BEES LOST CONNECTION WITH HIVE

One Thursday 26th February 2020, I visited my client at his house for a brief business talk around 10:00am in the morning. See, says the young boy. I saw a lot of bees around 800+ spread on the house wall. Many of these bees were near the lights. They were all silent; not moving or flying! The boy killed a few of them and none was moving or flying; every bee was keeping its position. I explained to the boy that the bees had lost connection with their hive.

So when I explained to the boy, he took me to a wall fence where the hive was. I said that is it. Because the wind blew flowers last night and the flowers closed the access way to the hive entrance. 

This happened a day before. So when the bees came back from foraging, they couldn’t access the entrance and it was getting dark. When it got dark, they went to lights and house walls to spend the night there.

Well, I left them there and I believe when it got to midday, they left to go and forage or look for the possible ways they could use to access their hive. 

When I went back after 3days, they was none on the wall and the hive in the fence wall was very active. And since I had moved away the flowers from the entrance on the first day, I guess the lost bees were able to easily access to their hive.

It was all amazing!

Story by Isaac

SYRUP HONEY

Dear friends, I kept 4 hives from a borrowed property here in Mukono-central Uganda from 2015 to February 2020. Since the first honey harvest in 2016, the bees were producing honey which was dark in color like beetroot juice.

At first, I was almost fearing to taste the honey thinking that it could be poisoned; the bees could have collected nectar from poisonous flowers. 

So when I recalled that I am in a different location, where the environment and nectar sources are somewhat different from those in Nakasongola, I tasted it. After tasting it, i realized that it could be the reason why the honey has a strange scent and color. 

Well, Cough syrups sold in Ugandan pharmacies and drug shops have a strange scent and color just like the way this honey looks.

We nicknamed the honey; “SYRUP HONEY” because it has a strange taste and color like cough syrups. There is a lot of calliandra weeds in Mukono. The most weeds in Mukono are diffeent from most in Nakasongola. And the bees visit them so much!

It is unfortunate I gave away all my hives because the owner of the land wanted to use it. I miss the syrup honey.

FORCED BEES OUT OF PROPERTY

For agriculturists, this is unbelievable. I was keeping bees on a property which was not mine for the last 4 years here in Mukono since 2015. When i moved from Wampiti in search for a job, i ended up in Mukono District (Central Uganda). And when i arrived here, i saw a big portion of land that was dormant. So I requested the owner of the land to allow me keep a few beehives while i live in Mukono. And fortunately, the guy allowed me to install my bees on his land.

I installed my hives. I am so grateful the bees never disappointed me, they were giving me dark honey [Read about syrup honey in a separate post on this blog] every season. When the owner of the property decided to start using the land to grow maize (corn) and beans, he feared bees and requested me to take away the hives. He did not consider how much production he would get out of his 8 acres of land if he let the bees be part of his project and help on pollination. You cannot believe that when i took away the bees, it is no longer easy to see bees in the area! At the end of the season, his harvest were lower than he had anticipated. Of course i was not give chance to explain to him during the time he was forcing the bees out of his property, but later he realized it by himself and asked me to bring the hives back to the property.

I told him it was late!

I donated the hives to people who own big portions of land. And they are now beekeepers too.

Guess what? He told me he is going to begin keeping bees for the purposes of pollinating his crops. I also promised him guidance and support. Farmers need bees! 

I will let you know when he starts keeping bees...so far no progress yet.