Harvest money: Keeping bees for financial gains

HARVEST MONEY   AGRICULTURE

Honey is not just the sweetest product, it also gives sweet money. Apiary can be practised from anywhere, in any space. For a starter, all you need are, say, 10 beehives.

Depending on where you get them, this can cost you at least sh1m-sh2m, if they are fully colonised. If you do not have enough space, you can set up stands, with each taking three or four hives.

For the 10 hives, it means that you need only three stands. To construct these wooden stands, one needs to spend less than sh100,000. With these in place, the other requirements include a bee-keeper's suit, which costs sh100,000. This is worn by the beekeeper during harvesting. Overall, with sh2.5m, one can start a modern 10-hive apiary enterprise.

From the 10 hives after one year, each can produce at least 20kg of pure honey, which translates into 200kg per year. At a farm gate price of sh15,000 per kilogramme, this translates into sh3m from the 10 hives. And yet, input in form of labour is low.

Bees have got low predators and are not attacked by diseases. So, you do not need to buy medicines for them. A beehive remains colonized for as long as its structure is still right. Bees multiply and create new ones often.

Selection of apiary site

Water availability: Bees need water to thrive in their business of producing honey. Make sure that there is a water source within a radius of 500 metres. Although bees are known to travel for over 5km looking for water, etc, the nearer, the better. 

If there is no water source, one can put up their own water sources, in saucepans or pails near the apiary site.

Good flowering plants: Bees process honey from nectar. The sources of natural nectar are mainly flowers. This is, therefore, why it is important to have flowering plants near the apiary.

These can be coffee, mangoes, maize, bananas, calliandra, eucalyptus or simsim plants, among others.

Have shade over the hives: Bees do not like direct sunshine. Therefore, this is why one must select a site that has trees, to create a shade. Direct sunshine makes the hives too hot for the bees to live in.

Away from human habitation: The site should be at least 100 metres away from houses. This is intended to stop attacks from the bees. The nearer the hives are to a homestead, the easier it is for the bees to be disrupted into attacking people.

Keep it away from any animals or animal shelters, for example, a kraal. Bees are easily irritated by animals and they may attack them. Animals may also meander into the apiary site, hence causing attacks.

Beehives

To have bees on the farm, one needs beehives. On the market, a top range bee-hive, in most cases, goes for between sh80,000 and sh120,000, the modern hive or langstroth hive goes for about sh150,000 when not colonised and over sh250,000 when colonised. 

However, one can make their hive using materials that are readily available on their farm. These may include old tree trunks. You can also fuse papyrus to create basket hives.