Ngong Forest

a few minutes ago,we again had a chance to visit the apiary, with hopeful minds at least to get if not more but a few kilos of honey.

a woman dressed in full attire holding a frame which contain honey

I learnt that the honey is held in a frame(above shown), the white patch is a form of seal to hold the honey.

A full packed frame weigh about 1kg,this is what the community women sell to the honey processing firm at a cost of Ksh. 100.(a well buying honey processing farm, this would go to ksh. 150 per 1kg)

During seasons when the bees can find enough nector, the sell is high and on avarage each woman goes home with at least Ksh 2000 per harvest per week.

but this is not always the case, when the bees can hardly find food/nector, there is nothing to harvest! like today we went back empty handed!speaking to one of them “for the last five months, we have had no harvest, the conditions have not been favourable for the bees due to food inadequancy, and the prolonged sunny conditions makes it even worse”.

We are all aware of the climatical changes, its not times when one could easily predict the weather,its not more to relay on traditional methods,and just the same way, these woman groups can nolonger predict the food patterns that is dependent on the prevailing weather conditions which again affect the magnitude of their harvest.

the challange is: how then can they supplement the food/nector inorder to restore their normal harvest?

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