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!)

Soap and Candles. Balms from a land flowing with Milk and Honey

I am lagging behind on the blogging again! But there is plenty cookin' here in Tanzania! I will save for next time all the stories on fuel-efficient stoves firing, beekeeper group meetings, and alas, a hive tragedy, all of which have been going on this week with Andrew visiting from Iringa.

Today, given that it is International Women's Day, here is a little bit on these wonderful women in Tanzania who deserve recognition for their achievement in the face of adversity! Women who are playing their part working towards peace and security and human rights, in particular, on behalf of those with albinism.

These women are working together towards getting their own workshop where they can learn and develop new skills and crafts and a shop where they can sell their products. These women have little to support their children with but with a Savings and Loans scheme and their own bank account they are managing to save money that they can draw from. Medicine can be bought, school fees can be paid. It all makes a difference!

This week together we were busy working on 100% pure beeswax candles in chopped up PVC pipe moulds as well as lip balms, body creams and greeting cards. It isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination! Just getting us all there, as well as all the materials (balancing all while treading carefully on rocks through the floods to get in the gate), is a feat in itself. We then rather struggled with the candles and need to do some fine-tuning. There are too many air pockets and they were almost impossible to get out of the moulds. We will try more soap or oil in the mould next time and work on getting the right pouring temperature and pouring speed! But in it all, we are learning and making progress and hope we will soon be selling beautiful, quality candles amongst other things!

Our first attempts

 

Mama Faith melts the beeswax



Jane works on embroidering a card while the balms are setting



Mama Wilson with her poor eyesight cannot sew, but she can glue the cards together!

Creative working, talking, praying for one another and
reading that Word as sweet as honey!

Natural Milk and Honey Soap
... from a Pringle Pot mould!

Lush!

If you (and your friends!) have a minute to spare, we would love it if you could help the women's groups with your opinions on various beeswax and honey products. Please fill out (and share) our short survey here below on the blog. We really value your advice and support! Thank you!
 

Create your own user feedback survey

Mama Bees Beeswax

I was nicknamed Mama Nyuki ("Bee") last year, but now we have many Mama Nyuki's! It has been wonderful having Zoe Willford with us teaching women's groups how to make value-added products with beeswax. All the mamas are very excited about the potential business ventures and we thoroughly enjoyed our lessons with Zoe!

Finding a place to hang the hand-dipped beeswax candles to set! 

Malya Women's Group

Interestingly, this group of ten women from Malya village had named themselves the Upendo ("Love") Group and it was a privilege to be with them for the two days of the Beekeeping Seminar! We found a small spot in the shade of the very hot sun and Zoe taught how to clean and filter wax from the hive and how to make different types of beeswax candles (even using cut-up pipes as moulds!), beautiful body creams and soothing lip balm. I was on translating duty, learning a whole new Swahili vocabulary in the process! Zoe also taught how to make cheap and easy protective bee-suits for the beekeepers using flour sacks and mosquito nets.

Making bee-suits

Trying on for size!

At the end of the two days, they had elected a chairwoman for the group and when we return next month to continue the work, they will elect a treasurer and secretary and begin the process of starting a Village Savings and Loans Group. They will be able to buy the beeswax from the Beekeepers Group and use it to make products to sell for a good profit that we pray will greatly benefit them and their families.

The Upendo Mamas, Malya

Upendo wa Mama Group

The Upendo wa Mama Group (Mamas with Albinism or children with albinism) has been busy recently! The group made a good batch of the cards that Megan taught them how to make last month. They then took these along with more necklaces and earrings to sell in Dar es Salaam last week. They had the great opportunity to go as a group to a Business Entrepreneurship Seminar for Women with Albinism or with children with Albinism. They thoroughly enjoyed the conference and were also able to make some money selling their products!

We are also pleased to welcome a new member to the group! Jane has two young children and has been through an horrific time, losing her husband, being rejected by family and then needing to escape and hide after attempts were made to kill her young child. We pray that she could find the healing and the help that she needs.

Last Wednesday afternoon, we met again in Mama Penina's school classroom and Zoe taught all the women how to make the beautiful beeswax products! Again, everyone thoroughly enjoyed getting involved and were amazed and thrilled with their results!

Making candles

Zoe in action!

It is time-consuming work, but the end result is some really lovely natural products. For the creams and lip balms, we are able to use locally sourced natural oils like coconut and almond oil and we are working on extracting avacado oil to use as well. So watch this space to see when these bee-utiful products hit the market!

 

Here are few more photos ... just because it was all so beautiful!

Dipping candles

Everyone was so proud of their accomplishments! 



 

 

Making Body Cream



The body cream was very popular
(this poor child didn't seem so impressed with the smothering!)

Loving the Lip Balm!

 

Melting the wax

Finished Products! Not bad for a first time!

 Click here to go to Part 1 on the Bee Project

 

Sweet Results

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
-- Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner

It really is late and I should be asleep, but I quickly I wanted to post an update on the honey! This evening I attempted to extract the beeswax from the crushed and squeezed honeycomb that had drained its honey. Good old Google to the rescue here!

I covered the gloop taken from the mosquito net (see the last blog post to see what that was all about!) with boiling water and let it boil away for half an hour. It smelled lovely, a bit like Christmas really, and looked a bit like mincement but the "raisins" were actually dead bees!

This is what came out of the mosquito net

Boiling it all up

I was left with what seemed rather like Honey Soup. I poured it through a teatowel (held on by bungee cords ... whatever would we do without those things?) and into a large bucket. Liquid gold, so I am told. As it cools, the wax hardens and floats on the top (I'll check this in the morning). Real beeswax! How amazing! The goo left in the tea towel really amazed me, though. I laid it out in chunks on newspaper to dry and tomorrow I will take it to the village as I read that it makes an excellent fire-starter! That will be most useful. I love it when nothing is wasted!

Straining the "liquid gold"

 Fire-starter material! Go Jiko!

 

And so we have our first jar of honey! We still have more honeycomb hanging in the net and before we go off to the village in the morning, Lucy and I will get that down and then we'll see how many jars there are all together (something like 5 litres, I think).

 



 Gangilonga Honey 

It was a sticky and time-consuming unexpected job, but there are sweet results! Maybe I need to remember this as we go off to the village tomorrow. It has seemed like lots of things have been "sticky" and time-consuming recently and with no clay, unexpected water problems here in town, a broken washing machine and a car getting stuck in town, it is easy to feel stuck down! And I know that in the village these next few weeks, at times we will feel very stuck, but the goal is sweet and that's what I want to keep in mind!