Beekeeper Training  - May 2017
Nsanga AG Center, Rukwa Valley

Greetings from the Rukwa Valley in SW Tanzania! May 24th through 28th 2017 we ran beekeeper training at our Nsanga, Agriculture Training Center. What a great time we had with our trainees Omari, Bushiri, Ray, Daudi, Celestine, Mbwana, Jafedi, Boaz, Frenki and Pius from Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and Sumbawanga! 

The first day of training was focused on the Theory aspects of African beekeeping.  Where does honey and wax come from? What is the brood chamber? Utilizing something called a queen excluder, how does a beekeeper keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey chamber? How does a beekeeper get 100 percent occupation in his hives? How does a beekeeper attract primary swarms into his hives so that they start producing honey in the shortest amount of time possible?

Ted with some of the trainees from May 2017. Many of these men came from the other side of Tanzania to learn about bees and harvest honey with us.

Getting ready to go out the second day. The man in the center is a son of a friend of mine named Mpera who allows us to put bee hives on his property. We constructed a hive for his family to thank him. He suited up and went together with us so that we could harvest his father’s honey for him to carry to the family. Mpera, got three 10 liter buckets of honey comb from his hive the day!

​The second day of our training was focused on Practical aspects of African beekeeping. What effect does smoking have on bees and how much should you use? What are the exact measurements for allowing  “bee space” between the combs when working with African bees? How do you make beeswax starter strips utilizing common African household materials? After learning these things we suited everyone up in the bee suits that they purchased and took them to our apiaries where we harvested honey together.  This year we had two days of harvesting with our students. Afterwards, everyone remarked how much they enjoyed that aspect of the training.  African bees can be very intimidating. Harvesting together with a team of experienced beekeepers can do much towards instilling courage in beginners!

This was an exceptional year for honey and we were fortunate to get 1.3 tons of honeycomb. When pressed, this raw comb produced just under a ton of raw liquid honey.

The last day of training was centered upon Processing and Packaging.   This is an easily overlooked aspect of beekeeping especially here in Africa. The general idea being that if we produce honey we have succeeded. That is not true if you plan on selling the honey you have gathered. If you sell honey in bulk (by the bucket) you will almost always fail to get a good profit from what you have worked so hard to produce. There needs to be a good procedure for processing raw, unheated honey, so that it will retain its volatile key-tones. These are the flavors and smells that raw honey possesses. Once heated past 155 F many of these smells and flavors are lost. That is why one of the first questions asked of many African beekeepers is, “Is your honey raw?” To produce raw honey you must observe strict standards of hygiene.  Arms must be scrubbed with soap and latex gloves worn for the pressing that is done by hand or while using an extractor of any sort. We also looked at different jars used to sell honey, talked about the registering of their honey with Tanzania Bureau of Standards as well as, getting quality stickers to identify your honey.
 
We will look forward to communicating more with these men as they move forward with their exciting new projects. 
​
Thank you for your interest in African beekeeping.
 
Sincerely, Ted Rabenold
Africanbeekeeping.com

Discussing processing and packaging with the trainees. Practical and financial aspects of the finished product.

Here are more photos:

Jericho Mugalla, head trainer in our beekeeping program. He is an excellent carpenter and craftsman with the ability to train others in construction of hives, suits and smokers using locally available materials.

Mbwana Batister, from Sumbawanga, makes a queen excluder using coffee wire. This queen excluder prevents the queen from laying eggs in the honey chamber thus allowing a beekeeper to harvest virgin honey comb. The workers can cross over this wire to "put up" honey but the larger queen cannot cross over and lay eggs in the comb.

Batister attaches his wire queen excluder using staples.

Ted explaining how to make beeswax starter strips. These strips help guide bees in attaching their comb on the bars in the beekeepers hive.

Ted with Ray on left and Omari on right during the first day’s theory session at our Nsanga Village, Agricultural Training Center. What great questions the men had regarding a colony of bees and how they interact with one another!

Boaz and Bushiri lighting their smokers. Smoke is the most important tool an African beekeeper possesses. Bees communicate aggression using a scent called alarm pheromone. Smoke impedes the bees ability to communicate covering nasal receptors in their antennae. Therefore it renders them incapable of making a "full scale" attack on the beekeeper. It also causes bees to gorge on honey making them more docile and easier to work with.

Our trainees in the field during our practical harvesting session. We harvested honey two days in a row with this group of trainees and they enjoyed this part of the training THE BEST.

We discussed, “What are your bees eating?"

Trainees holding three large honeycombs from our top bar hives.

Trainee removing a honeycomb from a modified log hive. These hives produce large quantities of wax and should be employed whenever possible if a beekeeper in is need of wax as well as honey. Wax is used to bait hives so they will become occupied by bees during swarm season.

Two African honeybees on capped comb.

Trainees hauling the “honey bucket” during our harvesting days.

Batister holding a honeycomb with Mt. Mkukwe in the background.

Happy trainees, all holding honey comb from our 2017 harvest. We harvested 1.3 tons of honeycomb this year!