Honeybee Production and Marketing Systems, Constraints - IPMS ...

4.2.10 Incidence of absconding and migrationHoneybee colonies abandoned their hives at any season of the year for different reasons.According to the response of the respondents, 75.0 % of absconding incidence of honeybeecolonies was recorded in traditional hives. The incidence from top bar and frame hives were 5%and 20% respectively. Regarding the types of honeybee colony Wanzie, (52.5%) abscondsfrequently followed by Shanko (47.5%).The reported reasons for absconding of bee colonies as indicated by respondents were lack ofbee forage (25.3%), incidence of pests and predators (18.4%), bee poisoning (14.9%), badweather condition (13.8%), bee diseases (11.5%), poor management (9.2%) and swarming(6.9%). The mean number of bee colony absconded in the sample respondents was 2.60 perhousehold with a minimum of 1 colony and maximum of 8 bee colonies.According to the respondents, migration of bee colonies occurred from March to May ranks first(63.3%) followed by June to August (26.7%), September to November (5.6%) and December toFebruary (4.4%). From the results of this survey, one can associate the cause of migration fromMarch to May (63.3%) with lack or scarcity of bee forage, which has contributed about 25.3% ofthe share from the reasons of migration.On average due to absconding a beekeeper looses 2.60 colonies per household multiplied by117.50 birr (mean price of a colony during the study year, 2008/9 gives 305.50 ETB perproduction year per household and mean yield from three hives is 11.7kg multiplied by meanprice of honey 19.16 birr gives 582.84 birr losses from 2.6 colonies per year per household.Therefore, every beekeeper should get basic training on colony management factors to the extentof reducing absconding and migration rate. To reduce and control migration, respondentbeekeepers exercises different traditional and improved ways of migration control likesupplementary feeding (26.7%), smoking hive with local attractant material like Zekakebe,Keberch, Woyra, Bedesa, Lole, Yemesrch, Tegsar, and Dengay saber (22.2%), frequentinspection (15.6%), transferring of colonies to other hives (14.4%), cleaning apiary (14.4%),55