On-farm participatory Evaluation of Splitting Queen Rearing Technique ( SQRT ) at Ginnir District , Bale Zone , South-eastern Ethiopia

Participatory evaluation of Queen Rearing using splitting technique (SQRT) at Ginnir District of Bale Zone, South-eastern Ethiopia was conducted from 2013 to 2014. Two Beekeepers Research Group (BRG) each having 10 beekeepers were established at two sites, Ebisa and Kebena. Beekeepers were purposively selected based on their willingness, having bee colonies, indigenous knowledge of handling honeybee and trained on colony selection, honeybee biology, management, and health, procedure of queen rearing in the first phase and on spot practical queen rearing in the second training phase. Two Development Agents and three livestock experts participated in training. Evaluation of queen rearing was carried out at back yard of seven volunteer beekeepers (four at Ebisa and three at Kebena sites). About 85.71% of the multiplied established their selves and performed well. Average honey yield of 14.29 kg and 16.99 kg was obtained from daughter (new) and maternal colonies respectively. The beekeepers expressed that the technology is simple to operate, assist to generate additional income. This indicates that the technology got acceptance by farmers. Thus scaling up of this technology is paramount important.


INTRODUCTION
Apiculture is one of the major income generating agricultural activities for the poorest and other beekeepers dwelling in areas where other livestock cannot exist and other income generating activity options are very limited.Ethiopia has a longstanding bee keeping practices and is also endowed with huge apicultural resources and it has been an integral part of other agricultural activities, where about one million households keep honeybees (NuruAdgaba, 2007).Today, honeybee colony population is in the state of continuous decline due to various reasons and it is also difficult to get new colony because of different factors among which population pressure, declining of forest, indiscriminate applications of agrochemicals, pests and predators, honeybee diseases are worth mentioning.Number of honeybee colonies in the country has been declining (CSA, 2012) and consequently the honey and beeswax production as well as export earnings fell down (Gezahegne, 2001).*Corresponding author.E-mail: tbekele2001@gmail.com.
Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Honeybee colonies have their own breeding strategies which are very dependent on the potential of the queen and the general activeness of the worker bees in a colony (Laidlaw H. and Eckert J., 1962;Dan, 2006).Man can also stimulate honeybee colonies to multiply themselves.Different queen rearing technologies that fit to local condition and honeybee races were developed By Holeta Bee Research Center.Of these technologies, Splitting technique is simple and can be easily practiced by farmers, and 5 to 10 queens can be reared from a colony.However, this technique was not introduced to Bale, where shortage of honeybee colony is a major problem either to increase stocks or to start beekeeping.Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the Splitting techniques under Bale condition.

Descriptions of study area
The study was conducted in Ginnir district, Bale Zone, Oromia Regional State South-eastern part of Ethiopia, from 2013 to 2014 G.C.For the study, two rural kebeles (Kebena and Ebisa) were selected purposively based on their accessibility and potential for beekeeping.From each kebele, 10 beekeepers were purposively selected based on their willingness, having bee colonies, indigenous knowledge of handling honeybee and organized in a group (Beekeeper Research Group (BRGs)).The area is characterized by bimodal rainfall with the mean annual rainfall ranging from 750 to 1000 mm.The two seasons are locally known as the first 'Ganna' or 'Belg' which extends from March to July while the second 'Bona' or 'Meher' season extends from July to December (SARC, 2001).The area has diversified flora, including natural trees, shrubs and agricultural crops like spices and pulse crops.

Sites beekeepers and honeybee colony selection
Based on agro-ecology, two representative sites (RK) were selected and ten beekeepers were selected from each site.Then farmer research group was established considering beekeepers that had honeybee colony in frame hives with better experience were purposively selected.The groups were briefed with the objectives and outcomes of colony splitting activities including all the activities expected from them and the research group.Based on beekeepers information and simple observations colonies in a frame hive were assigned to the experiment from each of the selected beekeepers.

Experimental Procedures
Two Beekeepers Research Group (BRG) each having ten members or beekeepers were established in selected kebeles and briefed on the objective of the study.All members, Two Development Agents and three Experts of the districts were trained on maternal colony selection, honeybee biology, and management, health in the first phase and on spot practical queen rearing in the second training phase.At each site strong colonies were selected and fed with sugar syrup.A day before the splitting inspection was conducted to verify, the presence of adequate eggs, brood, store and, drones which are very important for success of the works.The existing resources were equally shared for both boxes (base and super).A day after arrangement of the resources, the splitting of the colonies was conducted using recommended procedures (Spivak and Reuter, 1997) Queen less colonies kept in the original apiary site while maternal colonies were moved 500 m away from its place to minimize risk of re-uniting.On the 3 rd day after splitting, the queens less colonies were inspected to check queen cell construction.On the ninth day of splitting, less matured and deformed queen cells were culled while leaving good ones.On the 16 th day the colony checked for, the emerged queen and all necessary management carried out.Queen rearing and all colony management rendered during course of demonstration and evaluation were under taken with farmers and professionals of the district participation.

Data collection
Data on number of beekeepers participated, time/season of splitting, number of queens reared honeybee colony established at each site, honey yield harvested from daughter and maternal colonies and fed back of beekeepers (opinion) were recorded and analyzed using SPSS version 20 Software.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The study was conducted in the participatory approach with beekeepers at two sites (Kebena and Ebisa) in Ginnir district of Bale Zone from 2013 to 2014.Theoretical training was given at the beginning of the study for the BRG on honeybee's colony selection, honeybee biology, management, health, procedure of Queen Rearing techniques and cares to be given while conducting the study process.In addition, the beekeepers were advised to keep their apiary site clean and should be well managed.
Likewise, practical training was also given on spot site on Splitting Queen Rearing Technique for 2 experts, 2 Development agents and 20 beekeepers of BRG members established (Figure 1 and Table 1) during active season.The training was supported by a demonstration exercise of Splitting Queen rearing.After practical training, the groups followed the procedure of Splitting Queen rearing technique like checking on the third day the progress of constructing queen cell, on the ninth day observing less strong and deformed queen and aborted it by leaving the best queen cell as the last, on the 16 th day, they checked emergence of the queen and returned to the original apiary site.The participatory demonstration beekeepers development agents and experts, evaluated the practice of splitting mother colony, discussed and shared their views and opinions.At each time, every data views and opinions of beekeepers development agents and experts were taken and recorded by the researcher.The overall activity was done during active season of the study area from November to December (first active season) and June to July (second active season) in two consecutive years.
For the study, seven honeybee colonies were divided by the BRG at backyard in active season during flowering time.During honeybee colonies splitting time, the groups  recorded the time taken to finalize the process by following correct procedure, and the average time taken was 36 min.However, out of the total honeybee colonies splitted, about 85.71% of the colonies were successful and only 14.29% colonies (Table 2) were absconded, and this was due to pests attack as reported by the group (BRG).Moreover, the individual beekeeper also started to split their own honeybee colonies after they could get awareness and knowledge with the BRG to increase the number of colonies at their own backyard.
The beekeepers Research Groups (BRG) also evaluated honey yield obtained from the daughter (new) and mother (old) colonies and they were harvested on average 14.29 and 16.99 kg from daughter and mother colonies, respectively (Table 3).External factors like feeding during dearth periods and managing (cleaning apiary, keeping from pests and diseases) for the colonies were equally treated to avoid any confusion on colony strength which attributed to yield gained.However, the researcher assumed that the honey yields obtained from the daughter colonies was because it's younger than the mother in order to produce more eggs.During the study time, any abnormality of the colonies was checked.
According to the perception of the beekeepers, Splitting Queen Rearing technique is not comparable with baiting hive to catch swarm in order to increase the number of honeybee colonies.Beekeepers also obtained good awareness from the participatory practical approach of splitting queen rearing technique.Majority of beekeepers showed their interest in the technology (Splitting Queen Rearing technique) and were willing to carry it out at their backyard and popularize it to nearby beekeepers.Generally, the Splitting Queen Rearing technique was found to be cost-effective, feasible and a time saver and the beekeepers were satisfied with the results as long as the researchers were involved in the procedure of the study from the begging up to the final periods.In addition, the groups suggested that they were enabled to obtain additional colonies (Table 4).

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Today, honeybee colony population is in the state of continuous decline due to various reasons and also, it is difficult to get new colony easily.On the other hand, the price of honeybee products became an expense for small farmers holder.It is believed and proven that SQRT could increase the number of honeybees colony existing stock on the beekeepers hand.Out of the total honeybee colonies splitted by BRGs, about 85.71% of the colonies were successful and only 14.29% colonies were absconded because of pests attack.Honey yield harvested from the daughter (new) and mother (old) colonies were on average 14.29 and 16.99 kg from daughter and mother colonies, respectively.Accordingly, beekeepers that were involved in the demonstration noticed that SQRT will improve the number of honeybee's colony under local condition and beekeepers situation.At the end of demonstration, beekeepers have shown interest on SQRT and are willing to succeed at their home and to popularize the technology to nearby beekeepers.The SQRT is accepted as a beneficial practice by most beekeepers and it will be successful and adopted in such areas where there are favorable honeybee forage resources available.Therefore, based on this conclusion it is forwarded that to capacitate or build the knowledge, beekeepers on honeybee colony splitting techniques could be scaled up in potential beekeeping area where there are favorable honeybee forage resources available.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Participatory practical training on Honeybees colony splitting techniques.

Table 1 .
Number of Participant Beekeepers, Development Agents and Experts on participatory evaluation and demonstration of Queen Rearing Technique (Splitting).
*Experts participated were from Ginnir district Livestock development and marketing office.

Table 2 .
Number of honeybee colonies splitted Kebena and Ebisa sites.

Table 3 .
Average honey yields harvested from mother and Daughter colonies.At the end of study period, check lists were prepared to collect back feed and opinions of the beekeepers.

Table 4 .
Suggestions of beekeepers on SQRT evaluation and demonstrations.