Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Top Bar Hives Produce More Honey

Case study: Mrs Nyani

With Practical Action's advice and training, Mrs Nyani's bees give her 480 bottles of good-quality honey a year, and with good access to market she can sell it at twice the price of honey she previously harvested before using the top bar hive. Surprisingly, Zimbabwe still imports 60% of honey for domestic needs. So there's a ready market for this liquid gold.

Mrs Nyani continues to use honey for medicinal purposes, and also makes floor polish from the beeswax the hives produce, and hopes to start producing candles as well. She has no fear of her family going hungry, and is passing on the benefit to others by teaching her bee-keeping skills to local women through the bee-keeping association.

"My friends the bees work hard for me so we need not go without food. Now I shall show others how to use their hives to good advantage."


From the Practical Action website.
Top bar hives are favored by Biodynamic Beekeepers and are considered a more natural way to keep bees. See the Barefoot Beekeeper website.

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