Review of Bee Health

Beekeeping in Africa is very different than beekeeping in the United States, for example. Because of shipping honeybees from around the world to the U.S. for agriculture, U.S. honeybee populations are riddled with pests and diseases. These pests and diseases are shared among honeybee colonies without enough time for resistance to evolve, and populations are plummeting. A small mite called Varroa destructor, which carries 18 different pathogens in its mouth, is among the worst of the bees’ problems and is guaranteed to be found in every colony in the entire United States. The good news about beekeeping in Southern Africa is that many of these pests and diseases, including the Varroa mite, don’t exist.