Bees for Life!

As the project progresses new endeavors are achieved. You all know our first beek “Migdad”, yes he is now turned to a stunning beekeeper in all respects. He is able to maintain his bee hives, do colony division, honey collection, everything by himself. But the erratic rain which has hit Southern India has affected the apiculture, not only Migdad but as a whole it has poured extensive damage to the field. Normally the feeding of honey bees ends as the monsoon season ends, but due to the weather conditions prevailing in Kerala, feeding is continuing.

TIES, as part of rooting its project activities, has developed 50 bee boxes during this period. Intensive feeding and special care by our team made the colonies strong; hence colony divisions also continued adding more live boxes to our stock. We have been selling colonies and bee boxes to passionate farmers at nominal price meeting its cost only. Our bigger plan is also on the anvil, providing honey boxes to needy communities with no major regular income, as a livelihood support. Destitute women, orphaned adolescent children, persons with severe and chronic diseases are identified and soon they will be provided with the honey boxes.   

Certainly bees are the most beneficial insect in the world which contributes significantly to our biodiversity and crops, but highly threatened due to the increasing pollution and changing land use pattern, driven by the burgeoning urbanized culture. Research programmes are also begun utilizing the limited resources at this moment, in order to address major threats to honey bees and apiculture practices. Five major studies have been launched and regular data collection is progressing from all colonies we established.

A quality testing lab for honey is also proposed. Support is solicited for these three components of the Bees for Life Project: (1) Expanding Apiculture by providing more live honey boxes to needy communities with proper training, as a livelihood support and to enhance biodiversity conservation. (2). Research projects to find sustainable solutions for threats like climate change, diseases, predators etc. (3). Establishing a quality testing lab for honey, bee wax etc. 

As part of Bees for Life project, five colonies were provided to Mr. Migdad, one of the beneficiaries. In the beginning, we expected to collect honey from all these hives during the time from mid of March 2021 up to mid of May 2021.However, this didn’t materialise as anticipated, which we believe was due to the altering monsoon patterns in the area. There were intermittent rains in Kerala since March2021 onwards which has severely affected the bee colonies. Normally, feeding of the colonies starts from the month of June, but due to the altering climatic pattern, we were constrained to feed the colonies from March(2021), two months prior to the normal feeding phase. In spite of this, two colonies were abandoned due to the drastic climatic change. The remaining three colonies are healthy and feeding of these colonies is still continuing.

Some good news to cheer about here; Migdad is now capable of maintaining his colonies independently!!

Colony division can begin from the mid of October 2021 as per the ongoing conditions. This will aid in retaining the abandoned colonies and thereby enhance the colony numbers.

The Bees for Life project now aims to reach a broader spectrum by expanding its activities to the community. As part of this initiative, we have initiated the purchase of 150 bee boxes inorder to increase the number of beneficiaries in the community group.