When Wax Moth and Snakes Do Invade...

It has been two weeks of more epic beekeeping adventures! Our first visit to the hives at Kisesa saw us working up on the roof of a container against the invasion of wax moth and then in dire straits escaping the angry bees with bees in our bonnets, literally. Our visit to the beekeeper group in Malya culminated on the last night with the shocking discovery of a colony of snakes co-habiting a hive. What followed was much thwacking of sticks and throwing of rocks to kill the snakes, which as you can imagine, slightly upset the bees.

Beekeeping is clearly not for the faint-hearted. 

We have had Julian Willford with us from Bees Abroad UK who has helped the groups tremendously and kept life exceedingly far from dull! We have traipsed across fields in our suits and wellies on foot visiting numerous hives with our beekeepers. We have bumped many crazy trails through mud and rocks in four wheel drive, only getting a bit stuck once! But with ten beekeepers with us in the vehicle, it was an easy push to get out!

Malya

The exciting news recently is that we have three new people added to our EI team! I will share more about this in a later blogpost. This meant that when Julian and I went to Malya, we took John, our new worker for the beekeeping project with us! It was a fantastic opportunity for him to get initial training ... and I guess although this didn't go at all as we expected, he learnt many things the hard way! And the amazing news is that he still wants the job! He will be a fantastic asset to the project as well as our team.

Julian with John on his right and two of the Malya beekeepers either end.

Our time in Malya was challenging. We seemed to hit hurdles every step of the way over the three days we were there. We had difficulty getting the group together with councillor elections going on in the village. We found no preparations had been made as arranged for the tree nursery, and we were unable to plant out the tree seedlings with confusion over the site. We found hives that needed fixing (which we took to a carpenter who unfortunately messed them up further), hives that bees had deserted, hives with very angry bees, and as I mentioned, the hive full of snakes. The days were very long and tiring as we covered all the hive sites and dealt with one thing after another! But despite it all, we are left with a group very keen to persevere and we had some really lovely times with people there (I will share about my time with the women's group in the next post). We still have hives with bees and brood. As you can see from the photos, the rains have started, transforming the brown ground into green grass with flowering plants which is a hopeful sign of good things to come!

This hive lost the bees when it was knocked out of the tree

by livestock who came through Credo's field

Snakes in the hive!

Kayenze

It was great to be back with this group of beekeepers now under new elected leadership! Usually our groups shrink over time as those less committed drop out. But this group somehow seems to have grown! And with everyone so keen, it was a struggle to get everyone safely kitted out in the beekeeping suits. This made us particularly thankful to the Basingstoke Beekeepers Association who have donated some suits to the project! On this visit, we presented the Kayenze Beekeepers with another suit for the group which they were delighted with!

Our greatest need now is for gloves! The rubber gloves we were using rather desperately, ended up being stuck together on hands with tape!

It was another full-on few days in Kayenze with late night and early dawn beekeeping, but definitely a more encouraging time! We didn't have any trouble with the bees, which meant John was able to get a good look in the workings of the hive. We also tried out night-time beekeeping with a red light for the first time, which proved very good! We were able to harvest a little early honey at one of the hives and see that all the colonies are strong and full of brood and we think come May, things will be sweet!

So yes, not for the faint-hearted, but I am so thankful for the opportunities to work with the amazing people in these villages! Thankful for their enthusiasm and perseverance and prayerful for their future!

Mama Meriziana's hives in the mango tree are surrounded by her mulched maize

and bright sunflowers (she is also in the conservation agriculture group) 

Our Awesome Beekeeper Team stopping for a quick dinner!

Anti-Clockwise from top: Julian,  Peter,

Pastor Amon John and Kazima (new agricultural worker)

Julian speaking to the Kayenze beekeepers with John translating

Getting kitted up and the smoker fired up at Samson's home

Off to the hives!

One beekeeping mama had her baby with her, so while she got busy,

I waited with this beautiful baby under a mango tree!