“A friend of mine was doing beekeeping and it has gone well for him. I picked up on the idea and started with beekeeping.”
My Life as Beekeeper
Who belongs to your family and who is living with you?
My wife and I have one child, so we are a family of 3.
How has beekeeping changed your life?
I now have 20 beehives. I have been able to find good friends who are fellow beekeepers. I sell honey and get money which helps me to buy items at home for use.
How do you provide a good environment for your bees?
What I am doing it planting flowering trees for my bees like gum tree, moon flower, trumpet flower and calliandra plant.
I have put all my beehives in shade to protect the bees from heat. I placed my beehives near a source of water that is a small stream.
And I slash around the apiary to keep it clean to avoid pests.
What do trees mean to you and how can they be protected?
Trees have a big impact to beekeeping. Trees give us shade in our home and also for the bees. They provide flowers for the bees to get pollen and nectar. They protect us from strong winds, protect the soils from being washed be water.
What is the most important thing in your life?
My dream is a plot in town so I can build a good house there.
What are your biggest challenges and how do you plan to overcome them?
The traditional beehives attract many pests so I would prefer to have modern hives. I plan to first increase the number of traditional hives to harvest big volume of honey then buy the modern hives.
Another challenge is the low colonization of some hives. I keep cleaning them and changing position for the bees to colonize the beehives.
I have no protective wear so when harvesting sometimes forced to harvest only at night. but I still get stung. I plan to buy good harvesting equipment.
What do like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I enjoy drinking local brew with friends.
Which place would you like to see once?
I would like to travel to France.