Installation of Hives

Distribution patterns of hives

Beekeeping in Wampiti is so much fun than anyway you think! Beekeeping is practiced on a free system where the local councils and the district authority are not bothered. Beekeeping is almost practiced in every home especially in Wampiti and neigbouring villages as well as other parts of Nakasongola.

Well, most people in Nakasongola villages have land which is between 2 acres to 50 acres, and surprisingly there is no serious farming activities on the big pieces of land. Trees are cut down [today people are cutting the fourth generation] for charcoal burning which is sold [still for very little money which doesn’t cover all their needs and can’t make them rich].

Others keep and graze cattle on their land on a free and open grazing system whereby cattle must walk around the bushes to graze during day time and they are locked in a confined place during night hours. During day (grazing hours) there is at least one person supervising grazing cattle – to stop them from going into farming areas.

When members have big land, they install their hives in w pattern which suits their needs. For example, a member with 20 acres of land, can use 2 or 3 acres for house, compound and growing crops ; and leave the rest of the land untouched and this is where he installs his beehives. The hives are spaced in a manner where one hive can be 50 – 100 metres away from the other. People believed that when hives are installed too close to each other, the bees can easily attack the owner during harvesting. People were also using hives to mark boundaries of their land. They also believed that when hives are installed randomly would reduce on competition over nectar. Log hives are commonly installed between branches of trees therefore it is not possible to find one tree with many branches which can hang many hives.

 Lastly since hives are installed under shades, people would install hives in different spots because of the presence of shades.

This kind of hive spacing has had a lot of challenges such as;

Cleaning the apiary is not easily done

Bush fires would easily burn the hives since most hives are surrounded by the bush

Control of black ants is impossible.

Grazing cows could easily walk into the beekeeping zone and this could trigger bees to sting and when cows are washed with acaricide would irritate bees and abscond.

Fortunately, when WBA started, members were taught the benefits of keeping bee hives in one spot; many beekeepers brought their hives closer to each other (in distances of 5-10metres away from each other). This has made fencing of apiaries possible with people who want. It also eased supervision as well as pest control such as termites and black ants which are not possible to control when the apiary is stretched out.