22 : Beekeeping in Tanzania and Kenya VISITING THE BEES ABROAD PROJECT Tanzania and Kenya Beekeeping in Julian Willford B
ees Abroad (BA) is a small UK-registered charity seeking to reduce poverty through beekeeping. Volunteer project managers assess and support beekeeping projects in developing countries worldwide. Working with local community groups, the teams use indigenous bees and techniques appropriate for each location. The organisation offers training and support in beekeeping, including making hives and protective clothing from local materials, managing honey bees, collecting honey safely, and handling and storing it hygienically. The aim is to develop self- sustaining enterprises.
Starting Out
‘We are going to check how the Kenya DFID (Department for International Development) project is doing – would you like to come along? It would be good for someone else to know what is going on in case something happens to us.’ That is how it started. John and Mary Home are the BA leaders for this project (see February 2014,
The Laikipia beekeeping trainers
page 35) and were due to make one of their regular visits to assess progress. As the First Apimondia Symposium on African Bees and Bee Keeping was taking place in Arusha, Tanzania, we thought it would be good to attend this as well and network with beekeepers there. At the Lush Garden Hotel close to the conference centre, I met David Njuguna, the local executive team leader for the project, and things got started. David has spent most of his working life involved with beekeeping and charities and it was a treat to see him communicating with the trainers and beekeeping groups. We could have not have had a better person leading the project.
The First Apimondia Symposium on African Bees and Bee Keeping
The President of Tanzania opened
proceedings. As befitted a dignitary of his standing, he arrived very late and, with much fanfare, we all stood to attention at his arrival. Once seated again, away the speeches went for what seemed like a very long time by UK standards.
The Symposium continued for several days and I learnt the art of networking. By the end of the event we had a huge number of business cards and many good contacts.
Saving the Elephants
I was very impressed with Dr Lucy King and her talk ‘Save the Elephants’. In this initiative, local people hang beehives on wire around farmers’ compounds to keep the elephants from trashing crops (see May 2012, page 36).
A couple of weeks later, we visited a beekeeper using this deterrent. Elephants cannot stand being stung by bees and, once they have touched the wire and set the bees off, the elephants scarper. I noticed his hives were on stands and not wire. He told me once they learn, they never forget. So there is no further need to hang the hives on wire.
Increasing Nectar Production
A study of the suitability of hedgerows in the conservation of bee pollinators had been carried out by Mary Guantai, a researcher from Kenya. She found that farmers had little understanding of the importance of bees in crop pollination and so carried out practices that lead to the decline in bee populations, such as use of pesticides and land clearance for crops. In her work, hedgerows were shown to provide the bees and other pollinators with a safe habitat. Mary then looked at a floral calendar of hedgerow plants and concluded that their extended flowering patterns could provide bees with vital nectar when the usual nectar sources are over. This research could be very useful to beekeepers who could be encouraged to plant hedgerows on their farms to increase their honey production.
www.bee-craft.com May 2015 Vol 97 No 5
All photos supplied by Julian Willford
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