Beekeeping in Indonesia

In November 1990 I was invited by the Minister of the Departemen of Koperasi (Department of Cooperatives) General Bustanil Arifin to go to Java, Indonesia, to find a suitable location and set up a Bee Breeding Farm. Also we had to look at putting in place an education program to teach beekeeping.

We first flew to Jakarta, were pickup at Jakarta airport and driven to Bandung. At Bandung we had talks with a person interested in packing bee products. We then flew to Semarang to have talks with two Government consultants.

After spending a week driving around east Java a decision was made to set up a bee breeding farm at Batu. Batu was selected for a number of reasons. It was 900 metres above sea level with a very pleasant climate, maximum day temperature of 26 degrees, humidity of around 50 percent and an overnight minimum of 19 degrees.

Milk factory owned by Koperasi Unit Desa (Village Cooperative). This is where we set up the office, extracting, and workshop for the bee breeding farm.	A "Kijang" ultility made by Toyota in Indonesia.
Believe it or not, cutting the grass Indonesian style, using your fingers.	Our House at Batu
Metal stands - because of toads it was necessary to place nucs and hives on stands.	Another unusual sight. By removing the leaves from apple trees after picking the apples you could get two crops a year.
Village house with cerana colony under the roof.	Working bees - note smoker, a piece of burning hessian bag. The bees were very quite.

More will be added soon.