Africa has a tremendous potential for honey production. The fact that most honeybees there are the aggressive races does not deter the people there from doing what they can to obtain harvests. In my work there with various peoples in various countries I have been impressed and actually humbled by the determination and courage of these people. I will build this page as time allows with descriptions and pics of what I have been doing there. In most cases the projects have been funded by organizations such as Winrock International and Farmer-to-Farmer. My sincere thanks to them and the American people for funding. I can testify that the money is well spent, and used to benefit people who make our most poverty-stricken citizens look like wealthy Lords.

Beekeeping in The Republic of Guinea

Guinea for several decades was virtually cut off from the Western world, because of the “cold war”….because Guinea chose to side with Russia, the Western powers were not welcome. The leader for all those years chose to pursue a path of agrarian reform, to make Guinea self-sufficient agriculturally. It seemed to work pretty well. Even businessmen were obliged to go and work in agriculture for a few weeks of the year. Then, with new leadership, came the advent of “Democracy”. All the businesses that had been developed were deemed unprofitable, and sold in a free-market manner. Apparently, they were sold for pennies on the dollar to those with influence, and after that were often dismantled and sold off as scrap. The new “Democracy” was apparently a Kleptocracy. This is the story that I heard several times during my stay in Guinea. One thing for sure: Guinea in the countryside is extremely undeveloped. It looks much the same as Sierra Leone looked to me back in 1970, when I served there. The only difference I really noticed was the presence of cell phones even in many villages. For those looking for an “authentic” African experience, Guinea is the place….very traditional. Here is a link to a video of one village I worked in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSb0w1e0U2M There are several more, which can be viewed by going to: http://www.youtube.com/user/moigboi/videos

Some of the videos in the above link are of work done in Uganda and Nigeria. Both these countries have tremendous potential as well for the development of beekeeping. It is ridiculous that Africa imports any honey at all; the continent has IMHO the potential to be the world’s biggest EXPORTER of honey, much of it Organic! Over and over I was struck with the incredible potential for honey production, which could not be realized because the beekeepers lacked even basic protective gear, to say nothing of access to even the most rudimentary beekeeping supplies. For example, in the whole nation of Guinea, it was impossible to find bottles to put honey in! Used water bottles were all that was available. I know it sounds unbelievable but it’s really true . Bee suits were unheard of in most places. Smokers? What’s a smoker? These people would go out at night with a smoking wad of grass, climb a tree (the hives were located in trees) wearing only a pair of shorts, and lower the hive down to the ground…..then tear it part to get the honey. These are African bees, the true “killer bees”, extremely vicious…..how in the world they are able to do it, and take the innumerable stings, I can’t imagine. But they do. The problem is not laziness, or fear. It is lack of any infrastructure to build a business upon, coupled with a lack of knowledge of modern beekeeping. Together, these make progress very difficult. And finally, add into that the total corruption of those in charge, and you get No Progress. That being said, I have to say that the people of Nialeya village, in Guinea, were the most progressive and hard-working beekeepers I have ever met. In only two visits, they went from producing only dirty, low-grade honey to producing Export-grade honey, and making their own bee suits as well! I can only hope that Winrock or another NGO will continue working there. Seriously, if I were younger, I would consider going there to start an education center and a honey packing/distribution center. The potential is huge, as watching some of the videos will confirm. All that is needed is someone to get things started.

Beekeeping in Nigeria

There is so much I could say about this, but let me first state that Nigeria is a prime example of why the extremely poor remain so in many places in Africa, while a chosen few get rich. In a nutshell, corruption. Nigeria was the only place where I was confronted with gross corruption even within the aid organization I worked with! This self-serving, destructive behavior really messed up part of the project I was working on. Now I’m not saying that they are more corrupt than in the United States . But we are far more discreet how about such things here than they are there. It reinforces more than ever my belief that it is the morality of a nation more than any other thing that causes it to rise or fall. More on this (perhaps) when I get more time….

Ghana. the project in Ghana was really pleasant to work on. People in Ghana were extremely friendly and of all the countries I have been in Ghana is the most progressive so far. The beekeepers who I worked with were in a somewhat remote Village, but they did have electricity! The project was different because nobody in the village actually kept bees beforehand, so everybody needed a good education in basic beekeeping. Ghana is really big on natural products and natural healing with herbs, and so forth, so because of that there was a tremendous demand for local honey. The pharmacies were buying it for its medicinal qualities! The beekeeping group seem to be doing well as of last report.

Uganda. LIDEFO, the group we worked with in Uganda, seems to be working quite well and has expanded from year to year. It seems to be a really going concern now. They are producing quite a lot of honey (over15,000kg) and selling at the retail level in Kasese and other places. Unfortunately there was a lot of political trouble in Kasese last year and apparently a terrible massacre took place, with possibly hundreds of people being killed by the army. Some of the beekeepers were caught up in this but I don’t think LIDEFO suffered very much because of it. It was pretty terrible though and give you some insight into what kind of government actually exists in Uganda. Since they are friendly to us we call them a democracy. I forget how many decades the president has been in power. But on balance LIDEFO is doing quite well, and has expanded greatly since we were there.

Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone borders the Republic of Guinea. I have a special love for this country because I spent three years there in the Peace Corps years ago. I suspect the honey potential is just as incredible as Republic of Guinea. This is a country I haven’t been to on a beekeeping mission, but I really want to return and see what I can do to expand their beekeeping industry. One of these days I hope to get the money to do it. I really look forward to it because I do speak Sierra Leonean Krio and can get by in Mende, which is widely spoken. This eliminates the need for an interpreter in most cases, which is a tremendous benefit; having to use an interpreter is a real barrier. I’ll keep you posted as to any developments here. Any local philanthropists out there?

Latest project. Susan Bigelow and I will be going on a three country fact-finding mission to try and connect the beekeepers of Guinea with bulk honey buyers in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Some of these buyers want to purchase over one million pounds of honey every year. If we can successfully do this, it will change the lives of many thousands of Guinean beeks who have no decent market for their honey. We hope to leave in January of 2019, and be there about 7 weeks. We are funding all the expenses out of our own pockets, so donations are really needed. NEOBA has generously given us $500, and individuals can contact NEOBA to donate. We also have a donation site on NEOBAs Facebook page, NeobaHive. Please call me (Lloyd, 918-850-3820) or Susan (918-814-3101) if you have any questions; we need all the help we can get!

An African Story

One night, after many years of peace, and endless nights each is beautiful as the last, Adami felt the horizon speaking. It told him that the time had come for discovery. Accordingly he went to the place of discussions to speak with the elders, who had been gathered for some hours speaking of various matters. He stood silent for some minutes as they spoke of old companions, and passed feats of forgotten ancestors. The time came when his presence was acknowledged.

“So, the young come again to speak with the past?” they said.
Adami began. “I come to speak to you about this night. Over there the horizon seems darker and more limitless that it has ever before. It calls me, and although I know my future steps, I have come to ask you about this thing. Surely in our past there have been other nights, even darker horizons, and other men who were dragged by them as I. Before I answer the darkness is there anything you can tell me?”
Many were silent, having never heard of such things. Others, although silent, seemed very sad–as if once the call had reached them, and it’s strength was not great enough.
One grizzled old man spoke through a face of worn leather. His eyes were small and sunken but glistened like diamonds.
“This thing of which you speak is stronger than you know. I can remember one man, yes, he heard the horizon. It spoke to him so loudly that he too had to leave. He was just a boy when he left here but his eyes possessed a fire that was brighter than most. I knew him well; he was my brother. This thing is strong…he spoke to me one night, a few nights before he walked away; he cried and only said his life was my life. One night later he left without goodbyes. He is an elder now, I think, although I am not sure where. I have never seen him again”.
The old man looked at him for some minutes then, in silence, as the red embers of fire in the meeting place turned colder. Like the webs of giant spiders, the hammocks moved imperceptibly back-and-forth, in silence. Outside, the moon spilled in white sheeting onto the village.
Once again the old man coughed slightly and spoke. “I told him many things, hoping to ease the fever in his eyes. None of them were able. But still I told him over and over, ‘you are one of us,never forget you are, never forget who your mother and father were’. That is all I fear,that he no longer remembers.”
The still, silent air of the meeting place was alive with the past. Many more people were present, although invisible. His mind straining, Adami bowed and left, amidst the roaring silence.
His leaving the next night, silently as a breeze, was painted clearly in the single tear that rolled down that leathery cheek. The horizon said nothing either; but one week later it roared and flashed all night long.

Susan Bigelow and Lloyd Ziegler go bonkers and do 2 month survey of beekeeping in West Africa

No……. they’re not ours…...

It finally happened. After 47 years, I finally returned to my Peace Corps stomping grounds, accompanied by my good friend Susan Bigelow. I was intensely interested to discover what a Civil War and half a century had done to the country I loved so much.

Me, in another lifetime, 1970

I would like to say before launching into details that this was one hell of an adventure. I suspected it would probably be so: tourists are practically unknown here in the back country, and missionaries/aid workers are always part of a group. On top of that, our advanced ages made us an extremely unlikely pair to be roaming around here.

We spent a bit of time preparing. Each of us had a small backpack weighing about 20 pounds which contained everything we thought we would need for two months, except of course for food and water. Between mosquito nets, water filters, emergency meds and sleeping pads it was quite the tight squeeze. At some point I will list every item we brought in case somebody else wants to do such a trip. The ultralite weight is important because small motorcycles are often used to travel over what some cheery folks might call roads. In our case, the maxim “He who would travel well must travel light” truly applied.

We brought American Cash because ATMs are non-existent except (rarely) in big cities, and traveler’s checks or credit cards are useless. This meant that we had to carry the local equivalent of a small fortune on our persons at all times. Most people probably figured that we were with the Peace Corps.

We planned to survey beekeeping practices in parts of three neighboring countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. Money, as usual, was a problem. Thankfully we were able to pay for most of the airfare with donations from various caring people, and especially from NEOBA, the Northeast Oklahoma Beekeeping Association. We will never forget their generosity. And I think what we were able to learn and do will make it produce real results.

Susan found some really cheap flights (about $1200 r/t to Monrovia) and after the usual sardine-can trip we arrived in Liberia. We went thru immigration with no bribery necessary, and were met by the driver for an NGO called Universal Outreach. This group was headed by a young Canadian man and his wife, Kent and Landis. Kent’s father had started it years ago. They had good funding, and had started a program both teaching beekeeping, and selling honey locally. Apparently before they arrived, Liberia had no real beekeeping. People were simply bee hunters, finding wild hives and using fire to take the honey, destroying the hive in the process. Due to this total lack of true beekeeping, honey was much more expensive in Liberia than in surrounding countries, which enabled Universal Outreach to prosper in their sales.

Although Kent and Landis were out of the country when we arrived, they had instructed staff to welcome us, and stay for a couple days. It was great…… and the last we would see of running water for 2 months. Staff drove us to Dovala motorpark, where we got a taxi to the Sierra Leone border for 6 bucks. On our own; let the games begin!

Our first introduction to Sierra Leone officialdom was quite enlightening. The first stop was passport control. The officer in charge there looked a bit out of place. He wore a dirty t-top and a pair of broken glasses. After exchanging a few brief pleasantries the extortion began. The first ploy was that since we were coming to help people, we were working, so therefore we needed a $50 work permit. I got happily loud about my Peace Corps experience, how much we could help, etc etc. He finally relented after about half an hour…..and sent us to our next stop, the medical clearance health officer. There we were greeted by two thugs who insisted we needed a Cholera vaccination. Total BS, but they just wouldn’t give up! They threatened to send us back a few times.

Time was passing. It was extremely hot, and it was getting real old. They asked for 50 American dollars for the umteenth time.

They could have actually sent us back. I just sat there being nice without paying. Susan hurried it along by agreeing to pay a total of $12 for both of us.

Then they took our vaccination cards and actually stamped them with a bogus cholera immunization! So after an hour of grilling we got through.

It turns out that the official in charge of immigration there had died shortly before we arrived, and in his absence it was every man for himself. In all my years I have never seen officials work that hard for a bribe.

Next stop Bo, the second largest town in Sierra Leone. We asked around for a cheap hotel and found the Lilian Memorial Guest House. Bed, bucket water, and a fan that actually ran much of the time, very important because it was HOT. I should mention that electricity in Sierra Leone is rarely found, and when and where it is found it is very intermittent.

This seems like a good place to mention language barriers. Most people in towns speak Krio, a sort of pidgin English….but it is different enough to be a real barrier. For example, “na day ah da mas so” means “I am going there”. Some of it was not bad, but pretty tough to understand without prior study. Me, I downloaded the Peace Corps Krio manual and studied it, which was a big help. In the villages, a lot of older people spoke only Mende, a real problem since I forgot that years ago.

But, luckily, we ran into Sylvester Farma, and his wife Maria….

Sylvester’s family lived right across the street from the Lilian Memorial Rest Dump. We were sitting on the front steps trying to figure out our new cellphones when we met him. His mother is a lecturer on primate biology at Njala University, one of the best agricultural colleges in West Africa. Like most young people in Sierra Leone, Sylvester had no real job. I suggested to Susan that he might be a great help to us as he spoke several languages. We would be woking in fairly remote villages where language could be a real problem. So we asked him if he would be interested in helping. He said he would be glad to, without even being paid! He saw it as a real opportunity of sorts. The only problem he had was his wife, since she was about seven or eight months pregnant. But she agreed, and so voila, we had a helping hand.

Sylvester expressed great interest in beekeeping and offered to take us to various villages on his little motorcycle, after asking bee hunters there if they would be interested in learning actual beekeeping. For you non-beekeepers, Bee Hunters just find and destroy beehives and take the honey, whereas beekeepers actually manage the bees, taking some honey but also helping the bees

So, two days later we were on our way to Tikonko, a village/town. We met honey hunters, and found out that in 2003 there was a Methodist Church project developing the use of KTB hives there but it failed because of the Civil War. No KTB beehives remained, only honey hunters.
There were three beehives within a short distance. One was particularly promising because it was in the backyard of the Village chief and was stinging people.

The offending bee tree.

Now here we had a beautiful opportunity to score a handful of brownie points, and teach people beekeeping at the same time. We proposed to the Chief that we remove the bees and tree, and relocate the bees into a traditional beehive. He agreed.

I felt a bit over my head. While I have worked with traditional beehives in Guinea, I had never actually built one myself, and to make matters worse the vegetation looked completely different and I was not sure if we could find the same materials as they used in Guinea. Luckily there was a basket weaver in the village, and he assured us he could help. So, full of ignorance and optimism, we started gathering mud and palm fronds, the main materials of a traditional hive.

Our new creation

After the mud dried, we carried it over to the Chief’s bee tree, where a man in a bee suit chopped endlessly at it until it fell……

I couldn’t believe this MAN chopped down this tree with that little traditional ax. Took forever….

I reached into the by-then totally outraged bees, and began pulling out brood combs and honey. The brood I placed vertically on the floor of the hive, with both sides accessible to the bees. I located the hive on top of the fallen tree, close to the original location, gave them about 6 pounds of honey, then closed them up. It was pitch dark when we finished….

The next day, they were coming and going from their new home. It actually worked!

During this time in Tikonko, Susan was suffering terribly from what seemed to be a sinus infection. In desperation I enlisted the aid of a local medicine man, Sulaiman Mansaray. He ground up some ingredients and applied the resulting black mixture to her face. It worked, she felt much better the next day! People really liked her, and our “landlord’s” wife Effay even braided her hair….

Susan goes straightup African……

As for me, the motorcycle rides were too hairy for my liking. With three of us and two backpacks on a 125cc bike, I often rode on the flimsy luggage rack. So I did the logical thing, had Sulaiman make me some accident medicine for that. Oh yes, and some snakebite med, can’t take chances… I wore the accident medicine on my arm daily, and guess what? No accidents! So there. No snakebites either.

Local medicine. Wear one while travelling. Keep hidden.

While staying with Effay we decided to show the village how to crudely extract the beeswax from some of the empty combs we got from the bee tree. Since there are so few materials at the village level, the best way is just to boil them with water, stir into a soup, and then strain and squeeze with an old cloth. Then, we showed them how to make skin cream, using the wax, oil, and whatever fragrances were available. Effay had some great oil-based perfume. The resulting creme was a real hit. Actually, people love it wherever I have made it. They almost fight over it. Anything to encourage people to keep bees, or at the very least, save the wax from bee hunting. They normally throw beeswax away….

Making skin creme

Susan and I had only been in Sierra Leone a couple weeks. But already I was being forced to confront an incredible truth: After nearly 50 years, the brutal poverty of most people was unchanged. There was no running water. No electricity. No sanitation. No indoor toilets. For most people, no toilet period. No decent education. No jobs. For so many people, no hope.

It had been 47 years since I left Sierra Leone, and except for a bunch of cheap motorcycle taxis and cellphones, life was the same, at least on the surface. I resolved to try and discover the reason for this lack of change.

This was the sole toilet for the neighborhood where we visited in Njala, one of the most progressive towns in Sierra Leone. It was a private privy. That is why hundreds of people waited until very late at night to sneak in and use it. Our host, the owner of this hole, was angry, because all this furtive use had filled it up. It is hard to conceive of a life where one has to wait until very late at night to just relieve oneself. But since this was the city, with no woods, that was the reality.

Let me make a few more observations about toilet facilities in Sierra Leone. While staying in very small villages, it is not too bad because after all there is some forest around and possibly even a private privy or two. We had one near us in Tikonko. Susan can testify that there are a few small hazards involved, though. Army ants are one of them……

This was a column of army ants Susan discovered by stepping in them on a night trip to the privyhole….they Bite.

In general, I can say that travel in this part of the world requires that you leave modesty behind in all matters involving the call of nature. For me personally, this was hard to get used to. Like some guys, I have a tough time passing water when a whole crowd is watching me. I had to either get over that or pop.

While in Tikonko we had the opportunity to visit the primary school  there. It was Bare Bones education to say the least.

With the adults I brought up the subject of educating the women regarding FGM– Feminine Genital Mutilation. it has been a cultural practice in West Africa to remove the clitoris of women around the time of puberty. This custom is ancient. The people I spoke to said it was still nearly universal outside of the big cities, which is to say among most women. Back when I was in the Peace Corps, it was pretty mandatory and every woman did it. Amazingly it was not considered a negative thing, and in fact was very much looked forward to by women. Apparently that has not changed. I am aware that our Western media portrays it as a practice forced upon women against their will. In actual fact this is simply more fake news, simply not so for most women in Sierra Leone. I am not condoning it in any way; just stating the facts.

Sierra Leone is largely governed by secret societies. the men have the Poro and the women have the Bondo (or Bundu, Sande). They are extremely powerful. it is the Bondo that regulates and performs FGM. Sylvester mentioned that his mother, who is a university professor, did not join Bondo. And yet she and Sylvester had tattooed on them various medicines to avoid poisoning and other things. The societies are both practical and tied in with the spiritual/ supernatural as well. There is a huge contradiction here, a belief on one hand in science and a belief in supernatural ‘medicines’ on the other. But is there really a distinction? Is not the supernatural simply science that we either don’t understand or cannot regulate?

Our friend Sylvester wanted us to visit his home village of Fongieya, about about a 20-minute motorcycle ride from Njala. The last two miles were on a footpath that was navigable by motorcycle. Things were pretty traditional looking in Fongieya, despite its being in fairly close proximity to Njala. We were introduced to the chief, and some of the farmers there. They informed us that there was a hive of bees living very close to the ground a few hundred yards from the village. We decided to carry out the same program here that we did in Tikonko. We ran into Abu Ansumana, a beekeeper who has been experimenting with ktb hives constructed with mud. The problem with wooden hives in West Africa is termites. They eat them up quickly. Of course they can’t eat mud. Abu was a great help because he knew how to mix mud with the fiber leftover from making palm oil, thus making stronger cement for coating traditional basket hives.

Abu checking out our new basket hive. The wild bees are in the fallen tree on the left.

Kids….kids….and more kids. So many kids in Sierra Leone. Here’s hoping some become beekeepers!

I decided to spend the night in Fongeia while Sylvester and Susan went back to Njala. it was for purely personal reasons. I simply wanted to experience a night in a small Mende Village to see if the feelings were the same as they had been years ago. a really subjective thing, and hard to define. but it did seem that a certain peace and tranquility were absent. So hard to define.

Time was slipping by and it was time to move on to Guinea. Most of the road was reasonable until we got near the Guinean border. I had assumed that since there was only one border crossing, the road would be reasonable. I was really wrong. It degenerated into a track. We probably averaged 10 miles an hour. Few people, lots of forest. I was so thankful we didn’t break down. When we finally reached the border with Guinea, there was nobody there to stamp our passports, the official was running errands or something. The border was a rope strung across the road, and immigrations was four sticks in the ground supporting a grass roof. Someone told us to just continue on to the next checkpoint. Now this is not a good idea in places like this, because if they want they can throw you in jail for illegal entry and then extort all your money. I felt like I had made a real blunder and risked us all… it’s pretty common knowledge here that when stuff like this happens, you just wait at the border…. especially if you’re a foreigner. At the next checkpoint nobody could stamp us either, so it was onward into Guinea with no entry stamp. by the time we reached a decent-sized town it was nighttime. Not speaking French made it tough but we were able to get directions to government officials. I figured they were going to skin us alive, and relieve us of all our possessions, but it turned out they were very nice and stamped our passports without even asking for a bribe! Thank God we weren’t in Sierra Leone… from there we caught the last vehicle out of town headed to Faranah. it was about 25 miles; after about 3 bumpy hours we made it, totally exhausted. There (Thank God again) we were met by the sons of Mr. Marah, my friend. In conclusion I can say that a lot of travel in West Africa is better than walking, but not by much.

In conclusion I can say that a lot of travel in West Africa is better than walking, but not by much. Unless it is one of those very rare decent roads you might as well figure on about 20 miles an hour average. For the gregarious, it does have one decided advantage over travel here in America: you get to know even more than you might want to know about how your fellow passengers feel and smell, a direct consequence of cramming 4 people into the backseat of a compact vehicle.

Mr. Mara had been my interpreter on a couple of volunteer jobs with Winrock International. We had become pretty good friends. when he found out that Susan and I were coming to West Africa, he very kindly agreed to let us stay at his place for awhile. He had a pretty good-sized compound, consisting of one big house and a couple of small traditional grass covered houses, as well as numerous outbuildings. Mr. Mara was unusual in that he had only one wife in town, although he did have another one in his home village, which was 4 miles away. He was a strong proponent of women’s rights. Now by that, I don’t mean that he believed women should be equal in all respects to men. That idea is considered pretty much insane to the average West African. No, this form if equality means that men don’t do the dishes, clean the house, etc, etc. It means you don’t get to beat your wife, at least not on a regular basis; and probably, when she gets married, she has a choice of who she marries. it’s a little less all-encompassing than the Western version of equality. It seemed to work very well for Mr. Mara and his wife.

Susan and I were treated with the greatest hospitality by Mr. Mara and his family. He gave me his bedroom to sleep in. Susan had another equally nice room. Sylvester shared a room with Victor, one of his sons. I objected when I realized that Mr. Mara had no place to sleep besides one of the traditional outbuildings. But he would not relent, and insisted we stayed where we were. They even prepared western-style food for us. My plan while there was to try to begin some sort of wax exportation business with the beekeepers in Nialia. I had worked with this group of beekeepers on several projects with Winrock, and felt they would be a perfect group to produce beeswax for export. In particular, there was a man by the name of Sekou Mara  (no relation to our host), who I trusted completely to supply the wax. As it turned out he truly was very honest–but unfortunately, one of the men in the supply chain was not. More on that later….

While at Mister Maras, we traveled to the Village of Nialia, where I had spent a lot of time working on various Winrock International beekeeping projects in past years.  this Village produced very large amounts of honey.  with a population of perhaps one or two thousand people, it had dozens and dozens of beekeepers who owned collectively nearly 600 beehives. The vast majority of these hives were traditional, hung up in trees and made out of grass and mud. I was very curious to see how they were doing.

Apparently not too much had changed. well they did have a few bee suits they had not made any new ones in the last year or two, so more than likely people were doing a lot of harvesting at night in their underwear, the traditional method. of course in this method the hive is destroyed. But these traditional hives really only last a year or two anyway before termites and the weather destroys them.  they had tried using plastic to protect the hives from rain degradation but it didn’t really do much good because termites destroyed the hive before the rain did. Apparently the last two years had been very poor harvests. they were selling their honey for about 70 cents a pound.

I want to get a little technical here and discuss the exact way that Sekou Mara described his beekeeping method. I have never seen it explained before, and I have searched a lot. This method only applies to traditional beekeeping in West Africa, as far as I know. The beekeepers of Nialia are truly experts, and I suspect that the following method is not widely known. They tend to keep their methods as secret as possible. I am relating this exactly as he told me, even though it seems a little confusing. I asked him to reaffirm the correctness of several statements; so I think this information is correct.

November 1 to Nov30: half-sized hives hung up in trees. These are harvested the following April. If bees don’t colonize these, don’t be discouraged, wait until Jan/Feb.

Dec to Feb 7: Full sized hives hung up.  these are left about 16 months then harvested. Harvesting starts in March.

Then the cycle repeats. In November small ones are hung up, in December big empty ones hung up, so at one point you have empty small ones, empty big ones, and occupied big ones all up at the same time.

They get almost 100% occupancy …..hive bait is unimportant, but timing is essential.

Sometimes the bees are very late. Harvesting takes place from March until April.

Top of the hills is the best location, swamps are poorer.

They observe the bees and find it is best to harvest before the flow stops….. they watch for bees eating honey when they open them up to determine this time.

With small hives they can harvest about 5 liters of honey. The small hive is set up next to the big hive.

So that’s the description I got, and I certainly do trust Sekou Mara. I feel certain there is a lot of wisdom in this method.  I will leave it to you other beekeepers to explain what you think is actually going on,  for example why the half size hive and so on. I found it very interesting that the full-sized hives are left up for 16 months. All the literature said they were only up for a few months, for example from December to April. I always thought this was really wasteful as the bees would not have time to develop a really strong hive to produce maximum crops. Turns out most of the literature is wrong. Or, possibly, many beekeepers do just leave them up for a few months and then harvest, and it is only the beekeepers of Nialia that leave them 16 months. One thing for certain: they make a whole lot of honey in Nialia!

Here is some other data that might be valuable for future workers.  this was given to me by the heads of the three beekeeping groups in Nialia.

Bangalay group:  average yield from KTB beehives, 15 to 32 lbs. From traditional hives 15 to 22 pounds.

Sekou group, average KTB yield 15 to 36 lb. Traditional hives 25 to 65 pounds.

Ansumana group, average KTB yield 40 to 48 lbs. traditional Hive 22 to 32 pounds.

Frankly I would trust the Sekou group data most, because Sekou Mara heads the group and he’s extremely honest and meticulous. As you can see from that data, he got more honey from traditional hives than KTB beehives!

if you ask beekeepers in Africa what kind of Hive they like they will always tell you KTB.  but the reasons for this are not so obvious. the people that ask these kind of questions are usually foreigners involved with giving aid, and the beekeepers know that part of the aid they give is KTB beehives. Interesting enough without foreign aid they very rarely will build KTBbeehives themselves. And why should they? It is true they last for more than one or two years which is a great benefit. but they are sitting on the ground because it’s very difficult to keep one level way up in a tree (a KTB must be kept very level to function properly) and they’re very heavy on top of that. Additionally they are subject to thievery and grass fires while on the ground. And of course they are expensive to build whereas traditional hives are basically free. For all these reasons, plus the absence of good infrastructure, availability of lumber, and power tools, traditional hives are going to be the standard for a long time in my opinion.  this is not a popular opinion by the way.  but I think the unpopularity is due more to other factors than what is actually best for the African rural beekeepers.