2 minute read
News
CAMEROON
We held a training workshop for 25 members of the Moghamo Bee Farmers Cooperatives to become Community Based Trainers in sustainable beekeeping. Thanks for your interest in our work and we hope for a fruitful and cordial partnership.
Ataba Jude Fonsah, CISEDG, Bamenda
KENYA
Hello Bees for Development, thanks for the important technical notes and information you send through Bees for Development Journal.
I would like everyone to know that beekeeping training is available at Egerton University
Apiculture and Sericulture
Thirty lecture hours and 15 practical hours. The course is taught to third year students pursuing degree programmes in Animal Science; Dry Land Resources Management, and third year students pursuing a Diploma in Animal Science and Technology
We also offer training for beekeepers from neighbouring communities and tailor made
apicultural courses for groups on request.
Stephen Kagio, Lecturer in Apiculture and Sericulture, Egerton University, Njoro
UGANDA
I am very happy with Bees for Development Journal that you are sending to me. I appreciate the knowledge for me and my fellow bee farmers. In issue 124 I read Dr Bradbear’s message about traditional beekeeping. I say that it we should be called natural beekeepers because what a beekeeper uses at local level is all natural - like grass smokers and many others.
Asaph Ayatuhaire, West Honeys Uganda, Mbarara
MALAWI
With our Bees for Development Resource Box, Nasuluma Penta-Na group organised a series of beekeeping activities for both youth and the elderly in our community in Blantyre, to economically empower less privileged people. Participants showed great enthusiasm and at the end of the training were interested in having their own bee colonies, and so 64 hives were made and installed!
With permission an apiary was set up in the government protected forest reserve: Michiru Conservation Area. This area has excellent natural vegetation with many species of plants flowering at different times. More information on the plants is being obtained, and we plan to make this information available for sharing through BfD Journal.
The training focused on the role of bees in our lives, bee plants, hive making and materials, bee attractants, apiary siting and management, honey harvesting and marketing. Anybody or organisation wishing to work with us in these areas is most welcome, since our region is under-developed in beekeeping activities, and yet we have the largest portion of idle land in our country. We want to sensitize the public about beekeeping. We expect that most of the people we are working with, who seem to have no direction for gaining some income, will have something to depend upon.
The group wishes to commend Bees for Development for the continued support you provide for our beekeeping activities.
Patrick Chinkhota, Nasuluma Penta-Na Group
Hives made from tyres, developed by the group
Photos © Patrick Chinkhota
Sharing knowledge is very important
See page 16 for how to apply for a Resource Box
