As the butterfly season comes to an end, the distant rumblings suggest the dry season might about to as well. Lockdown has also just lifted, and we are eager to meet with our farmers for an update. Rosette has been keeping us updated on the condition of the apiaries, and almost everybody has been making good progress. Soon, we’ll be able to visit the one struggling farmer and help her set the hives in a place where she can finally catch some bees. We’re gathering data on weight of individual hives, in preparation for harvest at the end of the month.
Our new colonies are settling into the new apiary, and we’re keeping an eye on the health of some of the weaker colonies we received from Margaret’s apiary last month. These bees have been neglected a bit over the last couple of years, so we’re hopeful that they will recover. We also brought in all the scattered hives and catch boxes dotted about over our land, and our apiary now has 21 active hives in it. I expect we might lose one or two of these in the coming weeks, but we’re doing what we can to avoid that. The empty catch boxes have been scattered back out and we’ve already got two new swarms in those, so we’ve set a target of 35 colonies in the apiary by the end of the year.
Local honey is still coming in! It’s really nice to have more supply than demand, for once. We’ve sent two boxes of it to friends in Kampala and Entebbe, to act as pick-up points for people who want to buy it, and we’re making good progress in the packaging for the coffee and tea, which should arrive this week. All being well, we should have a range of products completed this month, and ready to put on the market.
At the beginning of the month, we were asked to visit a community project, an hour from here. We were told that the group had received KTB hives, but they weren’t getting colonised. We were also told that in the traditional hives, colonies were leaving right after harvest. We were asked to investigate and advise the farmers in a report. This was a great day out, the scenery and the weather were beautiful, and the work was very rewarding. We visited numerous apiaries belonging to the community members and gave them some on-site recommendations. What we found were hives that had not been baited properly, and destructive harvesting practices that were chasing away the bees. The report was well received and we are hoping to be called back to give formal training soon.
We’ve had a very tight year so far, financially. The previous season was a huge let-down in terms of marketable product, and the donations we were asking for went directly into adding farmers to the project, so we haven’t had much to spend of our own. However, the headquarters we have designed and built here has looked after us well. We are reducing the amount of food we need to buy every season by cultivating crops, farming laying hens, and making use of recycled water bottles as planters for our nursery. We have plenty of rainwater collected to get us through the dry season, and our power all comes from solar panels. At the top of the land, we’ve cleared more space for activities; calisthenics bars are going up this week, and there are plans for more objects to come. We are almost self-sufficient here, and as such have been able to weather this low season well. It really feels as though the holistic approach to the project is paying off, and we’re looking forward to becoming more independent over the coming years.
Enjojo Farms 