Honey smell in an apiary
Just imagine while moving around your apiary and smell honey fumes
One time I was invited to inspect beehives in a private farm looked in Mukono with over 30 beehives.
Imagine honey was smelling so much that I also smelt it just a few metres away from reaching the entrance of the apiary.
I was amazed by the words from the farm owner though I had it in the back of my mind that when bees are fanning to regulation the hive temperature there are high hopes of uncapped honey scent to escape.
Also it is possible for uncapped honey to smell than the capped.
Also it is possible for uncapped honey to smell than the capped.
Therefore the implication of the smell is; there is presence of uncapped honey or nectar than honey ready for harvesting.
Well I opened the first hive and there was only two Combs with uncapped honey. The second hive also had honey over the brood and one bar with uncapped honey.
We went to the third and the four until the 30th hive and to surprise you, we never came back with a single comb of honey.
I never told him right from the beginning that his bees just have uncapped honey and since there are many bee hives in one place, the honey scent becomes strong in the area.
But it was nice to smell the nectar to honey scent.
Here comes our new page.
Short stories.
06 August 2013
Bee killers turn into beekeepers!
Recently, I have posted (on facebook) about a village in Mukono District (Uganda) where farming dependents were killing bees.
Fortunately, nature sent me to that village and I discovered the incidence which I commanded myself to deal with.
On Saturday last week, I held a meeting with the community members which was organized by the Local Council I chairman. I started my official campaign of saving bees by introducing to them the roles bees play to them namely;
-pollination of their crops (eggplants, coffee, watermelon, paw paw, tomato, beans etc)
-medicine (cough syrups which they normally buy during infection)
-cosmetics (lipbalms, lotions, creams, soaps etc)
-honey (though all of them take it)
I mentioned only the ways they benefit from bees as community members of "bee killing village".
We went to see the two hives I installed in their village for conserving bees for their benefit.
I mentioned to them the activities involved in beekeeping, equipments used and how bees are cared for.
They liked the idea of keeping bees as majority focused on honey harvesting for:- home consumption (because it is expensive in stores), pollination and income generation.
Next month, we are having a second meeting where we shall form a beekeeping group and elect committee members. I shall teach them how to make and handle different hives.
Majority of the people Who picked interest in beekeeping are youth and women!
I thank God because the first meeting was successful.
08/07/2013
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| Isaac standing in row of maize plantation |
Without bees, I shouldn't be a proud farmer!
Big-up to social and committed insects which are
responsible for pollinating my crops. The only insects in the world which
produce food for humans and help crops to produce food through pollination!
Lets us join hands and preserve them; without: bees-no crops-no food for humans. Let us preserve them so that they provide us with their free pollination service.
All members of Wampiti community including non-beekeepers are all benefitting from the pollination role played by bees that fly to their crops in search for nectar to produce their food known as honey which is also known as the sweetest food by humans!
Crops that have improved greatly in their yields include oranges, avocadoes, mangoes, beans, maize, lemon, soya beans etc.
Of course there are other pollinators like butterflies but the big difference is: Butterflies visit flowers/ nectar sources only to eat food and when they get satisfied, the don't continue visiting more flowers but Bees visit flowers in search for food and nectar to store in hives for future use therefore bees visit flowers several times in a day.
Bees can visit a single flower very many times and bees are many in number compared to other insects which guarantee pollination.
World full of bees!
If bees were
not present in North America, how growing of corn and melon possible?
How oranges
and beans could grow in Uganda?
What a
blessing this world has!!
Why can’t a blessing be?
Hello
friends,
Since the
birth of Wampiti Beekeepers Association (WBA), a lot has happened; we have
learnt a lot especially from other another’s experience. I am very happy with
one thing: today there is existence of comradeship between members and members
can easily and openly tell each other about their apiaries!
I am thankful
for all the efforts you people have put into WBA through provision of materials
and trainings to me through question and answer.
Since the
practice of modernization of beekeeping in Nakasongola District and different areas like Bugaya islands on
Lake Victoria begun, a lot has changed including increase in production!
I have trained a lot of people how to keep bees in a modern way. But i don't teach them how to utilize their beeswax though i teach them how to melt it and use it to make starter strips for baiting bees on bars in a new hive.
Read this: When
harvesting honey, we harvest everything i.e. the comb cells with honey!
When selling
off the honey, members sell everything all at once hence loosing extra revenue
from the wax. Currently we don’t have any value adding project in WBA i.e. we don’t
pack our honey and members don’t utilize beeswax for making products like lip balms
and lotions!
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| Beeswax |
Why can’t a
blessing be and someone train us how to make good quality products from
beeswax?
Thank you very much for blessing WBA may your rewards come fast to you.
02/12/2012
I have never seen robbing bees!
You know here especially before the
establishment of WBA, we would put each hive in a separate location
especially in a distance of 100metres or more. people have
big land so it was simple to locate log/local hives anywhere.
But
when WBA came into existence, we discovered that management was not
easy when hives are scattered, cattle sprayed with acaricides wasn't
be easy to control them from grazing around the places where beehives are yet
they cause bees to abscond and many other reasons.
Now we confine our hives together but not to the extend of how langstroth hives are done but in a distance of 10-20 meters.
Obong complained about the idea of confining hives in one place saying when
there are empty hives amongst one with bees, it's not easy for swarms to occupy them because
he witnessed two times when swarms were trying to occupy an Empty hive
amongst hives with bees and the bees from hives around flew in the air to stop the swarm from
entering the hive.
In his aurgement, he said that bees from hives
around think may be the swarm wants to occupy their hive ( or rob
honey) so they take up the air to control the new bees from coming down.
He concluded by saying that it's OK to confine hives but they must have bees first!
First BeeKeeping Class - Bugaya Sub-County
Bugaya Sub-county is located in Buvuma District on Lake Victoria. Bugaya Sub-county is an island. The main activity on the island is fishing with its related activities such as fish smoking etc.
It has forests and hills with rocks! (Trying to look like Nakasongola).
It is very far from Wampiti (Nakasongola District (check on map of Uganda). Their forests are not cut down for charcoal burning as they have fishing as their economic activity.
They do small agriculture especially by old people who no longer go for fishing. Semwanga Isaac was invited by a friend Galimaka Isaac to train his fellow community members beekeeping. Isaac Galimaka admired the practice after visiting Wampiti and seeing bee hives. Therefore he has finally introduced it to his community.
They formed an Association called Bugaya Beekeepers Association where they are likely to have beautiful and wonderful results. They are 15 members currently and they are willing to register more.
They enjoyed the training and some members had never seen bees being kept by man. And some saw a top bar for the first time!
I believe WBA has started to fruit!
Check out the event in pictorial.
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| One of the members looking closely and carefully at the picture of beekeeping practice. |
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| Isaac assisting a member to cut the wood. The Bugaya BeeKeepers' Association has only 15 members and they are willing to recruit more as time goes on. |
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| Wonderful result. One of the topbar hive box almost done! |
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| Bugaya Beekeepers joining the parts of a topbar hive together. The Man with a blue squared shirt facing the camera is Galimaka Isaac who took Semwanga Isaac to Bugaya Island to train his fellow members the new and modern beekeeping skills. |
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| Galimaka discussing with his fellow members. |
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| A member is reading a booklet about beekeeping while other members are cutting wood with enthusiastic Isaac Galimaka. |
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| I, Isaac giving dimensions to members. | Note: Bugaya has a lot of wood because there are a lot of big trees. They have access to timber (hardwood). |
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| Isaac giving explanations on how to make smokers locally. And he was demonstrating on how to use the smoker and the many uses a smoker has such as; it doesn't kill bees like ordinary flame does. |
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| Lesson Time. All members are attentive. |
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| This is Semwanga Isaac training beekeepers of Bugaya Sub-county - Buvuma District. |
Feeding bees with Water.
On Sunday I went to visit mzee Daudi Muganga (one of the beekeepers of WBA) I saw bees being fed with water put deep in the drum. He told me that chickens were killing bees and they were eating them. You know eats are scarce during dry season therefore hens and cocks resorted to feeding on bees! Here are the photos of the bees in the drum.
We put floating fibres in the water so that bees don't drown into water when accidentally fall into the water.
We normally put water in small cans/tins for the bees, unfortunately birds especially poultry has started to prey them. Therefore members resorted to putting water tins/cans up or deep into drums for those who have drums.
You can see that some bees are getting water while seated on the fibres.Amazing!
Beekeeping and Nakasongola
Nakasongola District is considered to be a dry area as compared to other areas found in central Uganda.
Before the establishment of Wampiti Beekeepers' Association, there was a lot of ignorance and negligence or no care at all for hives and honey bees kept by the people.
Here comes photos to show you how people were not caring about the hives and the consequences.
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| This is a top bar hive. It was seated on bare ground and small termites started building their routes into the hive which disorganise the bees. They eat and destroy the hive body (wood). This hive was neglected by Peter. But when WBA started its activities of training beekeepers and visiting their hives, today that hive is doing well. He provided it with a stand. |
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| This is log hive. Termites are one of the biggest threat to beekeeping as they dare to eat wood very much. They eat up log and top bar hives when they are not care for though today members are kin and visit their hives regularly and termite hills are also poisoned. Termites easily climb up stands and link up to the hive. This hive was at Muganga David's farm. |
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| This is a well established termite hill. Today members are advised to poison them. |
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| This is a newly installed log hive. Down on the ground there is a small termite hill. Just a few months, the termites will be able to link to the hive and destroy it. This hive was at Isaac's farm. After serious checkups and advises, he poisoned the new termite hill and the beehive is doing well. |
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| Look clearly, there is a hive (top bar hive) covered with the vegetation. This hive was neglected by (Lazy) Sam who didn't want to care about it. WBA taught him why and how to care for hives. This hive is now in clear free and good position. |
We welcome tourists to Nakasongola District.
If your coming to Nakasongola District for the first time, and may be it will be your first time to see:Cows, chicken, wild birds (over 100 species), swamps, rocky hills, fruits like mangoes, oranges and many others that is when you are not a Ugandan! Don't forget honey bees......
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| This is a rocky hill. The two plants with fumy leaves are the young palm trees where we get hives when grown to a height of 10-15 meters. |
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| This is an Orange tree with orange fruits. |
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| There are a lot of such fun looking rocks in Nakasongola. |
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| This is a Jack fruit tree with jack fruits. Wait for more....... |
