Honeybees in Oman – Art & Celebrating 50 Years of Oman-UK Friendship on World Bee Day - 20th May 2025

By Dr Robert Whitcombe with illustrations by Jenny Ryrie

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1. WORLD BEE DAY AND OMAN

On 20th May 2025, Oman and the world celebrate World Bee Day. Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, are increasingly under threat from human activities.  Pollination is a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems. Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity World Bee Day | United Nations.

Bees and beekeeping have a special place in Oman and today, as in years gone by, a variety of delicious but expensive honeys are produced from the mountains and plains of northern Oman and Dhofar. In the early stages of Oman’s renaissance under HM Sultan Qaboos, scientists and beekeepers from the U.K. played a key role in the development of beekeeping in the Sultanate – building on the skills and interests that already existed within the rural population.

2. THE DISCOVERY

It was in 1975 that Dr Roderic Dutton, of Durham University, while conducting farm surveys at Al Ghubbi, near Ibri in the Adh Dhahirah region of northern Oman, stumbled across a man named Humaid Sulaiman Al Shimili keeping a small colony of bees in the corner of a ruined building. Since they were different from any bees he had seen in the U.K., he contacted honeybee scientists at the Rothamsted Experimental Station (now Rothamsted Research) and still a world-leading organization in agricultural science including honeybees). And so started the Oman Beekeeping Project, a collaborative initiative between the Durham University Al Khaburah Development Project (sponsored by Petroleum Development Oman) and the (then) Oman Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Petroleum and Minerals (MAFP&M), when HE Shaykh Said Ahmed Al Shanfari was Minister.

The bees were identified as Apis florea, the "Little Honeybee," not much larger than a housefly and more colourful than Apis mellifera (the western hive bee, a native of Europe, Africa and the Middle East and the world’s major honey producer).  Little honeybees have an orange-red abdomen tipped by distinctive black and white bands; this gives them one of their local names abu tuwaiq (father of the little collar). Found in tropical regions from south-east Asia through to India, Pakistan and Southern Iran, it was not thought to be a species that could be managed for honey production.

There are two species of honeybee in Oman Apis florea (Little Bee) & Apis mellifera (Western Hive Bee)

Yet here was the Little Bee being kept in remote Oman by a man whose main profession was well-digging. I was appointed as a Research Biologist, based at the Durham University project farm at Al Khaburah, from late 1977 to 1980, while Beekeeping Instructors Morgan Manley (in Rustaq) and Alan Berkeley (in Salalah) were recruited to work with the villagers and pastoralists of the Jabal al-Akhdar and Dhofar on keeping their Apis mellifera in modern Langstroth hives. My priorities were to find out more about the ways in which the Little Bees were being managed, to see if better methods could be devised and to study the ecology and behaviour of these bees.  With the help of Tony Miller of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, I also investigated the plants which provided both species of bee their source of forage to make such delicious honey in a mostly arid environment.

3. THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK

With Original Paintings for Sale – Proceeds to Charity (See the end of the blog for more details)

Before sharing brief reflections on the bee project and the friendship it has generated with some talented Omanis, then and now, this article highlights the publication “Honeybees in Oman”.

As one output of the bee project, it was decided that a simple, illustrated book should be produced that introduced key information on Oman’s honeybees to a wide audience, from school children to adult farmers. To explain that Oman has two types of honeybee, about their biology and management (traditional and modern), the threats to honeybees and the importance of honeybees in the pollination of crops; also of the wild flora (herbs, shrubs and trees) that are a source of honey. This book was published in 1982 by the Adviser for Conservation of the Environment in the Diwan of H.M. for Protocol.  

A photograph cannot easily capture, all in one frame, a close-up view of bees and hives and of people and the wider landscape. Therefore, instead of photographs, the book was illustrated with 40 watercolour paintings, using a style that combines pictorial detail and scientific information with Omani settings and a light touch of humour. The artist, Jenny Ryrie, used her favourite medium of watercolour on paper, which captures the bright light and colour of the Omani landscape and flora. World Bee Day also makes this connection between bees, art and people. On the UN’s FAO website a video can be found containing the words “pollinators fuel the feast, connecting art, culture and community”.

Little bees (Apis florea) and Big Bees (Western Hive Bees Apis mellifera) collect water from a falaj, to keep the colony cool; this can be critical to survival in a hot country like Oman

Full copies of the book can be downloaded in English and Arabic and images from the book are used to illustrate this article. However, to celebrate this 50th anniversary of the “discovery” of Apis florea in Oman and World Bee Day, some of the original illustrations are being offered for sale to British-Omani Society members, in order to raise money for the non-profit organisations Environment Society for Oman and Bees for Development. Go to the end of this news item for details of how to purchase one of these unique and attractive illustrations.

Beekeeping with the Little Bee Apis florea

4. MANAGING OMAN'S LITTLE BEES

So how did Omani beekeepers succeed in managing Apis florea?  To discover how widespread these Little Bees were, the extent to which they were kept and how it was done I travelled practically the length and breadth of northern Oman, and was treated to wonderful hospitality (coffee, dates and more) by welcoming Omani families, some of whom had never met a European before. I found colonies of Apis florea in villages of almost every region, in the sand and gravel plains and in remote mountain wadis, provided there were some flowers and a nearby source of water - a rocky pool or well. I gathered that many people lucky enough to find a wild colony would help themselves to the honey. A healthy colony might yield one kilo, worth as much as OMR 20 to 30 in those days because of its scarcity and the medicinal properties ascribed to Omani honey. But such robbing was usually to the detriment of the bees and made them abscond – the surviving bees would fly, with their queen, to another tree or small cave and make a new nest which would be difficult to find. This behaviour earned the Little Bees the reputation of being like the Bedu, never staying long anywhere, but moving from place to place.

A colony of Apis florea in a small cave in the Western Hajar Mountains; the grass placed underneath against ants is a sign of ownership

In most regions I came across a small number of specialists who treated the colonies much more gently and kept them in carefully selected sites. Humaid Sulaiman, mentioned before, sited his bees in shady spots in trees in his garden, in crannies in ruined buildings and even made artificial caves of rock - copying the sites used by wild colonies in the mountains where he would go searching for them. Some brave villagers kept colonies in their houses, usually just inside a window so that the bees had free access to the flowers in the world outside.

The master of the craft of handling the Omani honeybee, Apis florea, was Nasr Ahmad al-Ghaythi. I found him living in Al Zahib, then a small remote oasis in the Ash Sharqiyah (eastern) region of Oman, near to Al Mudhaybi. He was rightly proud of his skills in producing honey from these little insects, but unaware that he probably owned and managed more colonies of these bees than anyone else in the Sultanate - and possibly in the world. When I knew Nasr, I counted up to 30 colonies in his Date Garden, though I heard that later he kept many more. Most of the colonies were attached to sticks and resting in specially excavated recesses in the mud and stone wall that surrounded the garden. Often having more colonies than wall recesses, Nasr also put his bees in the citrus trees and young date palms growing in his garden.

A colony of Little Bees in the garden of Nasr Ahmad Al Ghaythi with access to water provided

Nasr showed me his technique for removing honey from a colony. The essential items of equipment were a length of strong date frond, stripped of its leaflets and split down the middle, a strip of old rag and a knife - simplicity itself compared to the paraphernalia (smokers, hive tools, protective veils, frames etc) of modern Apis mellifera beekeeping; he picked up a colony by one end of the stick to which its comb was attached and, using his bare hands, he brushed the bees gently away, so that they hung in a cluster below the honeycomb. He then cut the brood comb (with eggs and bee larvae) away from the honeycomb and wedged it in the new split date stick tying the ends together with the strip of rag.

A colony of Little Bees under the gentle management of Nasr Ahmed Al Ghaythi

This left a white waxen comb, free of bees and glistening with honey, encircling the original stick. Nasr usually strained the honey first into large soft-drink bottles (Vimto!) for his customers, who came for many miles to obtain this delicacy. He had even sold some in the United Arab Emirates where it fetched a particularly good price.

Nasr is no longer with us, but I am still in touch with his family. I visited them last year and, though his sons have followed careers in the Royal Guard and Royal Oman Police and not beekeeping, we all have fond memories of Nasr and his special talents.

For further information on the behaviour of Apis florea, adaptations to Oman’s climate and methods used by Nasr and other Omanis to produce honey from Little Bees, please see this article The Bedouin Bee.

This includes a description of how Nasr practised “migratory beekeeping”, moving his bees from the shade of his garden in the scorching summer, to thorny samur (Acacia tortilis) trees in a shallow wadi a few kilometres away, in winter. Here the bees are helped to maintain a stable colony temperature of 33°-34°C, by being exposed to warming sunshine.  For those few really interested in the detail of traditional management, please refer to Chapters  III and IV of my PhD Thesis which is available online.

I did experiment with various hives for Little Bees, but found they did not appreciate being kept in boxes and it was difficult to improve upon the techniques of Omani specialists like Humayd Al Shimili and Nasr Al Ghaythi.

Experimental hives, with mesh entrances, for Little Bees at Al Khaburah – but the bees preferred Omani management techniques to being restricted by boxes!

5. MANAGING OMAN’S BIG BEES IN NORTHERN OMAN AND DHOFAR

5.1 Northern Oman

In the 1970s, most Omanis had not seen the larger hive bee Apis mellifera and many had never heard of its existence. The villagers of the Hajar Mountains, and the oases in the nearby plains, claimed that Apis florea were the true Omani bees, and not those kept in hives in the towns (Ar Rustaq and Al Hamra) and the Wadis (Saḥtan and Bani ‘Awf) around the Jabal al-Akhdar.  These “big bees” were considered to be foreign and recently introduced to northern Oman - some 300 years ago by Imam Saif ibn Sultan, who ruled from 1688-1711!

Nevertheless, these “big bees” have been managed successfully in hollowed out date logs, locally known as tubl (the Arabic for drum), each hive typically able to yield more honey each season than an Apis florea colony. Especially important, big bees did not possess the habit of absconding after honey was removed from the hive. However, beekeeping with modern, box-shaped hives for Apis mellifera, that can be easily opened for inspection purposes and with frames to hold the brood combs (with eggs, larvae and pupae) and honey combs, has many advantages. Therefore, the main subject of the Oman Beekeeping Project for the “big bees” was the introduction of these modern hives.

An explanation of how the traditional “tubl” hives and the modern hives are used by beekeepers, and of the early work of the project with “big bees” can be found in the book Honeybees in Oman and an article written by Morgan Manley in the Natural Resources magazine of MAFP&M Manley 1978 Beekeeping in Northern Oman.

Most of the traditional hives and beekeepers were found on the north-east side of the Jabal Al Akhdar, in the Ar Rustaq area, but there was also a small number of beekeepers in Al Hamra and the nearby village of Misfat Al Abriyeen (Misfah) on the south-west side of the Hajar mountains.

 Traditional beekeeping in Misfah in 1980 by Saeed Ali Amr with Apis florea and “tubl”, the hollowed-out logs of Date Palms, for Apis mellifera – but most were empty

Misfah in July 1980

Misfah in July 1980

Misfah is now well known to visitors from all over the world, since most of the traditional houses have been converted into delightful, award-winning visitor accommodation.

Misfat Al Abriyeen - Best Tourism Villages

Misfat Al Abriyeen receives over 50,000 visitors in first half of 2024 - Oman Observer

Honey and beekeeping are amongst the attractions at Misfah, where Ahmed Mohammed Al Abri represents a beekeeping success story, 50 years on from the early seed of an idea that arose from Roderic Dutton’s first encounter with Little Bees near Ibri.  Ahmed manages many “modern” hives, not only in the vicinity of Misfah, but also takes them further away, for example to Ash Sharqiyah when trees such as the samur (Acacia tortilis) are flowering. He also runs a successful Honey Shop, selling honey from different wild flowers and regions of Oman.

Ahmed Mohammed Al Abri working with his bees and at his Honey Shop at Misfat Al Abryeen

For more scenes, please see Ahmed’s Instagram site: Misfah-Honey

Facebook posts also feature Ahmed and the launch of his Honey Shop and visits from tourists to Misfah and Al Hamra.

5.2 Dhofar

The Arabian race of the hive bee Apis mellifera has occurred wild in the hills of Dhofar for hundreds if not thousands of years. Until Oman’s renaissance and the Honeybee Project, the wild colonies in Dhofar were not "kept" but hunted by the Jibbalis who sometimes risked their lives trying to reach nests in steep cliff sides. Beeswax, along with hides, sheep skins, frankincense, myrrh and bitter aloes, was recorded as one of the hill products of "Dhofar District" in Lorimer's 1908 Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia.  Helped by the project, the introduction of modern hives and the flush of vegetation associated with the south-west monsoon or khareef, beekeeping and honey production have been flourishing in Dhofar. Honey, in small quantities, is even available from frankincense flowers.

In Dhofar, “Big Bees” Apis mellifera have been kept successfully in hives. Large colonies can be divided into two hives.

The author investigating bees and other insects on frankincense in Wadi Adownib in 1979.

The beehives and bees of Salim Suhail Tabook are featured here

A teacher and film-maker Muhammad Al Shanfari (Bo Hazem), with the help of Dr Hassan Talib Al Lawati, has created a film on the uses of bee products, especially bee venom, in Arabic and in English. N.B. The sharing of this link is not a recommendation on the medical uses of these bee products!

“HONEYBEES IN OMAN” - ORIGINAL PAINTINGS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FROM BOS MEMBER ROBERT WHITCOMBE

If you would like to purchase original paintings from Honeybees in Oman, please contact BOS Member rwhitcombe@aol.com and / or jenny_ryrie@hotmail.com.

All proceeds (less any costs for framing, postage and packing) will be split equally and donated to the two not-for-profit organisations Environment Society for Oman and Bees for Development.

Original watercolours on paper by Jenny Ryrie R.B.S.A. are available for sale, in conservation standard white mounts, for £150 plus postage and packing.

The originals are also available professionally framed and glazed with black frames and conservation standard white mounts. Framing, postage and packaging at cost.

The following page numbers are still available for sale: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 36, 37

N.B. The front and back covers and the following page numbers are no longer available: 2, 6, 7, 12, 19, 22, 31, 35, 38

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About the author and artist

Robert Whitcombe BSc, MSc, PhD, MCIEEM, CEnv started his career in Oman in 1977 as a biologist for Durham University and the Oman Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. After returning to the U.K. and completing his PhD, he worked as an Ecologist / Environmental Expert and Technical Co-ordinator for 7 years at the Planning Committee for Development and Environment in the Governorate of Dhofar. Since then, he has worked as an Environmental Planner in Europe, Africa, Latin America and most countries in the Middle East through the multi-disciplinary consultancy Atkins. From 2017 to 2020 he was the Environmental Lead on Oman’s National Spatial Strategy for the Supreme Council for Planning; this was endorsed by H.M. Sultan Haitham and is now being taken forward by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning.

Jenny Ryrie (Fine Art M.A. Edinburgh) is a professional artist who specialises in watercolour painting. She has exhibited her landscapes and abstract pictures nationally and internationally for many years. 

She started her career in art with time spent at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, making detailed botanical illustrations facilitated by access to electron microscopes. One of her first commissions was to illustrate “Honeybees in Oman” under the technical guidance of the author (Robert Whitcombe) from the many photographs he took while working in Oman – travel to Oman in those days was expensive and considered problematic for unaccompanied women!

Jenny has since created many fine art paintings inspired by nature, from the wilderness of the American South-West to the beautiful coastlines of Cornwall and the waterfalls and mountains of Wales. Her interpretation of these subjects has become increasingly abstract but always explores the forms and flowing energies of the natural world. (www.jennyryrieartist.com)

She is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and works from her studio near the historic city of Chester in the U.K.