Beekeeping in Kazakhstan
Beekeeping in Kazakhstan is well developed and is developing at a good pace. Kazakhstan may well enter the TOP - 10 world honey powers. What are the features of beekeeping in Kazakhstan?
Content
- Features of the climate for beekeeping in Kazakhstan
- Beekeeping in Northern Kazakhstan
- Beekeeping in Eastern Kazakhstan
- Beekeeping in Central Kazakhstan
- Beekeeping in Southern Kazakhstan
- Beekeeping in Western Kazakhstan
- Honey plants of Kazakhstan
- Bee breeds in Kazakhstan
- Diseases of bees in Kazakhstan
- Prospects for beekeeping in Kazakhstan
Features of the climate for beekeeping in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is a huge country, so it is impossible to generally describe the suitability of the Kazakhstan climate for beekeeping.
In general, we can say that the climate is sharply continental, therefore there is a large temperature range between summer and winter temperatures. Most of Kazakhstan has very little rainfall, so droughts are by no means uncommon in Kazakhstan. The bulk of precipitation falls in spring and early summer, and July and August are the driest months, when there may be no rain for more than 30 days. Such dry weather does not contribute to honey production.
Winter can also bring surprises, because during the thaw period it can often rain, which creates an icy crust. For the most part, winter in Kazakhstan is dry and cold; temperatures in winter can drop to minus 50 degrees; the weather is mostly clear and frosty, with strong and moderate winds.
Spring is extremely unstable; warm weather can give way to severe cold within 24 hours.
Autumn does not last long, practically autumn begins at the end of September and ends at the beginning of November; as a rule, the weather in autumn is more stable than in spring.
Such weather conditions are not very conducive to the widespread development of beekeeping. As a rule, beekeeping is best practiced in places where there are more or less good microclimate conditions and a honey base that can provide honey collection for bees.
In total, there are 12,000 beekeepers in Kazakhstan. The bulk of apiaries are small, which allows you to produce 1-3 tons of commercial honey per season.
When placing an apiary in a flat area in Kazakhstan, the beekeeper should pay great attention to creating a hedge around the apiary in order to protect his bees from the prevailing winds. Landscaping the apiary by planting trees and honey bushes is also of great importance in order to reduce the influence of summer temperatures on bees. An equally important task for beekeepers in Kazakhstan is organizing water supply for the apiary.
Beekeeping in Northern Kazakhstan
In the northern regions of Kazakhstan, winters are cold, when air temperatures can drop to 57 degrees Celsius and long, can last up to 6 months, and are also characterized by short but often very hot summers, when temperatures can rise to over 40 degrees Celsius.
Spring is characterized by a sharp change in temperature and lasts about a month; in summer, precipitation is rare, often in the form of downpours; however, there can be a cold summer with prolonged precipitation. There may be frosts in June and August; autumn is dry, where there may also be early frosts.
Among the weather features, it can also be noted that there is a fairly small number of cloudy days 60 days a year.
Northern Kazakhstan is recognized as a risky farming zone, due to the fact that there are severe frosts in late summer - early autumn.
There are about 1,500 beekeepers in the North Kazakhstan region. The beekeeping season lasts from May to September, during which time a bee colony can collect 50 kg of honey or more, but in the case of migrations, as a rule, stationary apiaries may be subject to the treatment of crops with pesticides.
There are about 1,000 beekeepers in the Kostanay region.
Beekeeping in Eastern Kazakhstan
The climate of the East Kazakhstan region is similar to the climate of Yakutia. Typically, summers in East Kazakhstan are moderately hot, but if there is no rain, temperatures can rise to 40 degrees Celsius, causing steppe fires. And in winter there are often snowstorms, frosts up to 40 C, and there is a large daily range of air temperatures. In the flat areas there is little precipitation, in the mountains there is more precipitation.
However, in the East Kazakhstan region, beekeeping has been actively developing in recent years, and currently there are more than 3,000 beekeepers in the region, 60% of all bee colonies in Kazakhstan, and about 80% of all Kazakhstan honey is collected.
Wintering of bees in Eastern Kazakhstan is organized in three ways, the first is wintering of bees in a winter hut, wintering of bees in a temporary hut, wintering of bees in the wild under the snow. All three wintering methods are fully justified in the conditions of Eastern Kazakhstan. Even a purebred carnica can successfully overwinter under the snow in the conditions of Eastern Kazakhstan, but in this case, it is necessary to periodically destroy the ice crust on the surface of the snow that forms after rains. With all wintering methods, special attention should be paid to the fight against mice, as well as providing the bees with sufficient winter food.
Beekeeping in Central Kazakhstan
Central Kazakhstan has a continental climate with hot, temperate summers and cold, snowy winters, snowstorms in winter and dust storms in summer, and little precipitation throughout the year. The territory of Central Kazakhstan is occupied by the low Ulutau Mountains and the Central Kazakhstan small hills. Beekeeping is represented by several apiaries, but can be significantly expanded.
Beekeeping in Southern Kazakhstan
Southern Kazakhstan has moderately warm winters, when there is a thaw, and in some years the temperature can drop to 40 C. The summer is hot, long, sometimes the temperature can reach 45 ° C, and in the south up to 49 degrees Celsius. Precipitation is low, 100-200 mm, but in the mountains the amount of precipitation is much greater and can reach 1600 mm. In the Balkhash region, the number of cloudy days is only 10 days a year.
Beekeeping first developed in the plains, and then in the mountains. The basis of apiaries are nomadic apiaries.
In the South Kazakhstan region, approximately 100 tons of honey are produced per year. It is quite possible to get 25-30 kg of honey per season from a bee colony.
Beekeeping in Western Kazakhstan
Western Kazakhstan has a sharply continental climate with large temperature changes both throughout the year and during the day. The amount of precipitation is from 100 to 300 mm, the winter is cool, and sometimes there is ice. In the West of Kazakhstan there are steppes, semi-deserts and deserts. Therefore, beekeeping is very poorly developed. In the Aktobe region there are approximately 40 apiaries from which approximately 6 tons of honey are obtained per year. Nevertheless, if the honey supply base is expanded, beekeeping in Western Kazakhstan will have great prospects. The apiaries in the western regions of Kazakhstan are nomadic, which allows the use of even small areas of various cultivated and wild honey plants.
Honey plants of Kazakhstan
There is a rather interesting situation with honey plants in Kazakhstan. Experts note that only 5% of the honey supply is used, while at the same time, practicing beekeepers note that the situation with honey plants is quite bad. This contradiction is explained by the following factors. Apiaries in Kazakhstan are usually nomadic. Therefore, we have to continuously move from place to place in search of good honey plants. Sowing honey plants do not meet the expectations of beekeepers, because farmers cultivate the fields mercilessly, and in addition, they focus on growing self-pollinating hybrids, for this reason, they are not very interested in beekeepers and if they appear, they demand payment for the right to plant on the field. As a rule, this is the equivalent of 1 kg of honey, and given that it is necessary to migrate and there can be even 10 migrations in a year, the amount accumulated in a year is not small.
In some areas there are forests, but in order to take an apiary into the forest, you need a forest license and, as beekeepers note, difficulties often arise with obtaining a forest license.
It should also be noted that approximately 2/3 of the territory of Kazakhstan is either a desert or semi-desert, where honey plants are very poor.
Honey base of Kazakhstan
Honey base of Eastern Kazakhstan
Bee breeds in Kazakhstan
Among the most common breeds of bees in Kazakhstan are the Carpathian, Karnika and Central Russian.
In the conditions of Kazakhstan, the carpathian moth has such negative qualities as a tendency to steal, weak polising of nests, and indifference to wax moths, which spoil honeycombs.
Karnika in the conditions of Kazakhstan is characterized by such factors as good use of weak honey yield, they winter well in small families, consuming a small amount of food.
Central Russian bees in the conditions of Kazakhstan are characterized by the fact that even with scanty honey collections, the queen continues to actively lay eggs; they are distinguished by good winter hardiness during long wintering, and are also quite resistant to a number of diseases.
On the territory of Kazakhstan there are a large number of different crosses, from yellow and gray Caucasian bees, Italians. Therefore, experienced beekeepers notice that in the southern regions of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, bees have quite strong swarming, which causes there are certain difficulties in maintaining them in order to constantly keep them in working order.
It is noted that every year a large number of bee packages from Uzbekistan are imported to Kazakhstan.
What kind of honey is in Kazakhstan?
In Kazakhstan, beekeepers receive various types of honey, including a lot of honey from various herbs - usually mountain and steppe forbs from the meadows of Kazakhstan, honey from camel thorn, as well as sunflower, Melilot honey, Coriander honey, Rapeseed honey, and Phacelia honey.
Diseases of bees in Kazakhstan
Among the bee diseases in Kazakhstan, apiaries are most threatened by the collapse of bee colonies, which is caused by several factors, including the most important varroa mite and the treatment of fields with pesticides.
Apiaries suffer from ascospherosis, foulbrood diseases - European and American foulbrood, nosematosis of both species - Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, and acarapidosis.
Prospects for beekeeping in Kazakhstan
Despite the difficult climatic conditions, beekeeping in Kazakhstan may have great prospects for development.
In Kazakhstan, there may be several ways in which beekeeping can actively develop. First of all, package beekeeping can be developed on the territory of Kazakhstan. Moreover, in some regions in the North and East of Kazakhstan, it is quite possible to create isolated flyweeds to preserve local Central Russian bees and for their subsequent replication, both for Kazakhstan and for Russia. Moreover, they can be easily supplied to Siberia and the Urals, where they will be in demand. Do not forget that Eastern Kazakhstan is practically the same Altai and you should not thoughtlessly destroy your valuable gene pool of bees. In other regions of Kazakhstan, it is quite possible to create package apiaries that would replicate other breeds of bees, for example, the Carpathian breed of bees. True, it should be noted that Uzbekistan has already quite firmly captured the palm in this matter and it is unlikely that it will be possible to move early packages of carpathians from the market.
The second direction of development of beekeeping in Kazakhstan is the production of honey. Currently, a little more than 2000 tons of honey are collected in Kazakhstan, while the honey potential is estimated at 60 - 90 thousand tons of honey, that is, the honey potential has not yet been fully exploited. Again, it should be noted in this regard that large reserves of melliferous vegetation are concentrated both in Northern Kazakhstan, where the main emphasis can be placed on sown melliferous plants, and in Eastern Kazakhstan, on the abundance of wild melliferous plants. Honey from Eastern Kazakhstan will not be inferior in quality to Altai. Considering the geographical location of Kazakhstan, at large production volumes, all this honey can be sold to China. But it is difficult to work with China; China sets too stringent requirements for the quality of honey.
The third direction of beekeeping activity in Kazakhstan is the pollination direction; this direction can also be in demand in many regions of Kazakhstan, both in the south for pollination of gardens, melons, vegetables, and in the north for pollination of industrial, cereal and other honey crops. Of course, at present there are problems that need to be solved - farmers will not soon get out of the habit of taking money or honey from beekeepers for the right to stand in their field, and it is also necessary to protect bees from poisoning.
It may also be interesting to attract small mobile apiaries to reconstruct pastures. Kazakhstan is mainly a territory where livestock farming is developed and relies on natural pastures. A huge number of pastures are degraded, unproductive, and subject to wind erosion. To develop livestock farming and solve environmental problems, measures for their reconstruction are necessary, and bees can be one of the components of the restoration of degraded pastures. This direction is currently not used in any way, but may be in demand if a decision is made to reconstruct pastures on a scientifically based basis and transform the landscape; this will also contribute to a significant increase in the honey reserves of Kazakhstan.
The next directions for the possible development of beekeeping in Kazakhstan may be the production and processing of beekeeping products, such as royal jelly, pollen, beebread, drone homogenate, for subsequent processing into cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food products and their sale. The domestic market is relatively small because it requires a significant segment of the wealthy population to buy these products on a regular basis. But the geographical location again allows large quantities of processed beekeeping products to be sold to China, as well as to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.
