THE BENEFITS OF BEE KEEPING

Beekeeping is indisputably a highly lucrative alternative for numerous small farmers in Nicaragua.The environment is suitable for producing the kind of quality and even organic honey (without using antibiotics) which is so lacking on the international market.

Bees are important in their work as crop pollinators. This agricultural benefit of honey bees is estimated to be between 10 and 20 times the total value of honey and beeswax. In fact, bee pollination accounts for about $15 billion in added crop value around the world.

Bees have cultural and environmental importance as pollinators and producers of honey and medicinal products. The movement of pollen between plants is necessary for plants to fertilize and reproduce. Both farmed and wild bees control the growth and quality of vegetation — when they thrive, so do crops.

Bee keeping in Nandarola

Bee keeping is an exiting new project in Nandarola. Two farmers in the village of Nandarola have started a bee keeping production and are successfully harvesting honey. They hope to expand the project to more farmers this coming fall when the bee keepers return to Nicaragua. The Nicaragua Bee Project continues to give them support through their hired bee-keeper in country for any troubles they may experience. Bismark also helps them by extracting honey. The farmers have asked COMMIT for a honey extractor so that they can do this on their own.

ALL ABOUT AFRICANIZED BEES

Africanized bees produce honey like any other bee, and they are the bee of choice in many locations, especially in Central and South America, which rank among the world leaders of honey production. Created by biologist Warwick E. Kerr, these bees were designed to produce abundant honey in tropical climates.

Africanised bees are notorious in the Americas for their aggressive behaviour, but these fierce little pollinators may be the answer to declining honeybee numbers. Their demeanour has earned them the terrifying nickname of 'killer bees', but relatively few deaths are caused in proportion to the number of colonies.

What Do Africanized Bees Look Like? Africanized "killer" bees look so much like domestic honey bees that the only way to tell the two apart is by measuring their bodies. Africanized bees are slightly smaller than their counterpart. They are golden yellow with darker bands of brown.

These are the bees that our farmers work with.

HONEY AND IT'S BENEFITS

Evidence indicates that honey can exert several health-beneficial effects including

antioxidant
anti-inflammatory
antibacterial,
antidiabetic,
respiratory,
gastrointestinal,
cardiovascular,
and nervous system protective properties

Honey can provide an income for a family

HARVESTING THE HONEY

HIVES AT NPH

A few years ago COMMIT hired a group called The Nicaragua Bee project to start a bee hive project at the NPH Property on Ometepe Island. The group from Wisconsin spent a week training some NPH workers how to care for the bees. They have been back several times since to do more teaching and check on the hives. NPH Iis now selling the honey as well as using it for the children.