Honey in Sancti Spíritus is on a better path in 2024 and Beekeeping enters the difficult process of moving hives to the coasts to take advantage of the blooms in the area, where almost 40 percent of the annual collection is concentrated.
As part of the transhumance, hives will move to both coasts.
The honey collections in the first months of the year place Beekeeping in Sancti Spíritus on the best path to aspire to the productive increases expected in 2024 and so that the territory can correspond to the planned export levels, one of the urgent needs of the economy. Cuban.
At the moment, beekeepers are taking advantage of the good results that the first quarter brought, with almost 130 tons of honey – 13 more than planned – and they have ahead of them a stage of flowering on which a good part of the honey collection is concentrated in the year, but, at the same time, for the bees to do their part, the sector is forced to move more than 6,000 hives to both coasts.
The fact that it is a move, round trip, that is repeated every year, does not mean that transhumance is a matter of loading apiaries on means of transport and unloading them in another place. This cyclical transfer—always at night following safety protocols for the bees—becomes more complex due to the logistics it involves and the technological operations it requires.
Amaury Santander Hernández, director of the Sancti Spíritus Beekeeping Base Business Unit, told Escambray that in the floral calendars of the province, the mangrove calendar represents 37 percent of honey collections in the year; so that transhumance has a high impact on the production of the exportable item. On the other hand, in recent times this process has been affected by fuel limitations.
Bringing bees closer to the nectar of the mangrove is a practice designed in the scheme of the activity and also a mandatory management to take advantage of the productive potential of these blooms, since in the areas where the hives are traditionally located during this period there is no ecosystem that guarantee productions.
Santander Hernández indicated that the intention is to locate around 3,800 apiaries from Paso Banao to Casilda, in the south of the province, and the rest in the northern part of the territory. At the same time, he explained that to seek effectiveness with this process, beekeepers review the places where they will be located, since it is necessary to evaluate the risks in the face of the rainy season and devise protection measures against contingencies of this type, the source highlighted.
Last year, Sancti Spíritus reported a production of 590 tons of honey, while in this period it plans to collect 700 tons, a level that, if achieved, brings the territory closer to the best results in the contribution of the exportable item.
#Cuba
