Free Access
Issue
Apidologie
Volume 27, Number 6, 1996
Page(s) 473 - 478
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:19960606
Apidologie 27 (1996) 473-478
DOI: 10.1051/apido:19960606

Beeswax exports and rainfall in the savanna woodlands of east central Africa

H.R. Hepburn and S.E. Radloff

Departments of Zoology and Entomology and Statistics, Rhodes University, PO Box 94, 6140 Grahamstown, South Africa

Abstract - Time series and regression analyses of rainfall and beeswax exports from the woodland savanna of east central Africa establish that these two variables are most significantly and highly correlated when phase-lagged by one bee year, running from July to June of the following year. Rainfall and honey production are also highly significantly correlated when lagged by one bee year. However, honey and wax production are highly correlated on a same bee year basis. Thus beeswax harvest of any one year depends on the rainfall of the previous bee year. This is consistent with general effects of climate on vegetation and, specifically with the fact that the bee-trees of the miombo flower in the dry season.


Key words: Apis mellifera / beeswax exports / rainfall / savanna woodland