Ugandans Urged to Take Up Beekeeping

Turning Honey Into Money
Scola Kamau, Daily Monitor (Uganda), 10/8/2009

Bee keeping is a venture that has not attracted many investors.

However, the demand for this product locally and internationally explains the dire need for more investors to engage in its production.

Dickson Biryomumaisho, Director, Western Region-The Uganda National Apiculture Development Organization (TUNADO) describes apiculture as the science of bees and art of keeping bees for production of honey, and other hive products using different techniques. This art can be carried out with or without land.

“One may need as little as10 by 10 metres of land unlike other ventures,” he says.

He adds that the undertaking is a low cost investment liable for all classes of people as little or no capital is needed.

“Hives and other equipment can be made locally and bees are freely available and depend on beekeepers for food,” he says.

The traditional hives include broken pots, woven twig hive or log hives that are hang on trees. However, Biryomumaisho says that it is advisable for the bee farmers to graduate to the modern langsroth hives where unlike in traditional hives where honey is extracted naturally, a honey extractor is needed to harvest honey from this modern hive. Top bar hives are referred to as transitional ones as they bridge one from traditional bee farming to langsroth bee farming. Langsroth hives are reusable, which could lead to an increase in honey production…