News

KENYA

Training for beginners

Evergreen Plains Farm is an oasis of lemongrass, papaya and Moringa trees thriving on the otherwise dry black cotton Kano plains, a 45-minute drive from Kisumu City.

The three-day course was held in December with seven participants from neighbouring communities Nakuru and Nairobi. The first day began with an introduction to the global history of bees and beekeeping followed by Kenya’s beekeeping history.

A much-appreciated tasting of stingless bee honey, a bee venom and honey mix and a honey/propolis mix preceded the afternoon practical session making a selection of value added products including a coconut and beeswax body butter, lip balm, beeswax candles and a fantastic honey cerate (balm) following guidance from Dr Sara Robb’s articles in BfD Journals.

Day 2 covered honey and beeswax processing, apiary and colony management and honey bee pests and diseases. The practical session was preparing and baiting four new hives, putting together the new extractor machine and cleaning a recently absconded hive infested with wax moth. That evening saw a further practical session in the farm apiary where the group put on four honey supers and cleaned out another hive that had a small infestation of wax moth - unfortunately due to the timing of the main flowering season there was not a drop of honeycomb in sight.

On Day 3 the group made a beeswax based perfume using flower essence before the course closed with a question and answer session and several short BBC documentaries.

Jess de Boer, EverGreen Plains Farm

KENYA

Thank you for sending me the BfD Beekeeping and Development Guides 1-4*. While visiting a friend, 400 km from my locality, I interacted with a group of beekeepers at a rural village in Uasingishu County, Eldoret. Though I am not yet an expert in beekeeping, I realised they were not using the right methods. I shared the knowledge I have acquired from BfD Journal and I was elated when the group became enthusiastic and would have liked me to stay longer to tell them more. I promised them I would look at facilitating some beekeeping resources and Bees for Development has agreed to provide a sponsored Resource Box which will be of great help to them. Thank you.

Kariuki Waweru, Ntashart Eco Green

*See page 20 or our website for how to apply for Resource Boxes and the Beekeeping Enterprise Guides

NIGERIA

The Beekeeping Extension Society in Kaduna State, Nigeria has received a grant of N2,068,900 (US$4,000; €3,500) from the 1% for Development Fund, Geneva (Switzerland) for construction of a Beekeeping Resource Centre.

The Centre will be based in Zamfarawa at Hayin Gada Village, Shika. The establishment of the Centre will enable 4,000 people to benefit from free access to beekeeping equipment, information and training and a honey production demonstration farm. Beneficiaries will include children, women and young people from local community projects: students of the Faculty of Agriculture and College of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, the Institute of Agricultural Research, Kaduna State Agricultural Development Project, and a host of others.

We are seeking your support to provide resources and literature to be kept at the Centre.

Idris Muhammad Barau, Project Director

A Bees for Development Resource Box is on its way to the Centre

NIGERIA

Participants of a recent Jorafarm seminar

Photos © Jorafarm

One of our regular activities is organising free workshops for young people to learn practical beekeeping. We distribute resource materials donated by Bees for Development. During this year’s honey harvest we discovered that almost all the honey was already crystallised. We were surprised at this but upon completing a survey among other beekeepers in the area we heard that the situation was the same across the whole of the south-western Nigeria. A challenge we face is convincing our customers that our honey is pure and not adulterated. Many consumers in Nigeria are not aware that honey granulates. Therefore we are working on an awareness campaign to educate consumers about this important fact to gain their confidence and ensure regular sales. We noticed also that a heatwave across the country had led to the stream that runs close to our apiary being totally dried up. Are these events because of climate change? We are planning to set up a Beekeeping Centre in Akiriboto village in Gbongan with the aim of training young people and women in beekeeping. We chose this venue to get closer to our target audience in rural areas and we are seeking support for the Centre. We really appreciate the support of Bees for Development.

Ayoade A Akande, Jorafarm and Associates

ZIMBABWE

I caught four swarms on my property in August and September and struggled to build hives fast enough to accommodate them when they were ready to be moved out of the catch hives. I now have five colonies: three in hives on my property and two elsewhere. I have learned much and we have already had a modest harvest of honey from my first hive that was occupied in April 2016 and is doing very well. After trying the Warré People’s hive I have decided to standardise on top-bar hives. The Warré hive is not unsuccessful but the bees build up very fast. As you can see from the image the hive is already four boxes high. I built frames to fit in to my hive which is built to the standard dimensions. The bees here like to apply propolis so this is another factor to consider as it can make the removal of top-bars and frames difficult.

Photos © Jonathan Vincent

I have built the hives with a ventilated roof as temperatures often exceed 34°C. The bees approve and are doing well: the roof overhang and sloped entrances are essential to keep the torrential rain we receive here from getting into the hives. Our bees are Apis mellifera scutellata and are defensive – I can only work on my hives after dark but I am improving in speed and techniques. One of the most fundamental things I have learned with our bees is that that it is all about the scent. They are very sensitive to the odours of any living thing around the hives. If you do not smell nice you will be vanquished immediately. This has been a great source of amusement to my employees who have great fun at finding out who passes muster with the bees – I run a construction company and we all start out from my house every morning.

I am still learning and have recently assembled a Flow hive (see BfD Journal 122) for a friend: we will be evaluating its performance with our bees soon – this will be very interesting. Bee hives in southern Africa are often invaded by tiny black ants, and by what we call ‘run around’ red ants (for obvious reasons). That is why our bees love co-habiting with termites in hollow trees as the termites do not bother the bees living higher up and provide protection from the ground based ants. As you can see from the pictures of my hives we must provide our hives with good protection from both ants and Agama (African Rock Lizards).

We planted some sunflowers in spring from bird seed obtained from the local pet shop: these have been a big hit with both honey bees and stingless bees.

The huge Queen of the Night cactus can be heard buzzing with thousands of bees at sunrise and sunset from our door step. I like to tell people it is the largest in the area! The bees have access only in early morning and late afternoon as the flowers close during the heat of the day. The flowers of the cactus do not have a strong scent but they are very rich in nectar. They are also visited by bats during the night.

Jonathan Vincent, Bulawayo

The bees must go deep into the tubular stem of the flower to retrieve the nectar. This type of cactus flowers intermittently over the late winter and early spring (August–October) so provided conditions are good it offers a continuous supply of nectar.

A top-bar bait hive, known here as a catch hive, with the bees moving in. The catch hive made from gypsum board off-cuts, fibre glass cloth and resin (outside only) – bees love plaster board!

Hives require good protection from ants and Agama (African Rock Lizards)

ZIMBABWE

Appeal

I am contacting you on behalf of the beekeepers of Kutsungirira Beekeeping Society (KBS) in Mwenezi District, Masvingo Province. KBS has a long-standing relationship with Bees for Development including sponsored subscriptions to BfD Journal and several Resource Boxes. Since 2001 KBS has trained over 600 women, men and children in Mwenezi and neighbouring districts. The area was severely affected by continuous heavy rain and floods in addition to Cyclone Dineo in January to March: these were disastrous for the infrastructure and livestock, including apiaries.

Ellen Michaelis, Bee Support, Netherlands

Hives, bee houses, forage and shade for bees were all destroyed by the floods

Photos © KBS

Hives, bee houses, forage and shade for bees were all destroyed by the floods

Photos © KBS

‘Kutsungirira’ means ‘to persevere in difficult times’, something we have had to do for many years. During our tour of Chikandiwa and Chinyani areas we met 11 beekeepers who lost 60 top-bar hives, 30 log hives, 15 trap boxes 2 bee houses and much bee shade. We have been unable to visit all the affected beekeepers because of limited financial resources

The beekeeping clubs had apiaries alongside the Runde river which burst its banks and destroyed all the trees that had grown there for years. Kafinos Chikandiwa, one of the lead farmers, expressed concern over the losses. During our discussions, he pointed out that beekeeping is a livelihood for many people who sited apiaries by the river as it provided water and natural vegetation for bees. For example, between April and June 2016, the area harvested 850 kg of honey which was sold through KBS.

During the bad weather, our beekeeping courses were postponed and rescheduled for April. The two communities lost four gardens which provided vegetables and tomatoes for consumption and sale.

Chingami, Chagweva and Chiduvura bridges were swept away and the links for the beekeepers to the Honey Shop destroyed. Currently beekeepers must travel much longer routes to sell bee products and vegetables. We are thinking of ways to help the beekeepers affected to reconstruct their lost apiaries, and infrastructure to recover their livelihoods. The District Development Fund states that US$14 (€12) million is required for the rehabilitation of the damaged infrastructure in Masvingo Province (ZBC News Online, 22 February 2017)

Michael Hlungwani, KBS

If anyone would like to assist, financially and/or actively, please get in contact with KBS via BfD