By Bisola Adeyemo
Bee farmers in Kenya are facing lots of challenges as drought struck their productions making bees to migrate.
Jonathan Maro, a prosperous honey trader with more than 12 beehives under his management lamented that beekeeping is lucrative investment until the drought struck, and water sources and plants dried up, cutting production.
“I normally harvest between 25kg and 30kg from one beehive in a good season, making more than Sh300,000.
“Now my hives remain empty day after another, only two hives manage to get bees. the bees abandoning them for other hives distances away.
“I woke up to check on one of the hives, only to find the bees had eaten everything and left. The activity in all the others was not vibrant either, and I knew I was doomed,” he says.
According to the nation Africa, since the drought hit, he says, the heatwave had become unbearable. The bees had not been making enough honey and their production fell by half.
“Other keepers in the next village have resolved to make food for the bees, mixing sugar with water. That is where all the other bees are fleeing,” he says.
But he is optimistic that when the rains return, his beehives will be refilled and he will bounce back.
Mariam Hassan, on the other hand, decries pressure from buyers.
“We are all facing challenges. I have to go to Lamu to get honey because there is a shortage here and all beekeepers are distressed about the effects of the drought,” she says.
Having traversed the Tana Delta and dealt with farmers in Galole, she says she has no doubt that the honey enterprise is experiencing its worst crisis.
Only a few beekeepers are still in business but they too foresee a difficult phase if the drought persists.
“The bees are fleeing to Lamu and Garissa. Anyone with a beehive along the river or nearby is certainly lucky this season,” she says.
With more than 200 beekeepers facing a slump, experts say that the farmers may have to start afresh when the drought season ends as the bees will not return for now.
