Hive Drive

In 2003 Thomas Okore and his wife started a support group for widows and other disadvantaged people. In 2005 Thomas’ wife tragically passed away due to complications in child birth leaving him a single dad with five children to take care of. Since that time he has continued to lead Amen Widows and Orphans Group (AWOG) in between working, attending seminary school, and taking care of his kids. The main function of the group is mutual encouragement, although they do occasionally manage to pay school fees for orphans that are being looked after by group members. About a month ago Thomas and I began discussing the prospect of his group beginning a small-scale commercial beekeeping business. Our idea was to start with 20 hives and then re-invest a portion of the proceeds to purchase additional hives. The remaining money raised through the sale of honey would allow the group to have a much more tangible impact in the lives of its members.

One of the group members has some land that would be ideal for beekeeping. Between me and Jess’ dad (coming in July) they will have plenty of knowledge about business and beekeeping. The one thing they lack is the money needed to buy the hives and equipment. One beehive costs $55 which means 20 hives would cost $1100 – far more money than the group can come up with. However, if I can find 20 people back home to each purchase 1 hive we could have a lasting impact on the lives of the group members. In fact, the average beekeeping business of this size in Kenya earns $3600-$4800 per year. That’s a lot of money in a country where the average income is $900 per year. Anyone interested in partnering with us can either comment on this post or e-mail me at steventhomsen266@hotmail.com. If you’d like to help but can’t afford $55 we will also need 2 beesuits and a smoker.

Anatomy of a Hive

For those of you not familiar with the world of beekeeping, I thought a brief overview of a typical beehive may be in order. I also wanted to show off our new hives we've had built. Some of the old beehives were in such poor shape that we just needed to start over. I've had two new hives built so far and will continue building more as finances allow. Pictured here is what is known as a Langstroth hive. It consists of two main parts - a brood box and a super. The brood box is the larger box on the bottom where the queen lays her eggs (brood). The two slightly smaller boxes on top are the supers. This is where the honey lives.

If we remove the metal lid and take a look inside we'll see a bunch of wooden frames. These beehives have 11 frames in each super. After coating the underside of the top piece of the frame, the bees will begin to build individual combs on each of the 11 frames. Once the comb is built, they begin to make honey in each of the little hexagonal chambers of the comb (except in the brood box where they fill the chambers with eggs). In the picture below you can see a small piece of honeycomb inside the frame. You can also see the rough condition of the hives and why I decided to start fresh.

Steven