BEEKEEPING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL - MALAYSIA

BEEKEEPING in Malaysia as I know in which there are two main types of beekeeping, traditional and modern beekeeping. Traditional beekeeping involves harvesting honey from naturally occurring hives of wild bees. The modern beekeeping means raising domesticated bees, in hives managed by beekeepers. Beekeeping in Malaysia has been practised and first found documented since the Sultanate of Malacca. Today, both traditional and modern approaches to beekeeping are used locally. Beekeeping is crucial to the conservation and sustainability of the ecosystem. There may be hundreds of species of bees found around the world. Only a few of these are seen as real pests here in Malaysia and some of them do not sting. Some species, like the Honey Bee (Apis cerana or Apis mellifera) are actually a valuable part of our ecosystem. Normally it costs roughly RM500 per hive to get started including to usee Kelulut ar Stingless Bee (Trigona itama or Trigona thoracica). This doesn't include a continued further investment in queens, replacement bees, sugar (for feeding), and new equipment (as you split your hives, for the new techniques, etc.). Be ready to spend well over RM1,000 in the first year for two hives. This article in "Anim Agriculture Technology" blog I write about beekeeping in Malaysia for environmental and commercial activities.

The activities in beekeeping in Malaysia by a farmers known as Raja Mohd Soffian (Hhoto above) in which he keeps at home are of the Apis florea typeas hobby. He said that bees are busy little creatures, flying around from plant to plant, buzzing busily. One or two aren’t usually noticeable but when the colony is on the move, they sound like a squadron of fighter planes out on manoeuvres. Many people are frightened of bees. However as a growing number are adopting bees and advocating for them. Other three Malaysians friens of him talk about their love for our apian friends as 'from dream to honey farm'. Fisrt friend known as Cathy Kong Chai Yuen manages over 30 hives and has a side business selling honey. It all started because she had a dream. “When she retire, she want to run a home farm and live independently in a natural way,” she shares. Back in 2018, she lived in Kuala Lumpur and had only a tiny garden and later she decided to start small and work from there. “Farming is about managing an ecosystem, she points out. And bees are fundamental. I bought a hive of bees to pollinate the plants in my garden. My veggies grew better immediately. She kicked off with a single hive of stingless bees. When I started my research, most of the information was about honey bees from the West with stings and later she found a local group and they taught me about local bees. She started with Bee Savior and learning how to identity, manage and transport bees. She learned to save bee colonies but I was staying in the city and kept one colony in the kitchen in my old place. They were small local honeybees, with stings, but they’re friendly. But with having only a little space, I had to go far into the forest to release other rescue hives.

She (Kong) moved to Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, at the start of the MCO, which finally gave her a bigger garden. She moved in hives of dwarf honey bee (Apis florea) and Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) bees for the plants, and promptly added a fish pond. With the bees working the pollination, and the fish feeding the plants, Kong has the perfect mini ecological system. The bees do more than work in the garden in which she has a cold now and I’m using their honey tea. The propolis that they use to build their hives is also medicinal, as is the royal jelly they make. I’ve stopped buying cold medication. It’s going so well that Kong has set up a farm of 30 hives of stingless bees outside of the city. They are unique insects but many people are so afraid of them, thinking they’re wild and will hurt them. But to me they are just cute and bees are like us humans. If you slap a person, they slap back. Bees are the same! If you just leave them alone, they do their own thing. She knows that bees are hardworking, independent, and not messy. Actually, they are the ideal pet for Malaysian with suitable habitat. Later she love affair continues and aside from her bee farm, Kong continues to rescue bees. She pass rescue hives to fellow farm owners for pollination and to adopters. As for the self-sustaining home farm dream, that continues too. 

In other stories when Dr Mohd Norowi Hamid from Salak Tinggi, Sepang, was director of the Strategic Resource Research Centre at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi), his job was to research biological diversity. In the course of his work, he came across a burgeoning issue. Before his job was to research biological diversity and today, he is the president of MY Bee Savior Association. They found pollinators declining in frightening numbers in which globally, they are disappearing 100 to 1,000 times faster than normal. So they have made it his mission to study and promote local bees. Today, Dr Norowi is president of MY Bee Savior Association, an NGO dedicated to rescuing and relocating bees, and also raising public awareness of apian matters and their importance to humankind. When people think of bees, they usually think of honey but conservationists and scientists value bees for their pollination work. Bees are vital for the ecosystem because they help plants to reproduce. Seedbearing plants and flowers create small grains called pollen that help fertilise plant cells. Actually sometimes, the wind will blow pollen about. Should it land on target, it will help plants to produce fruit. However bees are much more efficient. As these insects buzz about, they transfer pollen from plant to plant. It’s efficient and very effective. The problem is that pollinators like bees are being killed off in huge numbers by people, pollution and climate change. There are over 265 species of bee in Malaysia, from the Asian Honeybee that is super resistant to many diseases, to the tropical carpenter bee. He love that there are so many different species but to be practical, it’s best to think of them in two groups: Social and solitary. More than 90% of all bee species are solitary. They don’t produce honey. The remaining lot are social and they do make honey. In the past, the focus was on honey but today, as numbers are declining and we have a biodiversity crisis, research limelight is on solitary bees. They work hard at keeping pollination going and are vital for conservation.
 

Norowi’s personal favourite are stingless bees. In his career, he has researched 32 species, including the five species that produce honey, and discovered the best way for beekeepers to domesticate two local species. Even they’re small, so they can go everywhere, even little flowers and they are enthuses and are great little workers. Plus, they’re very friendly and he have a hive by my backdoor and nine more in the front. They’re easy-going, and never a problem to anyone. Reported that in 2021, when a swarm of bees arrived at his house in his hometown located at Kg Kundang Patah, in Raub, Pahang. He heard that bees are important and that you can relocate them and went online to see how that might work. From  YouTube and Facebook yielded some information, but relocating a hive is a bit too complex for everyday folk. Soffian called Bee Savior in for the job but his passion for all things apian had been ignited. He watched Mr Lail from Bee Savior move my first bees and after that he decided to take lessons.

In other case activist known as Soffian who now lives in Sungai Merab, Kajang, Selangor recently became a bee rescuer himself. In addition there are more bees came to visit. He live near the forest so they come and live with me. There are seven hives near me now and he watch them every morning, going in and out (of the hives), working away and love them. Before he was told in school that bees are dangerous but they’re not and many people should live side by side as neighbours. Soffian has a day job as a technician but he also continues his volunteer work as bee rescuer. “Tomorrow, I’m relocating two hives. I will bring one to my place and the other to the forest. I will take my wife and my five-year-old son along for this trip. Some hives near Soffian’s home in Sungai Merab, Kajang, Selangor. The bee lover notes that some people call regularly, as they have one hive after another moving in. It’s grist to the mill for Soffian. His favourite species is the red dwarf honeybee or Apis florea because they can build hives anywhere. Sometimes they build in a corridor, sometimes under a table they are very creative!. They are small bees but they can fly quite high too so he had to move them from apartments. Actually when farmers moving bees there are essentially interfering with their home. The Asian honeybee (Apis cerana) able to sting and they sometimes want to fight human. He stun them with smoke and wear protection normlly use two T-shirts instead of one. I get that they’re worried, and it’s OK if they sting me and better not to  allergic. He also an active advocate for bee protection in Malaysia. He posts on Facebook and Tik Tok and educating friends and spreading the good news. better not to burn them but better to save them. Anybody see bees, just call Bee Savior and we’ll come and get the bees for you. Its Free!. Anybody can’t just dump a log of bees in the garden and hope it works. The environment needs to be sustainable. Local need to know your basics, like how bee colonies work from the queen who lays the eggs to the worker bees. Also, you need to be aware of weather and monsoon patterns so you know when to collect honey. By reading a book, taking a short course, or working with an existing beekeeper should be enough to get you started. Thanks...

By,

M Anem,

Senior Agronomist,

Hotel Zenith Putrajaya,

Putrajaya,

Malaysia.

(August 2024).