Harvesting a traditional bee hive from a tree using protective gear

Описание: Faranah region, Nialeya Village, Guinea. These beekeepers until recently did this operation at night with minimal clothing and no protection except a smoking torch. Dangerous, difficult, and very painful.
Beesuits change everything! The suits shown for the most part have been recently manufactured in the village of Nialeya. They are excellent! Some are modified coveralls obtained from the used clothing market.
Beekeeping is changing fast here. The hive taken down is actually a modification of the true traditional basket hive of the region. It contains a barrier with a hole in it, separating the brood nest from the rest of it. This encourages the bees to keep brood on one side and honey on the other. Additionally, a rear door is fitted for harvesting honey. Normally, the wrapping is removed, the hive opened up, and all the honey removed, forcing the bees to abscond. Without protective gear, this method is preferable, because it does not allow hives to become extremely powerful, which they will do if allowed to live through one season. A powerful hive without gear is extremely dangerous. Now, with gear, hives can be allowed to develop, creating much larger harvests of honey in the second year. This hive is new, having been placed in the tree only 5 months ago.
Hives are placed in trees to encourage new swarms to occupy them. Again, with protective gear, it is possible to move them lower to the ground and keep them there after they are occupied. This is uncharted territory though, and I can only hope that there is no reason I have missed for keeping them high in trees. When people have done something for many years, there is often a good reason--but neither the people nor I can think of what the reason might be.
In this case the owner wanted to see if the bees would move from the traditional hive to the KTB hive next to it. I told him I doubted they would, and explained why, but these folks are great experimenters and he wanted to try anyway. Who knows, might work!
-Lloyd Ziegler, Nialeya, Guinea, with Winrock International.