The Beginning

This weekend Chris and I went to visit Iltubula to tell them that their apiary proposal had been sponsored by the McDowell Honeybees and the Marion County Rotary Club. It was very exciting to be able to deliver this news, and we wished the generous donors from these groups could have been there to tell the group themselves. We documented our journey here to share it with them.

This is the road to Oletukat, through a semi-arid landscape of acacia trees. Up ahead, you can see a common roadblock in the area-- a herd of cattle wandering down the road.

Upon arriving at Oletukat, we first visited the house of Ezekial Kutingala, our friend and host. We visited with his three young children, and his lovely wife Josephine made us chai.

Then we went to meet the Iltubula Bee Keeping Self-Help Group. We all gathered in one member's house, and an elder opened the meeting with prayer. Then we all introduced ourselves. Timothy, Iltubula's Chairman, and his brother Jacob talked about the history and vision of the group. They also discussed the traditional role that bees and honey play in the Maasai culture. Then it was our turn to tell the group the exciting news... their proposal to build an apiary in their community had been fully funded through the generosity of the McDowell Honey Bees and the Marion Country Rotary Club! We had brought pictures of some of the members of the two groups, which we shared with the members of Iltubula.

The community told us that four of their members had already received training from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, and they proudly showed us their training certificates. We were especially excited to see women represented and trained in the group, because women are often under-represented in community leadership.

Then they took us on a tour of their proposed apiary site. They had chosen a 1 acre area they plan to fence off, where they have agreed not to harvest any of the trees for firewood. They had already dug a water pan nearby to be used as a water source for the bees.

They also have five top bar hives already in the apiary that had been given to them by the Ministry during the trainings, and they proudly showed them to us. Three of them were inhabited by bees, so we chose to examine the other two. Because the community currently has no specialized equipment or clothing to handle bees, they only harvest honey in the early morning or evening, when the bees are less active.

They took one of the hives down from a tree and showed us how they work. They are comprised of a wooden box with thin slats of wood fitted across the top, covered by a thin metal lid. Each wooden slat has a groove on which the bees form the honeycomb. By removing each slat, you can harvest as much honey or wax as you need.

Here is a group picture of Iltubula, standing in front of one of their hives. They are excited to get a group picture in return of the generous groups who have decided to support their dream through forming a partnership through the art of beekeeping.