Although there are over 1000 species in South Africa, there are only two social bees.
Both types are honey producing bees- the Apis Mellifera Capensis (Cape honeybee) and the Apis Mellifera Scutellata (the African honeybee).
The Cape bee is most commonly found in the Cape Peninsula, all the way to the Karoo, while the African honeybee, common in Johannesburg, is found in central, southern and eastern Africa.
Rory Hansel, of Southerns Beekeeping Association, said the first challenge was introduced by unscrupulous bee keepers, who interfered with their structure.
Hansel explained that the governance structure of both types of bees is completely different.
The Cape bees kill the queen, if they so much as consider her to be inefficient.
While the queen calls the shots in the African bee setup, in Joburg. Whatever she says, is rule.
“When the two hives start mixing, you get a problem. The Capensis bee comes in and says “this one is the queen, no that one, no the other. This ends in a collapse of the colony.”
He said there is an obligatory law that bees cannot be transferred across the line over to the Karoo.
The changing climate, has posed another challenge, resulting in delayed rainfall, that has led to starvation.
“Instead of the first week of September, rains now come later, and later and later. Last year rainfall was in December and then it rained too much into February. This lack of rainfall created a problem with plants and trees- especially Eucalyptus. Bees were confused by this, flowered late, and therefore weren’t able to decide what to do. That created a fair amount of starvation, which affected honey flow” said Hansel.
This led to a horrific start of this year for honey producers, but the wheel is slowly turning, and rain has come, in some areas, thanks to communal prayer efforts.
The third challenge is the cutting down of Eucalyptus trees, because they are exotic and take up a lot of water.
But not replacing them with indigenous trees immediately, is under discussion with Government.
“They are slowly taking cognisance of what we’re saying” he said.
The fourth and most destructive, is the theft of bee hives.
Vandalisers find hives in the field, destroy them, consume as much honey as possible and sell scrap metal.
Hives are sometimes sold to other bee farmers.
The fifth challenge is that of diseases, which were unheard of in the Region, such as the American fowl brood (AFB), a bacterial disease spread by spores.
Cape bees were found to have contracted the disease back in 2019.
“What we are looking for as Bee farmers, is foliage and suitability, as well as areas with adequate security and a conducive climate” said Hansel.