Fate of the bee season in Hadramout

Majed Saleh Ba-Amran For the Yemen Times

Honey is one of the main exports of Yemen. The Hadramout honey business alone is worth YR 2.25 billion riyals (USD11.3 million) and represents 26 percent of total honey production of Yemen. YT Photo by Amira Al-Sharif Scores of medical studies have found that honey boasts regenerative and healing properties, in addition to its cosmetic and aphrodisiac qualities. Yemen, which boasts some of the world's best and priciest honey, is no exception. However, honey production is under threat after floods destroyed thousands of beehives in the southeast regions. More than 37,000 beehives in the area were destroyed by the floods, according to police reports submitted by Wadi Doan residents. Many beekeepers were killed and others are still missing. Deadly floods last month that killed dozens and forced thousands to flee hit the honey-producing provinces of Hadramout the hardest and decimated beekeepers as thousands of hives were washed away. Honey is one of the main exports of Yemen. The Hadramout honey business alone is worth YR 2.25 billion riyals (USD11.3 million) and represents 26 percent of total honey production of Yemen. Prices vary according to type of honey. Al-Sedr honey, usually produced in November, is the most expensive and is primarily exported. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, about 17 percent of the honey produced by Yemen's more than one million beehives is exported, generating USD 9 million per year. Honey merchants have said that the floods will double the prices of honey next season. Bees usually live in swarms in long cylindrical wooden or china houses called beehives that contain many honeycombs dangling from the roof. Honeycomb consists of several six-sided holes made of wax. Bees produce a sweet sticky substance called honey which is very expensive good and it is extracted from nectar. The first days of bee season, which starts in September, are the best chance for beekeepers because they can sell a single beehive for at least YR 10,000, but at the end of the bee season the beehive is sold for around YR 3,000. The bee season is only forty days long because that is the time when the flowers the Sidre tree blossom. As the reaped honey is from one tree only, it is extremely pure and of the highest quality. It is called Sidre or Baghyih. Because bees will return to their owners especially when the distance is very short, when bee tenders intend to buy beehives from beekeepers they opt to fetch them at night to arrive at their destination before the light of the morning. In the countryside, most people are fond of chatting about the factors of erosion and weather which have fundamental impacts on the honey harvest. Those who have a lot of honey present it as gifts to their relatives and neighbors. During the forty days of the bee season people prepare three tools for reaping the honey: cotton ropes for smoking, long knives for separating the honeycombs from the roof of the beehive and a tub with its lid to hide the honey from the bees. The reaped honey is prepared in two ways. It is collected in a sieved barrel to be mashed and sifted out of the black wax, or it is put in pairs in suitable cans and this is the white-waxed one. Honeybees are not only important for making honey, but are also an important factor in the cross pollination of other plants. Grain staples are wind-pollinated, but most foodstuff that adds vitamins and antioxidants to our diets—apples, pears, cherries, plums, melons, cucumbers, zucchini, almonds, macadamia nuts, and so on—rely on cross pollination. Plants like lettuce, carrots, broccoli, and onions, which don't make edible fruits but need to make seeds for next year's supply, also rely on bees. The joy of bee season is only partly interrupted by the presence of their hostile enemies the wasps. Although bees defend their hives fiercely sacrificing their lives their lives in the process, beehives owners search for wasps nests in the mountains in order to eliminate them.

Bee-keeping in Yemen

by JULIAN LUSH

These are just some observations by an amateur bee-keeper travelling with the Society’s three week tour of Yemen in October 2000; they are by no means a comprehensive account of what is becoming an important industry and source of wealth in the rural economy.

One thing manifest over the whole route was the burgeoning of bee-keeping in Yemen. Stacks of bee-hives appear by the roadside all over the country, from small banks of half a dozen or so to large arrays of dozens — veritable apiaries. Clearly the profitable niche market traditionally held by the Wadi Du’an and Tihama honey producers is being tapped by a great many others; why not, when the bees, who do the essential work, are free to all? We saw hives on the road to Manakha, in the plains east of Sana’a and in Marib, in Wadis Beihan, Yashbum, Hadhramaut and Du’an, and in the Hujjariyah and Tihama; and they are doubtless to be seen elsewhere.

	Log and box hives in Wadi Surdud. Photograph: Julian Lush

Bees have been social insects for 10-20 million years and have had time to develop varieties adapted to many localities. The variety of honey-bee endemic toYemen is the apis yemenitica - a small, dark bee which thrives in the hot, dry conditions. Traditional bee-keeping methods using a long, thin hive-box hollowed from a log, can still be seen. Modern hive-boxes, based on the same principle, are wooden, 80-100 cm long and 12 x 12 cm in cross-sectionThe front has a hinged door with a V-shaped bee entrance, and the rear closure is plugged and sealed with mud. Alternatively, as we observed in the suq at Seiyun, hives can be of pottery pipe, made in three sections and supported on a metal frame, enabling the hive to be opened at two points in its length.

	Box hives in Wadi Yashbum. Photograph: Julian Lush

In all these long hives, the queen and brood generally inhabit the front of the hive, while the honeycombs, naturally built by the bees in parabolic shape, are suspended longitudinally for maximum ventilation and cooling. The honeycomb is extracted through the rear of the hive which is sealed with mud and thus easily opened, causing minimum disturbance to the brood (larvae and developing bees) inside.

Apiaries are in banks of 10-100 hives, stacked 3—4 rows high on a metal stand, covered by grass or similar cooling material, which in turn is covered over with a blue plastic sheet. One is struck by the extreme proximity of the hives to one another, and by the amazing ability of bees to know which is home.

The favourite forage of the yemenitica bee is from the flowering al-sidr tree or ziziphus spina-christi, the kasas, a Euphorbia, and from acacia trees, all of which are found throughout the country. But the bees are not particularly choosy and will glean pollen and nectar from a surprising range of plants even in arid regions. However, their forage may not be plentiful at all seasons, andYemeni bee-keepers supplement their diet with sugar. Water also has to be available at all times, for this is essential for the bees’ health and the honey-making process.

To gauge the pace of bee-keeping development, I asked a hive maker in Bait al-Faqih what his production and sales rates were. He said that he was selling 700-800 box-hives per month at a price of YR 600 (£3) each; by contrast, log hives cost YR 2000 each. His market covered just one part of the Tihama. If the rates which he quoted are extrapolated over the rest of the country, one can see the likely scale of the growing industry.

A timely local press article provided some statistics on Yemeni honey production, stating that Hadhrami honey led the field (as expected) with 35 tons per year, a large proportion of which is exported to other Arab countries (where it commands huge prices). Next comes Shabwa Governorate with 29 tons annually, followed by Mahwit with 15 tons, Tihama with 13 tons, Hajjah with 8 tons, Osaimat, Ibb and Taiz with 4-5 tons each, and around 35 tons from other areas, making a total production of some 150 tons a year. The article adds that a kilogram of good honey sells for $150 - hence the real attraction of bee-keeping inYemen: no amateurs there!

	Pottery tube hives, Seiyun market. Photograph: Julian Lush

The Value and Types of Yemeni Honey

Honey is a tasty pleasant-smelling sticky syrup with many advantages. It has a tonic quality to the human body and cures diseases. The religion of Islam has given special interest in honey and its advantages for curing many kinds of diseases. Prophet Mohammed said: "Seek cure from honey and Qur'an". So, honey was made next to the Qur'an in curing diseases. There is even one Chapter in the Qur'an named "Al-Nahl" meaning bees. Moreover, in another Hadith, Prophet Mohammed said: "He who has a spoonful of (honey) in the morning, three times a month, shall catch have no serious disease". Eating honey three times a month could safeguard you against so many diseases and strengthen your immunity system. It is said that the Pophet was used to have honey diluted with water the first thing in the morning.

Types of Honey
There are two major types of honey:
a) Flowers' honey: which is dependent on flower nectar sucked by bees , and this is divided into two main categories:
1- Mono-flower honey: produced the nectar of one type of flowers
2- Multi-flower honey: produced from the nectar of more than one type of flowers.
b) Stone honey: This honey is produced by undomesticated bees that live among stones. It has a great taste and a pleasant smell.
Some people believe that light-colored honey is the best whereas many others believe that the dark-colored honey is of better quality because it contains more mineral salts like iron, magnesium and copper. As in regard to its odor, some types of honey bear good smell while other types, which are extracted from certain trees, have unpleasant odor.

Component elements of Honey
Honey is composed of sugar, water, vitamins, mineral salts along with some proteins, enzymes, yeasts and other substances- 18% water, 40% fructose, 34% glucose, 4% sucrose and maltose and many other types of sugar. Sugar is thus the main ingredient of honey, constituting about 75% to 80% of it. Therefore honey tastes sweeter than sugar and nevertheless it is good for treating diabetes and good for liver. In addition, honey is used to cure peptic and intestines ulcer, digestion problems, eyes diseases, sinusitis, flu and the inflammation of the urinary canal.

Yemen possesses many of the best kinds of honey. The most famous ones are: "Al-Dawa'ani" that is found in Dawa'an, Hadramout, "Al-Jardani" in Shabwa, "Al-Jawahi" in Awash, Dhamar and there are also some good kinds of honey found in Al-Kibbayta, Al-Dimna, and Maweyah in Taiz.
"Al-Dawa'ani" is the most expensive kind of honey in Yemen and the best in quality. Honey has become one of the most precious gifts that are presented to Sheiks, ministers or well known social personalities. Therefore, many people prefer buying Yemeni honey to low-quality foreign honey which is usually mixed with water.

The Yemen Times has interviewed Mr. Abdullah Hassan Ahmed Al-Shara'abi, Technical Manager of the Apiculture Development Project, who has told us about the types of Yemeni honey, their properties, where are they found and which are the best one's: "Apiculture is one of the very ancient jobs in the history of Yemen. The history of honey goes back to the 10th century B.C. Then, Yemen was known as the nation of perfume and honey and honey trade was ranked 4th in importance to the country's economy.

Al-Elb "Al-Sededi" honey is the best quality honey because of its preferable qualities to consumers. Therefore, apiarists compete to satisfy consumers inside and outside the country by producing better quality honey. As for the different kinds of Yemeni honey, our country has many different kinds that vary as the available farms in each district vary. Some of the finest kinds of honey is Al-Elb "Al-Sededi" (Ziziphus spina chisti), Al- Silm (A cacia ehrenbergiana), Al-Asak (A cacia asak), Al-Sal (Eiaphorbia), Al-Dobbah (A cacia menthfera), Al-Sommor (A cacia mellifera), Al-Mara'aee and Al-Tonb (cordia abbess).
Al-Elb, the finest type of Yemeni honey, has many local names according the district for example Dawa'ani, Bogiah, Osabi, Dimna and many others. Other types are found in different area of the country: Dimna (Taiz, Hadramout, Shabwa, Tihama, Osab, Ibb and Abyan), Al-Silm (Al-Zaydiah, Tihama and Shabwa), Al-Asak (Taiz, Ibb, Hajja, Al-Mahweet, Sana'a and Lahj), Al-Sommor (Hadramout, Shabwa, Tihama and Abyan), Al-Dobbah (Taiz, Tihama, Al-Mahweet, Hajja and Lahj) and Al-Mara'aee which is found in summer in all the districts.
The Yemeni honey has special properties in comparison with other Arab and foreign kinds. It has different taste, odor, color and density. For example, Al-Elb honey has a golden coloured, with an aroma and flavour like that of the Elb flower and a thickness property unique to this kind of honey.
Each kind of honey has its different season. For instance, Al-Elb is available in (August, September, October and November), Al-Silm in (January and February), Al-Dobbah (January and February), Al-Asak (May and July), Al-Sal (January and February), Al-Sommor (January, February and March) and Al-Mara'aee (July, August and September).
The Yemeni environment is fit for these kinds of honey to be stored and kept for long periods of time, sometimes reaches 2 years if the honey was appropriately separated and stored.