WHY BEE FARMING

Bee farming is an old practice among the Bakweri people but in the past majority of the community harvested wild honey by cutting down or burning big trees were the bees have colonized. Such practice is harmful to the nature, environment and the bee colony.

This is so because in either cutting or burning down the trees their habitat is been destroyed. On the other hand, the practice led to the destruction of the colony and even the honey which they also used as food. Most at times upon felling down of the trees, the honey hunters realize that the honey is not ready for harvesting or better still only a small fraction of the honey is ready for consumption.

Furthermore, the process of harvesting honey in the wild using fire posed a lot of threat to the biodiversity because it sometimes led to bush fire which usually take days or months before dying down. Such situations often destroy the habitat of many animal, birds and insects while slower animal and insect die in the process likewise a huge variety of plant species is equally been wiped out by such fire.    

It is in this regards, that community activist, peer educators and stakeholders have taken the challenge of educating and promoting bee farming which is more organized and controllable and has more environmental, economic and agricultural benefit.

Bee farming is environmental friendly because bee farmers plant flowering plants for bees to collect nectar as such this is an indirect strategy for reforestation. Bee farmers protect trees more than any other farmer. 

If bee faming is integrated with agriculture, then the slash and burn system were farmers burn down trees after clearing will eventually stop. The integration will cause farmers to even plant more trees while in situations that they may need to fell down some of the trees, it will imply that such a case will be of necessity (probably trees that pose threat). In this light, it is obvious that the felled trees will be 

More also, bee farming is equally an encouraging practice to farmers especially with the climate change challenges that we are facing today. Naturally, bees help in the process of crop maturity. Most farmers who have hives in their farm or those whose farm(s) is been visited by bees have always share a testimony of good and quality harvest.  

Economically, bee farming will also improve the livelihood of the farmers. Honey and other byproducts are in very high demand in local, national and international markets. Farmers can benefit from bee farming because honey harvesting is not seasonal or conventional as it will depend on the number of hives that a farmer has and his or her harvesting strategy.