The Egyptian Honey Bee

"And the Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in men's habitations; then to eat of all the produce (of the earth), and find with skill the spacious paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for men: truly in this is a sign for those who give thought."
- Nahl 68-69 from the Holy Qu'ran (The Surah of the Bee)

I'm in Egypt now. I have a number of half-finished posts concerned with building hives in Tanzania, the beauty of stingless bees, and arriving in Cairo, but feel like it is best to break the no-post streak with something from the present.

The Egyptian Honey Bee

After a week in Cairo adapting to life in a new culture, exploring the immense city (you can take the Metro almost all the way to the Pyramids at Giza), and learning some basic Arabic, I traveled 60km northeast to the main campus of the SEKEM Initiative. Though this group has become a giant of business and social development, it all began with a biodynamic farm in the middle of the desert. It was in the spirit of its small beginnings that I saw SEKEM at its apiary.

SEKEM has contracts with beekeepers all over Egypt, but they also maintain a few apiairies of their own where they, with the assistance of a beekeeper from Germany, are attempting to re-introduce the use of the native Egyptian subspecies (Apis mellifera lamarkii  - sometimes referred to in literature as Apis mellifera fasciata), the most "natural" variety to keep in Northeast Africa.

Examining the SEKEM apiary on the outskirts of Cairo. It is impossible to look at these hives, which are made of clay, without being reminded of the horizontal log hives I have just spent so much time studying in Tanzania. These hives would normally be stacked, but were here in the process of having their bees moved into box-type hives (visible just beyond me in the apiary).

Old and New -  two hive types in the same apiary. To accomodate the smaller size of A.m. lamarkii, SEKEM  beekeepers are using a very small version of the Kenyan Top Bar hive. The large version is a regular sight in Britain and Tanzania.

A subspecies for honey bees is similar to different breeds for dogs (though the intricate differences between subspecies, race, and breed can be difficult to navigate) - genetically distinct, but capable of producing viable offspring through interbreeding. Nearly every region of the world where honey bees are native had some local variation - specific sets of traits in the bee population that proliferated in response to unique selective pressures and made them distinct from varieties from other regions. Thus, people in the beekeeping world are familiar with references to things like "Italian bees" (Apis mellifera linguistica) or "Carniolan bees" (A.m. carnica) - the two most popular "breeds" - along with nearly thirty others including the infamous "Africanized (killer) bees" (A.m. scutellata), which are just the native variety found in western and central Africa. 

These breeds are distinct and are known for certain qualities (like gentleness and high honey production in A.m. linguistica or aggression in A.m. scutellata), but distinguishing between one and another is not a simple matter anymore. The sharing of bee subspecies around the world through import/export and intentional creation of hybrids (just as a Labrador can be crossed with a Poodle) has blurred the line for what qualifies as a particular subspecies - the names of which are now just as frequently used to describe characteristics as they are to describe genetics.

While a number of breeds were imported to Egypt through the the first half of the 20th century (a practice that was halted under Nasser's rule), Carniolans are the most common variety today. Moreover, all the practices of "modern" beekeeping are present and widespread in Egypt. Even so, there are a few places where it is suspected A.m. lamarkii has been maintained to some degree. Asyut is one such place, also notable for the presence of historical mud hives, and has gained much apicultural attention from SEKEM.

Box Hives of Carniolan Bees at SEKEM - Egyptian Beekeepers tend to keep smaller colonies in more boxes as opposed to the Western practice of "supering" (adding many boxes vertically) and maintaining larger hive populations.

As I was leaving Tanzania, SEKEM was acquiring around one-hundred local-style hives from Asyut believed to contain the native sub-species. To further study the bees it was necessary to move them out of the mud hives and into very small top bar hives tailored to accommodate the very small bee breed. And, though I was constantly reeling against the abandonment of local hive technology in East Africa, I somehow felt that it would be okay here - especially in this circumstance. Also, I am making a concerted effort not to idealize the past, but to look at present situations very objectively. Thus, I am ever collecting information on hive technology and environmental/economic restraints for Egyptian beekeepers and appropriate technologies.

So, as it was, my first beekeeping experience in Egypt was moving bees out of traditional hives and into box-type hives - albeit with top bars and no wax foundation.

Keeping bees for more years than I have been alive, Eslamm is the primary beekeeper working  with A.m. lamarkii at SEKEM. 

The first view when you open one of the clay hives. To reduce the number of stings, beekeepers using this type of hive usually work from the back (though this is the front and was the side we worked from for the transfer) - meaning they must remove the brood comb from the hive to reach the honey stored near the entrance. Sticks are used to replace comb after the harvest and can also be used as a type of "foundation." 

View inside the hive - notice the propolis lining the inner walls.

Introducing: the Queen Bee

Working from front to back we placed honey in the back of the box and brood at the entrance. After a few weeks, each comb will be attached to a top bar.  

Beautiful comb lined up in the box hive

A perfect brick of honey.

In October 1962, Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey bee breeding fame (I worked with the beekeepers there while I was in Britain) stayed in Egypt for three months examining honey bees from the Nile Delta and Nile Valley. Whilst here, he noted that Lamarkii bees were "greatly addicted to swarming," something which he surely would have found unfavorable as he was searching for traits to be included in "the perfect bee" - a human conception that was created through cross-breeding and careful selection and came to be known as "the Buckfast Bee." Arguments for and against such manipulation aside, in his twenty-seven years of travel (1950-1977) Brother Adam did a wonderful service for the apicultural community in terms of his careful descriptions of local practices and honey bee subspecies in most of Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East. Many of his findings on these topics were published in In Search of the Best Strains of Bees.

With respect to A.m. lamarkii, he remarked, "This desendant of the Pharaonic bee... will inevitably be doomed to extinction with the progress of modern apiculture. Thanks to her great vitality and the number of primitive hives, she has up to now managed to maintain her purity.The Fasciata [or Lamarkii] has not measured up to the needs of modern beekeeping but this does not mean she has no value. It would be a major tragedy if this bee were lost to posterity."

Brother Adam felt that, because of its inferior honey production - when compared to other varieties - and behaviors which could be inconvenient for beekeepers the native honey bee could seize to exist, or else be absorbed, after long exposure to the imported varieties while falling out of favor in commercial apiculture.

Apart from the view that "more honey, easier" means better bees, SEKEM hopes that by recovering the ancient Lamarkii bees they will be able to harness the attributes of a bee variety that spent thousands of years adapting to a dynamic desert environment, perhaps being more resilient to environmental stresses and better able to handle the recent challenges facing modern beekeepers.

A bank of mud hive skeletons. There was a time in Egypt when a road  might have been flanked on both sides for miles by banks of living hives!

Another apiary with A.m.lamarkii

My pillowcase veil is still holding up.

SEKEM beekeeping shed 

This picture is good because, if you look carefully, you can see many stages of brood development (tiny rice grain -sized eggs in the center cells, recently hatched eggs just above, and older larvae among the capped pupae at the center left) along with some stored pollen (in the bottom left)

Eslamm and I after a day of beekeeping.

I cannot say with certainty that the bees recovered by SEKEM are "pure" Lamarkii - maintaining pure characteristics in the open world of mating where a virgin queen will be charged by all manner of drones seems improbable, but is not altogether impossible - though I do think the bees I worked with are notably different from the Carniolans located at the back of the apiary (in terms of size and color especially). I have high hopes, nonetheless, and think the beekeepers are, at least, onto something and am very excited by the prospects of their endeavor. I am very thankful to have been included.

Posts on ancient bees, revolutions, and general experiences in Egypt on the way!