-a tradition that goes back three generations
BUYING into supporting the sea defence, or just plain looking at the bigger picture?

Either way you look at it, the operations of 33-year-old Ravi Rajkumar highlights the link between mangrove protection and community livelihood. It is a given that everyone at some point in their life contemplates what would be their life’s work; that they’d wonder what their profession or livelihood will be.

An architect building houses, a lawyer working late at night, a writer churning out oodles of stories or an artist making sure every picture is painted to perfection? 

For Rajkumar, it is something vastly different.

A third-generation beekeeper, he gave the Chronicle an inside look into his beekeeping operations.

Close to 100 hives are set up in close proximity to the mangrove forests at Fort Wellington, in the Region Five district of Mahaica/Berbice. Rajkumar says the nectar from the black mangrove’s flower makes a high quality of honey. Protecting the mangroves, he says, not only assists in protecting sea defences, among other benefits, but contributes to income generation.

“For a beekeeper, the mangroves are key to producing the honey,” he said, adding that the honey he produces is 100 per cent pure, and marketed under the brand ‘Nature’s Own Food’.

“It is not only collected from Guyana’s tropical wild flowers, but there are no additives. It is all natural,” Rajkumar said.

And though the production process itself has evolved over time, the way business is currently being done builds on the legacy left by his father and grandfather, he said.

Back in his grandfather’s days, he said, honey-making was big business. “He [his granddad] had so much honey, that it was stored and given away to schools. The only bad thing was that there was not much sales; he was making more than he could sell,” Rajkumar recalled.

When his father took over the business, he said, things improved significantly.

“My father did more. He set up new hives and started exporting to Barbados. By the time my father took over, the demand was more than the supply,” he said.

It was his father, he said, who inspired him to take up beekeeping and carry on in tradition of his foreparents.

“My father passed away last year in August, and then I took over. I did like he did with the export to other countries. Along with Barbados, I also sent honey to St. Kitts,” the young beekeeper said.

While the apiaries are kept in Fort Wellington, actual production takes place at his residence at Number 3 Village, since the hives need to be in a secluded place, away from residential areas.

His is a totally indigenous operation, Rajkumar boast. “Everything I use to make the honey is gotten locally… from the building of the wooden frames that hold the hives, to the packaging of the honey, everything is done locally. There are beekeepers who import materials, but there are easy ways to do everything locally,” he said.

But sweet though the rewards are, he said, the job of a beekeeper is not as cushy as it may seem. One of the hazards associated with the territory is being stung many times over. He’s probably been stung at least 10 times in one month, he said.

“The first time a bee sting you, it can really hurt, but after that, I guess your body gets accustomed to it. Now it feels like a mosquito bite,” Rajkumar said.

Relative to the other challenges in the industry, Rajkumar said that on the whole, Guyana cannot compete with the imported products, primarily because of the packaging. He is, however, in agreement that collaborating with the relevant bodies, even the formation of a beekeepers association, could help address this issue.

Challenges aside, he said, after many years of working with honeybees, one cannot deny that their lifecycle is a unique and fascinating process. “It is very beneficial working with bees; you learn a lot; you are involved with nature, and you make an income all at the same time.”

The honeybee cycle
It all starts with the egg, Rajkumar explained.
The hive’s queen bee lays an egg in one of the cells constructed for the sole purpose of laying eggs. Once the queen has laid her egg and moved on to another cell (during the spring months, the queen can lay an average of 1900 eggs daily), that egg is attached to the cell with a mucus strand.

When an egg hatches, a larva emerges. Nurse bees are in charge of caring for the young larvae. They feed them ‘bee bread’. Bee bread is a strange mixture of gland secretions and honey. The larvae will go through five distinct stages of growth. After each of these stages, the larvae shed their outer skin. Then when they are about six days old, a worker bee comes along and caps each larva, cocooning them in their respective cell. The larvae remain in this cocooned state for about eight to ten days, and when they emerge, they are fully-formed young bees.

The average life of a honeybee depends on what purpose the bee fulfills in the hive. A queen bee can live an average of two years, provided that she is able to get herself inseminated with enough sperm during her nuptial flight.

A good strong queen bee can lay as many as 2000 eggs a day. She’s also in charge of killing off her sisters and mother. The queen bee does not have to worry about taking care of herself; she is always surrounded by an entourage of worker bees, who feed her and remove whatever waste matte she produces.

It is not uncommon for the elderly queen bee to leave the nest in the springtime when the rest of the hive is getting ready to swarm. Experts believe that the queen produces some sort of pheromone that prevents the hives’ workers bees from becoming interested in sex. A queen bee that has not made her nuptial flight is called a virgin queen. Drone bees are male bees that live only to impregnate queen bees during the queen’s nuptial flight.

After mating with a queen bee, the drone dies. During the winter months, a worker bee can live for up to 140 days. During the summer months, the worker bee is lucky to live for forty days. The short summer lifespan is because the worker bees are literally worked to death.

The worker bee’s duties are wide and varied. Worker bees, also called nurse bees, are in charge of caring for the young larvae. Others are sent out to gather pollen to be made into honey. Some workers spend their time capping off honeycombs, while others are responsible for taking care of the queen.

Worker bees are in charge of starving the unwanted drones and cleaning the hive. There can be anywhere from 20,000 to 200,000 worker bees in a single hive. Worker bees are always sterile. If a worker bee lays an egg, it becomes a drone bee. Workers bees are the bees that people see defending the hive.

The survival of the beehive depends on the hive’s having a healthy queen that is laying eggs. If something happens to the queen, the hive will die.

“There is much to learn as a beekeeper,” Rajkumar said. “This is in the family, and is what I know best.”

And while people more often than not see bees as a threat, he feels they should be viewed for their intrinsic value.

As for the future, Rajkumar said he will continue carrying on the family tradition and that he has a few plans for expansion up his sleeves. “The operation changes with time, and I expect more changes… The protection of mangroves is something new; we knew of the benefits, but now that other people know, we will be moving forward with our plans for change,” he said.