Studies Of The Distribution And Some Behaviour Aspects Of African Honeybees In Kenya
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Date
1981-08Author
Mbaya, John S K
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Beekeeping in Kenya is an old enterprise
practised by several tribes. Traditional
beekeepers kept honeybees in log hives or
hunted for honey from hollows in rocks and
tree trunks hence producing low quality
honey which could not earn the beekeeper an
attractive income. The Kenya government
realising the importance of the industry set
up a beekeeping section to improve its economic
importance by studying the honeybee biology
and management techniques.
The present work was designed to study
the types or races of honeybees prevailing in
Kenya and their defensive and foraging
activities so as to form a basis for future
breeding work. Samples were collected from
allover the country. Ten bees were randomly
picked from each sample and ten morphological
characteristics, the lengths of the proboscis
and femur, colour, width and distance of
wax mirrors of the third abdominal tergite;
width and wing venation angles of the forewing
and the cubital and tomentum indeces, were
measured. The results revealed that some the above characteristics showed significant
differences from one region to the next and
varied with altitude, temperature and
vegetation. The proboscis length, the colour,
tomentum index and wing width showed the
largest variations and were thought most adaptive
and from their values, four geographical varieties
of honeybees could be separated.
Citation
John Stephen King'ang'i Mbaya (1981). Studies Of The Distribution And Some Behaviour Aspects Of African Honeybees In Kenya. A thesis submitted in part fulfillment for the degree of Master of Science in the University of Nairobi.Publisher
University of Nairobi School of Biological Sciences,