April 17, 2014 Allan Defensor a friend of ours were scheduled to extract his honey at his home at Basak, San Nicolas. While we were extracting honey a group of Bees flew to his home due to the smell of the honey, it was a local bee, locally known as "Liguan" a sub-species of honeybee which is called "Apis Cerana" which is one of the important pollinating agents for coconut palms. A. cerana differs from A. mellifera in that A. cerana is generally slightly smaller, lives in smaller colonies and nests in smaller cavities. A. cerana is often found nesting in human-made structures where available (possibly due to their smaller colony size and cavity requirements), whereas wild A. mellifera tend to nest in tree cavities. A. cerana also has a smaller foraging range, possibly due to its smaller size. European A. mellifera tends to hoard large amounts of honey and is less prone to absconding. A. cerana shows greater hygienic behaviour, making it more disease resistant and enabling it to coexist with Varroa mites. Diseases and parasites have been exchanged in both directions between A. mellifera and A. cerana where they have come into contact. A. cerana have more prominent and consistent striping on their abdomen with even black bands across the entire abdomen, whereas A. mellifera tend to have uneven black stripes with thinner stripes at the front of the abdomen and thicker black stripes towards the back of the abdomen (making it appear more yellow at the front and darker at the back). However, colouration is notoriously variable in nature, and the most reliable morphological characteristic that distinguishes A. cerana from A. mellifera, used for taxonomic species identification, is the extension of the radial vein on the hind wing, which is absent in A. mellifera . A. Cerana are less aggressive than any wild bees and also less swarming behavior and can be easily used for beekeeping. A. cerana, termed the ‘Asian honey bee’.
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It's summer and flowers are blooming one thing in the mind of a beekeeper it is honey flow season. It was April 15, 2014, Tuesday, the day we set to harvest at least 16 frames in the hive full of honey it was morning when we get the frames from the hive, I was accompanied by my dad and my high school buddy who was a partner of mine in beekeeping to get the frames, I was stung 6 times during that day but all the pain I felt due to the sting were relieved, thanking God for the bees, and the bees who gave us honey. Allan Defensor which we owe alot for sharing his knowledge about beekeeping helped us in unsealing the capped honeycomb, Paul who was a chef at Tinderbox were also there to witness how to extract honey as well as a friend of my mother along with his daughter, who was the first to buy a liter of honey. After we extracted the honey we put all the honey to a container and transferred it to the bottles and sealed it, my sister Nina helped me in filling the bottles and sealing it and I put a label on the bottle and there goes my product, after all the work was done comes our dinner we spent the night eating an imported Norwegian pink salmon brought by Paul and cooked a local dish called "LARANG". A big thanks to Vergara family for letting us borrow the Honey Extractor. "Beekeeping is LOVE". I've been to Ayala Activity Center, Cebu yesterday to attend a free seminar about modular aquaponics and beekeeping, I've met some personalities who is into organic agriculture and who were bee keepers too, Rico Omoyon was the speaker about bee keeping, he is into organic cosmetics and some products that involve the product of bee keeping, he is a businessman and a beekeper most of the bees he keep were the local bees, particularly apis cerana and the stingless bees (Trigona Spp.). There were products that were displayed during the seminar, Culinary Herb Plants in which I've bought some herbs particularly mint and rosemary, there were honey and honey wines of Mr. Eddie Bohol, products from Milea mostly cosmetics, soaps and organic beauty products, bee propolis, bee pollen, and some organic juices. It was a fine day to spend with my dad and my sister as we attended the seminar, and also a learning experience and the people we have met were amazing. SOAP is an advocacy group that promotes organic agriculture. The free seminar was a collaboration of SOAP with ATI, BAR, AMAS & BAFPS, in which it tackles the topic in Modular Aquaponics and Beekeeping in learning to grow your own food in an urban setting, with limited time and space and understanding the importance of our natural pollinators, the Bees the speakers during the seminar were Martin de Leon who discussed about the Aquaponics and Rico Pietro Omoyon who discussed about the beekeeping. Honey flow season is here and I'm getting ready for the honey bottles and containers and of course the label. So here's the design of the label of the honey bottle I'm planning to put in the bottle.
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Dilan's Apiary
Address: Kagudoy Road, Basak, Lapu-Lapu City Archives
June 2022
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