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“I started bee keeping way back in about 2009. I was motivated by my father. Basically they used to harvest wild honey and he would tell us of how important honey is..”.
The Life as Beekeeper
Who belongs to your family / who is living with you?
My name is Amagule Yudah, from Gazi Cell, here in Ayavu parish, Inde Town Council. I am married with children. We are about 8 people in my family, including dependents.
What motivated you to start bee keeping?
I started bee keeping way back in about 2009. I was motivated by my father. Basically they used to harvest wild honey and he would tell us of how important honey is. Besides harvesting wild honey, he also used to keep local hives. We would eat it almost daily. Then he encouraged me to keep my own hives. That was my motivation and I grew up loving bee keeping until I realized later in life that it could fetch good money
How has beekeeping changed your life?
Bee keeping has benefits. Right from eating the honey as food- the honey, the pollen and even the brood is good when you eat it. But also when you sell the honey, you get good money. It has benefited me in a number of ways especially supporting my family. Once in a while you pay school fees and sometimes buying clothing for children etc.
How do you provide a good environment for your bees?
Well, first I have created fire line for this place to ensure that wild fire does not burn the hives. I clean the apiary regularly and I often clean those hives that have not colonized.
What do trees mean to you and how can they be protected?
Yeah, trees are useful. I have planted most of these trees here. This helps the bees because bees need trees for their forage. Trees also provide shade for the bees. I protect these trees, first by maintaining the fire line. That protects them against wild fire. Secondly, I weed under the trees to make the environment clean. And since I am here most of the time, there is less disturbance from people.
What is the most important thing in your life?
The most important thing in my life is hard work. Especially hands-on
experience. I believe that when you do work personally, it is very satisfying. For you to benefit, you need to work hard
What are your biggest challenges and how do you plan to overcome them?
There is challenge in every aspect of life. But the biggest challenge here, especially regarding bee keeping is that people are cutting down trees and that affects the population and colonization of bees. Secondly, people don’t want to work, but they enjoy eating. Then we have challenge of manpower. In my home we are few and that means work progress is affected. There are also challenges of planning etc. Here there is also challenge of flooding, that is why I have raised the hive stands a little higher. These are some of the challenges we face. As I said before, my plan is to work hard and raise capital to help me address some of these challenges, especially those that need money.
What do you like to do in your free time?
When I get free time, I do small business of selling food items and merchandise. People come to buy them from my home.
Which place would you like to see once?
I have always thought about this. Generally, it is good to travel and when you travel, you get to learn many things. There things you learn from observation from other places. So, I would wish to travel whether here in Uganda or Africa or any
other part of the world. If resources allowed, I would go.
