BeeBoy East Africa

First 21 Days in a Bee’s Life

Check out this great TED Talk by Anand Varma. The photos are fantastic… We’ve heard that bees are disappearing. But what is making bee colonies so vulnerable? Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his backyard — in front of a camera — to get an up close view. This project, for National Geographic, gives a lyrical …

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Karura Forest Working Session No. 1

This was the first working session in support of the Vision community beekeepers of Mji wa Haruma. Seven of the group attended a morning inspection and pest control session. The group was quite keen. FKF Chief Scout, John Chege, said the group was at first surprised that someone as young as me knows so much about bee-keeping.

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Bee Boy Visits Karura Forest

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Honey by Leon Croze

Honey is golden, shiny and sweet; Bees make honey that we love to eat. They guard their hives with passion and stings; And store their honey in hexagonal rings Bees live in their hives with caution; They eat their honey in portions. The wax can be used to make candles And to smooth out your …

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The Importance of Queen Bees to Africa

ICIPE has produced a really good little booklet on the importance of rearing good queen bees. You can read it here.

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First 21 Days in a Bee’s Life Karura Forest Working Session No. 1 Bee Boy Visits Karura Forest Honey by Leon Croze The Importance of Queen Bees to Africa

May 13

First 21 Days in a Bee’s Life

Categories:

News

by Admin

Check out this great TED Talk by Anand Varma. The photos are fantastic… Copyright Arnand Varma

We’ve heard that bees are disappearing. But what is making bee colonies so vulnerable? Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his backyard — in front of a camera — to get an up close view. This project, for National Geographic, gives a lyrical glimpse into a bee hive — and reveals one of the biggest threats to its health, a mite that preys on baby bees in the first 21 days of life. With his incredible footage, set to music from Magik*Magik Orchestra, Varma shows the problem … and what’s being done to solve it

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Apr 06

Karura Forest Working Session No. 1

Categories:

News

by Admin

Fixing up crossed-comb making it easier for the community for future inspections.

Showing the difference between drone and worker bees.

Tasting some honey to check its quality.

Finishing up the inspection.

Question and answer session at the end

Tags: Community Outreach, Training

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Apr 04

Bee Boy Visits Karura Forest

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News

by Admin

Croze investigates abandoned Langstroth hive

Leon Croze visits Karura Forest to inspect the beekeeping activities there. Says Croze, “Some of the Haruma Village hives are showing a lot of neglect, but others seems to be well-maintained and productive. The people need more training and effort to achieve a successful honey harvest. The potential is great due to all the beautiful flowers in the forest. Each Langstroth hive if properly maintained could yield 15 kg of honey in the honey-flow season.” He noted that the hives in the ICIPE experimental enclosures (see photo) maintained to success standards. There is clearly a huge unrealised honey enterprise potential in Karura.

Croze has expressed interest in helping the Haruma community improve its apiculture to sustain profitable honey production.

A neglected Huruma Village apiary

The ICIPE experimental apiary: the way it should be done

Croze notes ICIPE catcher box has Lesser Wax Moth aftermath

Tags: Assessment

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Mar 27

Honey by Leon Croze

Categories:

Poetry

by Admin

Honey is golden, shiny and sweet;

Bees make honey that we love to eat.

They guard their hives with passion and stings;

And store their honey in hexagonal rings

Bees live in their hives with caution;

They eat their honey in portions.

The wax can be used to make candles

And to smooth out your squeaky doorhandles.

Bees pollinate crops all year

And make the buzzing sound we hear;

But people take honey

To make some cash money.

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Feb 16

The Importance of Queen Bees to Africa

Categories:

News

by Admin

ICIPE has produced a really good little booklet on the importance of rearing good queen bees. You can read it here.

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Feb 14

African Reference Library for Bee Health

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News

by Admin

ICIPE (African Insect Science for Food and Health) is a major international organisation based right here in Nairobi. Last November, Deputy President Ruto opened ICIPE’s new African Reference Library for Bee Health.

ICIPE works to:

fight pests and diseases of bees, such as the varroa mite and Nosema apis, which can cause the death of entire colonies, and prevent the dreaded Colony Collapse Disorder, which is decimating bee populations in Europe and the USA, from taking hold in Africa
breed queen bees which are resistant to disease, are better honey producers or more effective pollinators, tapping into the vast biodiversity of bee species in Africa
monitor trends in bee populations to spot early signs of pests or disease, and to take stock of the biodiversity of bee populations
train researchers at satellite stations in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Liberia and Ethiopia to monitor bee populations and bee health across Africa
share knowledge about bees and beekeeping with farmers and researchers, serving as a hub of evidence-based information and raising the standards and productivity of beekeepers
test honey and other bee products for pesticide residues and quality, which will open up markets in Europe for African beekeepers.

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Feb 13

Bee Trip to Tsavo

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News

by Admin

Just been up to Tsavo with Tone and Sean sorting out 70 langstroth hives. Really hot and melting the drawn out combs so they cant produce honey. But lots of Melia trees will be lovely honey. They are building an apiary, and I plan to go up again and put the hives in the apiary and hopefully start to produce the liquid gold.