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!

Wild Swarm Catching

Last week I did something I have wanted to do for a long time! During our three days of beekeeping training with Julian Willford and David Colley in Malya, we did some swarm catching!

We had walked out through the very hot, dry bush to see Credo's beehives and came across this large swarm of bees in a tree. It was very close to one of the un-colonised topbar hives and we debated whether to let the bees naturally move in (there were already scout bees at the hive and they had every reason to go and waggle dance to the swarm to point them in the right direction) or whether to move them in ourselves. With nervous anticipation we decided to take the swarm in!


The swarm

I was actually amazed at how easy it was. The books all said it was easy. I had told myself it was easy, but never really believed it! We rehearsed the whole procedure with each person's role from knocking the swarm to catching it, to moving it and getting all into the hive and hanging the hive back up. All with Queen Bee intact. It was rather exciting, and incredibly to me, went smoothly according to plan!

Knocking the swarm into the bucket

David was hanging upside down yanking the tree which knocked the swarm cleanly into Julian's bucket. The bucket was placed upside down on the ground and all the stray bees marched calmly and orderly inside it. It was incredible. Some bees were directing traffic, fanning their wings. While we waited for them to march into the bucket (which was good evidence we had the Queen inside), we rehearsed the procedure at the hive. 

And the swarm is in the bucket! Bees everywhere!

Bees marching into the bucket

Then we were ready. The bucket was secured on the lid, we carried it to the hive. The bucket was tapped and the swarm knocked cleanly into the hive, the few remaining top bars rapidly replaced, roof placed on and it was lifted to hang back in the tree. Mere seconds! Bingo!

We watched as the bees who didn't make it in, were directed by the fanning bees to find the entrance and get inside! (Credo checked the next morning and the bees were happily residing in there!)

After catching the swarm, as darkness was rather quickly approaching, we went on with Credo to his colonised hives. It was wonderful to be able to harvest some of the honey ... just in time (to Tim's huge relief) to get back to the land cruiser before the sun set!

Ready to harvest from Credo's box hive

Carrying the honey home before nightfall

We took the honey back to our guesthouse. And in the rather tight confines of David's small room, sitting on his bed, trying not to make a sticky mess, we strained the honey through our filter into a bucket. As you do! And the following day, with the perfect visual aid, the group learned how to filter and jar honey. Delicious!


Squash and a squeeze to filter the honey





Next day's teaching

Credo gets his honey!

Also great to be back with the Malya Mamas Group!
They had made more honey soaps and beeswax balms since the last time we met!

There is really just so much more I could say about all the bee (and other!) activity we've had, but I'd better stop soon! It has been great to see the beekeeper groups moving forward as well as other people being trained and plans discussed for future groups. We had a great time with Mama Minja (who runs the Console Nursery School for orphaned and vulnerable children) who has now learned to harvest honey and process wax. On Friday we were able to harvest her first honey! So wonderful for her and her work with these precious children!

Mama Minja

At Mama Minja's hives

Cutting off the honeycomb

It has been a real confidence-building, learning time with Julian and David... as well as a sticky mess in the living room. It's been full of much dirt road bumping about as well as a lot of fun! They have given so much of their time, money and energy and it is hugely appreciated by us and many others!

 

Dinner out

 

 

More about the beekeeping project on our Beekeeping Page