Harvesting Honey ... My Heart will Go On!

This has been such an exciting time for the Beekeeping Project! Finally, after two years of serious persevering, the beekeeper groups in both Kayenze and Malya have harvested their first honey to sell! And we also had a great harvest at the demonstration farm in Kisesa! Amazing!

With us for all this excitement, we had Sinead (Tim's cousin's daughter) from Ireland visiting us and Julian from Bees Abroad UK and also for a few days we were joined by our friend, Dorothea from Shinyanga! Together with John, our trainer and our groups of beekeepers in the villages, we traipsed across a lot of ground collecting honey from all the hives!

Beekeeper Fun with Sinead and Julian

Malya

We were first in Malya for three days. It wasn't all plain sailing. On the first day, unfortunately some nearby chickens got in the way of bees who were a little upset about our intrusion. They got in rather a flap; John was running about in his beesuit trying to chase them into a hut, but sadly three of them died in the incident. We decided then and there that we would now always work the hives at night reducing the risk to livestock and people!

When we could drive no further 

… we continued into the fading light, suited up on foot

Beekeeping in the Moonlight

So late into that night and the next, we were stumbling about in the darkness finding hives. And then by the ethereal glow of our special red flashlight, we took out the honey. Did you know that bees cannot see red light? This meant that they remained pretty relaxed while we intruded! We had a rather surreal moment when the phone of one of the beekeepers went off in his pocket under his beesuit… his ringtone was "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic. Celine Dion sang on and on while we worked with the bees in the moonlight! I thought maybe we should always work the hives to soft romantic music … a bit like learning to Mozart or milking to moo-d music maybe?

Red Light Success! Back in the Land Cruiser after exhilarating success at the hives!

After late night hivework, we were up bright and early for meetings with the beekeepers. They were delighted to weigh up the buckets of collected honey. We also did some wax processing and I met with the women's group to make more wax products! The women in Malya are doing really well, selling their tie-dye fabric and making balms and also using profits to buy seeds to plant a group market garden and save up for goats.

Julian and John talking to the Beekeepers as we weigh the buckets of honey

Wax processing with the group

Reading the Bible together with the Malya mamas after making balms

Kayenze

The following week was more of the same with three days in Kayenze. Again it was not all plain sailing. This time, we had frustrations with one of the beekeepers who has not pulled his weight in the group. He was asked months ago to hang a hive. We have been asking for many weeks if it is colonised and get the consistent answer: "not yet." Well, we discovered why. After much fishing about and insistence on visiting his home, we found the hive in quite a sorry state in his house with some of the top bars burned for fuel. We cleaned it up, carried it through the fields back to the land cruiser and took it to relocate at another group members' farm. No honey there. (But the great news we heard today is that this hive has now been colonised!)

Rescuing the lost hive

Taking the hive to a new location

It was quite a trek back to the Land Cruiser!

We had quite an audience by the time we got to the Land Cruiser!

The other disappointing discovery in Kayenze was that the timing for harvesting comes earlier than Malya. We arrived too late for a few of the hives. Once full of bees and honey, we arrived to find an empty queen cell hanging in a honey-less hive. The colony had obviously absconded only a few days early. But despite the disappointments, we were all still so encouraged with the harvest we managed to get! Then it was back to our house with all this honey ….

Processing the Honey

The plan is to have a Honey Processing Centre in town. Here, honey will be collected from all the village groups, filtered, bottled and labelled ready to sell. A great plan. But not existing in real life. So in real life, we suddenly found ourselves at home with over 100 kilograms of honeycomb. I'm not sure I really thought it would actually happen!

It doesn't get better than this!

My goodness, the crazy weeks that followed! With visitors staying and in the midst of an Introduction to Beekeeping Seminar and Mamas Group beeswax work... our kitchen became re-named "The Hive." As we filtered bucket after bucket of honey and bottled it all into jars, it seemed all the bees in Mwanza came to join in on the action. It got to the point that you had to suit up in the gear to get to the oven. I moved to using a single gas burner outside the "hive." Honey drips were stepped in and sticky footprints were all over. Wax was dripping on the floor and then on my bare toes … jumping, I landed on a bee. Ouch! I felt like I was walking on a ping pong ball for two days. Enough was enough and the honey processing centre was moved to a container in the garden. This became the new "Hive" and suiting up in the container was even worse in the heat of this small space! Melting wax on the gas burner made things even hotter! Bucket after bucket of wax and debris was melted and filtered. Until there were only empty buckets. Whew!

John and Julian filtering the wax in the kitchen

Bottling the honey

Louisa helps out!

Wax processing at night in the dark, in the container

End product!

Waggle Dance Honey!

And thus ends the latest beekeeping saga. I don't imagine that beekeeping will ever make a quick and peaceful story. But this one had a very happy ending. The honey is delicious... and we have an amazing variety of honey: set, runny, dark, light! And most importantly, the honey is being sold! Each group's honey is separately bottled and all is sold under the name "Waggle Dance Honey," so named for the figure-eight dance of the scout honeybee to show the way (and tell the distance) to other members of her colony to good nectar sources!

The beekeeper groups are delighted, excited and encouraged. Plans are underway for more hives for the existing groups and for a new group to start.

Waggle Dance Honey for Sale!

(Big thanks to Peter Mitchell for his help with the labels!)

(Please join us in praying for a Honey Processing Centre and a honey press… I am not sure my sanity can cope with another honey harvest otherwise!)