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“I have a brother who encouraged me to start bee keeping using the local. It was more like a hobby for children that look after animals. When you are out there grazing the animals, you talk about different things. So, I picked interest in bee keeping. When we harvested it the first time, I got money. That motivated me to start increasing my hives.”
The Life as Beekeeper
Who belongs to your family / who is living with you?
My name is Andama Jackson. I’m not yet married, so I still stay with my parents. I dropped out of school at Primary 5 because I had to look after animals because my father had to handle other matters. We are 6 in the family.
How has beekeeping changed your life?
We used to sell honey in these local markets, but we just spent the money anyhow. We have been getting money, yes, but it was little. After we discovered Honey Pride, now we get good money. Like I have now started buying some animals for myself.
How do you provide a good environment for your bees?
To provide good environment for bees, you will need trees because that is where you have to keep your hives.
As you can see, we have tried to protect these trees around. We are also planting more trees, like those eucalyptus trees, there are even mango trees we have planted around here. The water source is a little distant from here, but I think they can manage. We don’t have enough resources to give them food. So they look for their food
What do trees mean to you and how can they be protected?
Trees help a lot in many ways. As wind break, they also provide fresh air etc. Like here I have planted some trees because I know they are important.
How I protect these ones is by stopping people from cutting them. Like the planted ones, if they die off, you have to replace them. This place can be dry, during dry season. That is the challenge.
What is the most important thing in your life?
The most important thing in my life is to work hard for my future. If God blesses me with children, I would like them to take this enterprise serious because I know there is money in it. Now the market is there.
What are your biggest challenges and how do you plan to overcome them?
We have many challenges like lack of money. But like in this bee keeping enterprise, the challenges include little capital to increase the number of hives, there is also theft, so you have to be on the lookout.
To overcome this, since for me I didn’t go far in education, I now take this as a source of income. So, I want to use this to raise money to do other things. As for thieves, we just have to guard the place.
What do you like to do in your free time?
During my free time I usually continue doing some light tasks, including checking on my bee hives etc. But sometimes you go spend time with friends to socialize
Which place would you like to see once?
If there is opportunity to see a place, I would be happy, like going to Kampala. I have a brother there, so, I would be happy to go there.
