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MALAWI
My company (WakiBees) builds the hives that I keep in my forest. I give some to the community of Mzimba District and train them in how to manage and harvest. In the picture, some community members are setting up bait hives during the middle of the swarming season.
Photo © Wakisa Davis Ngosi
When I am training I translate the material I received in the Bees for Development Resource Box. I am still reading issues of BfDJ Journal and have learnt from other beekeepers’ stories. For example, I am preparing labels for my brand and have learnt about good labelling practices. Also, I had an infestation of small hive beetle (SHB) and was glad to read about its life cycle and tips on how to deal with SHB, and now it is no longer a problem for me.
Can anyone help through Bees for Development? Is there any competition for us to win and get some funding? We have a large forest that is at a risk of deforestation and if I had enough resources I would make plenty of hives to give to these communities as an alternative to charcoal making which threatens the existence of the only remaining natural forest here in the northern part of Malawi.
Wakisa Davis Ngosi, Lilongwe
NIGERIA
Kano State is in northern Nigeria where agriculture is the main occupation with cereals and groundnuts grown as food and cash crops. Audu Bako College of Agriculture was established in 1978 and since that date has provided training for local beekeepers.
In 2016, I constructed a two-storey straw hive with a queen excluder between the two levels which enables our beekeepers to harvest more honey while preventing them from destroying brood and empty combs
Photo © Dauda Sani Abbas
Beekeeping began at the College in 2005 with five colonies. By 2006, 40 top-bar hives had been installed in the college apiary and all were colonised within three weeks. Today we have 200 colonies of Apis mellifera adansonii with average returns of 1,500 litres of honey each year.
A one-year beekeeping certificate course began in 2010 and in 2015, and beekeeping courses were included in the National Diploma and Higher National Diploma of the Forestry Department - after much effort by me to convince the College authorities it should be included.
I modified the Ugandan box hive to include a sloping wall (taken from the top-bar hive structure) to prevent bees from attaching their combs to the walls of the hive, to allow easy removal and selection of combs during harvest.
I developed an observation top-bar hive with glass front and back observation, with wire mesh on the two v shaped ends for ventilation (both glass and mesh are covered to provide the usual darkness of a hive).
Dauda Sani Abbas, Audu Bako College of Agriculture, Dambattu
NIGERIA
Community Development Scheme
As part of our community development service, six aspiring beekeepers recently completed their first training course. Subjects included hive construction, location and baiting, management strategies and producing a body cream using beeswax, honey and olive oil
Special thanks to Bees for Development Trust for supporting us with materials and BfD Journal.
Akinrotimi Odedele, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Umuahia
As part of our community development service, six aspiring beekeepers recently completed their first training course.
Photos © Akinrotimi Odedele
Subjects included hive construction, location and baiting, management strategies and producing a body cream using beeswax, honey and olive oil
TANZANIA
This is to say how much I appreciated receiving Bees for Development Journal 123. In addition, I would like to thank you for enclosing the Swahili editions of the two posters 10 Good Reasons and Beekeepers Make Money.
These will be of great use to the rural people in Tanzania who cannot comprehend English. We need more of them for community based training.
Jumanne Magiri, Mara, Tanzania
