Interview on beekeeping with Tessema Mikael (part 1.2)

Technical description: microphone: Stereo Microphone ; recorder : Zoom H4n

In Part 1.2 of the interview with beekeeper trainer Tessema Mikael, the interviewee explains how he became a beekeeper and an expert working for the Agricultural Office. He mentions two possible paths to beekeeping: Some inherit the activity from their ancestors or they become beekeepers as a profession to generate income. In either case, one learns how to hang beehives in trees. The interviewee himself learned beekeeping by observing other beekeepers (i.e. his own father was not a beekeeper). After a modest start, he expanded his beekeeping activities. He was further encouraged by the traditional benefits of honey (i.e. the use in traditional contexts). Tessema Mikael has both modern and traditional beehives. For him, the traditional beehives are more difficult to manage, because they are more easily attacked by the enemies of bees. He considers modern hives easier to take care of. Modern hives can be placed on top of each other. At times when the bee colony is small, one takes out all unused frames so that spiders don’t occupy them. Frames can simply be added or taken out, dependent on the availability of flowers. In contrast to the modern beehive, the sections in the traditional beehives are not separated, which means that combs can contain both larvae and honey, as the queen can lay eggs everywhere. In the modern beehive, the queen is retained in the bottom box, where she lays the eggs, but where no honey is stored. The division (lit. sieve) between larvae- and honey-containing combs is not possible in the traditional beehive where the queen roams freely. The traditional beehives are narrower and oval-shaped. The sieve of the modern beehive only lets the working bees pass but not the queen, which is bigger.