevent a failed colony.

"The technology uses a moveable comb or a moveable frame hive so that the hive components can be moved in the way the beekeeper wishes to rear the new queens,” Prof Bebe explains.

He says although the life expectancy of a queen bee is four to five years, the mother bee is primarily productive in the first two years. BRDU, he says, is encouraging farmers to keep young queens for a constantly high production.

Prof Bebe says as the queen bee ages, her laying capacity reduces drastically, which in turn hinders the attainment of the projected 60,000 bees per colony.

The QBRT, he notes, is enabling beekeepers to get more queens from the agroscience park, which is being used to create small new colonies (or nucleus colonies), hence increasing the number of colonies and hives owned by farmers.

With the technology, the don says farmers can also avoid variability in production, where many of them find one hive missing honey due to lack of a colony, while the others have so much.

The project, which uses modern Langstroth hives, is projected to increase honey production in Kenya from the current 25,000 metric tonnes by bridging the deficit of 13,000 metric tonnes of honey per year.

 “Currently, due to very few colonies, hive colonisation in Kenya stands at between 20-50 per cent, which is too low. This is because there are few queen bees available to lay the workers and drones which constitute 99 per cent of the bee colony,” the DVC says. 

Agroscience Park Innovation director Prof Paul Kimurto says the main purpose of bees is pollination, but most people do not know that. Without bees, he warns, the chances of cross-pollination dim drastically reducing food production.

 “We tell farmers to grow sunflowers and avocados, which require pollination but we are not telling them how the crops will be pollinated. This is why we must address the pollination component,” Prof Kimurto says.

 The don, who is the director of marketing and resource mobilisation at Egerton University, says honeybees are critical to the provision of ecosystem services that maintain wild plant communities and global agricultural production.

Honey bee pollinators, through their mutualistic relationships with plants, he says, are crucial for the reproductive success of several plant species in the natural environment.

“Roughly, 35 per cent of global crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other plants that provide food, fibre, drugs, and fuel for humans, are dependent on insect pollinators for reproduction," Prof Kimurto says. 

"Economically, insect-pollinated crops have an annual worth of about $14.6 billion, of which $2-3 billion is contributed by wild bees."

He said pollinators provide indirect benefits in the form of livestock forage such as alfalfa and clover. Pollinators also contribute to aesthetics, recreational values, and cultural activities, and help maintain ecosystem integrity.

Joel Masobo, a lecturer at the university and a beekeeper, says harmful pesticides affect the health of the bees by compromising their immunity, leading to their death and decline in population.

He says when pesticides are sprayed near hives, bees feel threatened and move out.

 Masobo adds that some pesticides also tend to alter the DNA of the bees, kill them and also affect the ability of queen bees to forage. This affects the production of honey.

 “When beehives are located next to crop farms which are sprayed often, the quality of the honey tends to be compromised.  Most beekeepers have few options for saving their bees since most farmers have not embraced organic pesticides, which are less harmful,” the expert says.

 Masobo advises crop farmers to spray their farms either very early in the morning between 5 and 6am or in the evening to reduce the chances of the bees feeding on freshly sprayed flowers.

 According to a report commissioned by the Route to Food Initiative (RTFI), 31 pecent of pesticides registered in Kenya are toxic to bees and other pollinators, a situation that threatens food security.

 In its findings, RTFI states that a third of the registered pesticides in Kenya have been withdrawn from the European market, partly because of the toxicity and their long stay in the environment.

Use of these insecticides has been blamed for the 50 per cent decline in honeybee populations in the US and the UK in the past 25 years, the report states. 

The report dubbed “Pesticides in Kenya: Why our health, environment and food security are at stake” indicates that the state of affairs threatens the very basis of agriculture, given that wild bees and managed honeybees play the greatest role in pollinating crops.

 According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), of 107 crop species, which provide 90 per cent of global food, 71 per cent are pollinated by bees.

Some 20,000 species of bees responsible for fertilising these food crops are staring at extinction.

 “The importance of bees in the lives of humans is always underestimated and enough is not being done to protect the insects. While the world’s population is increasing day-by-day, the population of bees and other pollinators is steadily decreasing,” the report says.