It is a bee hive of activity at an apiary in Nakifuma, Mukono district. The owner, Stephen Kunihira, looks fresh out of a sci-fi movie with his bee suit. He is opening one of his bee hives.
“I am hive checking,” he says. It is just a few days to the World Bee Day and what Kunihira is doing helps the development of bees, hives and honey.
The day was commemorated on Tuesday at the National Agriculture Research Laboratories in Kawanda, Wakiso district.
This year’s theme was Bee inspired by nature to nourish us all.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the theme highlights the critical role bees and other pollinators have in agrifood systems and the health of the earth’s ecosystems.
“Pollination is essential for agrifood systems, supporting the production of more than 75% of the world’s crops, including fruits, vegetables and seeds,” Kunihira says.
However, pollinators are increasingly threatened by habitat loss, unsustainable agricultural practices, climate change and pollution.
“Indiscriminate use of agrochemicals is killing the bees. The danger with that is that we are reducing the population of pollinators, and yet the bees are important in maintaining the ecosystem and the environment,” said Col Bright Rwamirama, the Minister of State for Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries.
FAO explains that a decline in the numbers of pollinators increases food production costs, and exacerbates food insecurity, particularly for rural communities.
Additionally, the failure to preserve the bee population could derail the government’s commercial farming agenda aimed at increasing household income, explained Rwamirama.
Keep more bees
To help protect bees so that they carry on the role of pollination, more farmers should engage in bee keeping, according to Kunihira.
He is also the chairperson of the Source of the Nile Beekeepers Consortium Association.
Kunihira explains that keeping bees is not rocket science.
“One has to learn continuously from the bees and other farmers,” he says.
When handled well, bees are not harmful. Initially, one needs to have protective gear when dealing with pollinators, but after a while, Kunihira says one gets used to the bees and is not afraid of them.
“The number one cause of bee stings is fear. But, if you are brave, the bees will not sting you,” Kunihira observed.
The agriculture ministry has also taken interventions to increase the population of bees in Uganda.
“As a ministry responsible, we are looking at producing more queens and multiplying them to increase the population of bees,” Rwamirama said.
Other interventions the ministry is promoting to conserve bee populations include sensitisation on the responsible use of agrochemicals and environmental conservation, among others.
Who can keep bees?
While it is a common perception that bees can only be kept in rural areas, this is not true, explains Moses Angel Kuteesa from Bees Farmer’s Crib.
Beekeeping can be done anywhere even in residential areas. This can be in an urban or rural setting where there is limited space.
Bees do not require a lot of space and supervision, yet yield twice a year, according to Kuteesa.
According to the agriculture ministry, the country has an installed hive capacity of about 2.5 million. Beekeeping is a family venture with members learning income-generating skills that can be passed from one generation to the next.
Relatedly, backyard bee-farming does not require heavy capital investment or maintenance.
Harvesting honey at home is the easiest way to consume the product in its freshest and purest form. Instead of buying sugar, Kuteesa says honey is a recommended sweetener, which saves on money.
Starting off
In Uganda, apiary is practiced countrywide. One can start with 10-20 hives, according to Alice Kangave, a bee keeper and former entomologist at the agriculture ministry.
Within a year, each hive can produce at least 10-20kg of pure honey, which translates into a total of 100-200kg. With the farm gate price of each kilo at sh15,000, one can earn sh1.5-sh3m from 10 hives.
It is possible for one to recoup one’s entire investment in starting the project in one year. There are few predators that affect bees and they are not attacked by diseases so one does not need to buy drugs for bees.
A hive can remain colonised, that is containing bees, as long as its structure is right. A hive can last for as many as 10 years as long as it is properly maintained. Bees multiply and create new ones often.
Costs of the enterprise
One key input in the enterprise is a hive. There are different types that include the Kenya Top Bar, Langstroth and the local hives.
The Kenya Top Bar (KTB) hive goes for sh100,000 to sh120,000, the Modern Hive or Langstroth hive costs sh150,000 to sh200,000 if it is not colonised or over sh250,000 if it is colonised.
Local hives cost as low as sh40,000. One can also make their own hive using materials that are readily available on the farm.
These include old tree trunks, banana fibre or use papyrus to create basket hives.
Thus, for a farmer starting out with 10 hives, if they choose KTB, they part with at least sh1m. For Langstroth, the cost would be about sh2m for 10 hives.
For a farmer with limited space, an option is the use of stands with each taking three to four hives.
For 10 hives, one needs three stands. Constructing these wooden stands costs about sh100,000. In addition to hives, the other requirements are a beekeeper’s suit and gloves.
A set costs sh80,000 to sh150,000. This is worn by the beekeeper during supervision/harvesting.
You also need a bee smoker at sh50,000 to control bees, a hive knife at sh10,000 to cut off the honey combs, a bee brush at sh10,000, a honey harvesting pail at sh20,000. Overall, with sh2.5m one can start a 10-hive apiary.
Maintaining the apiary
Keep the shade trees well-pruned to reduce incidences of pests. Do not let grass over grow near the hives, which attracts pests and predators.
Carry out monthly checks on the hives to look out for insects because they can affect the bees, preventing them from producing honey.
If a hive is infected by other elements, for example, hive beetles or termites, a farmer needs to decolonise it by removing the queen bee and put it in a clean hive.
The farmer can then clean the dirty hive and colonise it again. A farmer can wash it with water, dry it before setting it up again.
Dealing with pests
There are different pests that attack bees, reducing honey production.
Some of these are insects like termites, hive beetles, termites, weaver ants, bee hornets and wasps, while others are reptiles or mammals like the honey badger.
To prevent these attacks, a farmer must carry out various interventions.
To stop bee red hornets, look for their nests near the hives and destroy them by digging them up if in the ground or cutting down the trees/stumps where they are. To stop termites, apply burnt engine oil on the hive stands to prevent them from climbing up.
To stop rats from going into the hives, the top cover should be firmly secured as that is where vermin pass to access the hives. You can also use a heavy object, placed on top of the cover to keep it in position.
To control wax moths, use improvised bottle traps with vinegar and water. Plastic mineral water bottles can do. The moth will be attracted into the bottle and it will not come out. Vinegar is available in most supermarkets.
Harvesting quality honey
By the eighth month of setting up the hives and colonisation, there is honey to harvest in the hives. However, it is advisable that a farmer takes at least 12 months before the first harvest.
This helps the honey to mature. After the first harvest, a farmer has to pay attention to the flowering period of crops and trees in their area.
Bees stock a lot of honey during the flowering period which means that you need to harvest soon after that season. You can harvest twice or three times a year.
For proper harvesting, you need a bee-keeper’s suit, gloves and a smoker to ward the bees off, a bee knife to pull out the combs.
It is advisable to harvest in the evening because bees are less aggressive at that time than earlier in the day.
Smoke the hives entrance and sides before opening and harvest only sealed /capped combs.
However, do not remove a comb that has young bees (broods) or pollen. This means one is killing the young bees and besides, that honey is of a poor quality. After harvesting, put the combs in a clean bucket(s).
You can either use a honey press to extract the liquid gold from the combs. Honey presses are sold in agri-inputs shops starting from sh400,000 onwards, depending on capacity.
Or, let the honey drip slowly from the combs into the bucket. Although this takes days, it is the best way to get the purest honey.
After this, the honey should be ready for consumption. You can also process the bees wax and sell it separately.
Heat a clean saucepan and add the beeswax and watch carefully as wax melts.
Remove it from the fire immediately after the last lump of wax has melted. Pour melted beeswax into the mould and place in a cool, dry place to cool.
Remove the cakes of beeswax next morning. The dark material collected at the bottom can be removed with a knife and can be sold to a shoemaker/shiner for enriching the shoe polish.
The clean raw beeswax is ready for the market. Uganda has the potential to earn nearly sh288b annually from products such as propolis, honey and beeswax, if the sector is fully exploited.
How to select an apiary site
Water availability
Bees need water to produce honey. Thus, there should be a water source within a radius of 500m. Although bees are known to travel for over 5km looking for water, the nearer the better.
If there is no water source, you can put your own water sources, in small saucepans or buckets near the apiary.
Flowering plants
Bees make honey from nectar, which is found in flowers, thus it is important to have flowering plants near the apiary. These can be coffee, mangoes, maize, bananas, calliandra, eucalyptus and simsim plants, among others.
If there are no flowers, one can make artificial nectar by mixing sugar and water and put it on plates near the apiary.
The ratios are a tablespoon of sugar in half-a-litre of water. Bees will carry it and use it to process honey.
Shade
Have a shade over the hives as direct sunshine makes the hives too hot for the bees to live in. If the location has no trees, you can erect shades over the hives to reduce the impact of the sun on the hives.
Do not locate your hives under trees whose fruit can drop, for example, mangoes. When the fruits ripen and drop on the ground, they attract insects that eventually enter the hives and affect the bees.
Buy and sell commodities in Africa, Europe and Asia through the Famunera app.
