Honey harvesting to beekeeping: a case study from southern Tanzania. Part I

 When we realized it was important to work with village beekeepers, we discussed the idea with the Chief Beekeeping Officer, at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. https://www.tnrf.org/en/node/5119    Mr. Stephen Msemo explained that honey production in Tanzania is focused in the west. Therefore he suggested that we work in Mtwara and Lindi regions, about 200 kilometers south west of Dar es Salaam. He explained traditional beekeepers lived near the government forest reserves, but production was very poor. Moreover, government policy is to support people to use such forests in sustainable ways, of which beekeeping is one.

Lulindi town

Ray Milanzi, one of my employees is from Lulindi and knew beekeepers there. Lulindi is a small town alongside a red dirt road, with one-story buildings made of red bricks. It lies adjacent to a forest that is managed by the government; Kambona Forest Reserve is about 30 hectares of Brachystegia forest and riverine forest between 670 - 700 m above sea level about 10 km from Masasi town.

We went to visit.

The beekeepers

They were a group of 4 beekeepers, headed by Daudi Selestini, with members aged between 26 to 50. They were farmers with families, growing and selling cashewnuts, choroko (peas), cassava, and sesame, who had lived in Lulindi village all their lives. Beekeeping was part of a diversified income strategy.

 

Photo. The Kambona Forest Reserve is degraded as a result of cattle moving through, and people collecting firewood and building materials from it

The beekeepers built hives from bark and placed them high in trees; they used almost no protective clothing while harvesting; the bees were sacrificed to get the honey. They had heard there was a market for wax, but did not know how to access it, and were discarding it.

 

 

                        The hive is made from the bark of the branch of a specific species of tree.

They are fragile. ‘With the bark hives you harvest once and then throw it. You make another one.’

 

Hives were placed at the top of the tallest trees in the surrounding scrub.

 When asked why they kept their hives so high, they described the need to keep them away from wild animals such as honey badgers, and because the bees prefer to live very high.

Honey harvesting

‘We climb up in the night, when the bees are less aggressive…. Then we use a rope to download the hive.’

Honey harvesting was described as a war, in which the humans were trying to take the honey from bees who did not want to give it up. As the group explained, ‘In the village, when we were harvesting honey, we killed many bees. They died…. We were using fire... when you burn them with fire, they die. Do you see? That was the village way of harvesting. …Enhee, I was taught to burn the bees with a hot fire… whaawhaaa! Bees, we killed them, because we had no protective clothing and the bees were stinging us.’  They expressed remorse at ‘killing the very creatures which are helping us.’

We bought one third of their recent harvest, which had been very small (5 liters) due to drought.  The honey was stored in a dirty plastic much-used 1.5 litre water bottle. It was contaminated with wax and black specks which they said were ash, from the fire they use to protect themselves while harvesting. A few hours later, passing the honey through a sieve, it could be seen that the specks included wax, body parts like legs, and other unidentifiable bits. After cleaning, the honey was beautiful amber and delicate tasting, but a bit thin. Some months later the honey was found to have fermented. They were averaging a few litres of honey per year.

They described their needs as bee suits, training, and a market. They also wanted ladders and ropes.