Bees in the Coconut Farm
According to the researchers from the Chumpton Horticultural Research Center in Thailand, culturing honey bees in the coconut farm helps much in the coconut trees’ productivity the whole year, and most double their fruit bearing. Thus, less expense are incurred for the fertilizer besides providing extra income from honey from the beehives.
The specie of the bees in Apis cerana or Indian honey bee. These do not migrate but are common in Southeast Asia. They are easy to catch because they feed on coconut, and most coconut farms in the world are in the Southeast.
Other trees that are must in the farm are those that appeal to their taste and scent like rambutan or durian, when the coconut are not in the bloom.
How to trap the Apis cerana bees
1. These bees can be trapped in hordes, and can also be dispelled.
2. The standard trap is 27 cm wide, 21 cm high and 45 cm long with floor, and with adjustable entrance that can be closed and opened.
3. The bees are attracted at night. Place a honey comb that has holes. Every morning, see if there are bees.
4. see the bees house every 10 days if there are enemies: lizards or winged ant (gamo-gamo).
5. In harvesting honey, look for open hives and get honey with the aid of a hive tool.
6. harvest, according to the bees diet, is every 23 days of their flower sucking.
7. cultured bees should be given additional food besides what they get from the flowers, so as to increase their honey production. Every beehive can provide 4 kilos of honey every year from the specie Apis cerana. This can be increased to 14 kilos if the manner of getting honey is improved.
On the other hand, the presence of the bees in the coconut farm assures the bearing of nuts continuously throughout the whole year and more abundantly than if ordinary fertilizers were applied.
To get the most coconut production, there should be about 30-40 beehives for every five km square, according to researcher Watanoyothin of Chumpton Horticultural Research Center.
From: Greenfields August 1990