Haitian
Beekeeping
Summary: The project goals
are to try and elevate beekeepers’ knowledge and production, bringing them a
sustainable income, which equals better food, better health and better
education.
As a beekeeper, I
always am willing to help another beekeeper when in
need. This is one of the biggest tasks I have embarked on to date,
helping Haitian beekeepers attain a sustainable income. In the past
7 years, I have been working as a volunteer consultant
with FAVACA (Florida Association for
Volunteer Action in the Caribbean and the Americas: http://www.favaca.org); my
beekeeping missions ranged from teaching beginner classes in Barbados to
helping organize the Bequia Beekeepers Association in the Grenadines.
The project that I
embarked on 5 years ago was meant to aid farmers/beekeepers with information about
simple beekeeping methods. It was cut short in 2008 due to the 4 hurricanes
that impacted Haiti in that year. Most infrastructures in Haiti is
poor in the best of years; many of the roads/bridges had been wiped out and
water supplies had been contaminated, not to mention mud everywhere, and
the project was put on hold until winter of 2009. Through teaching
the use of movable frame top-bar hives, bee biology and mainly the
importance of bee space in a hive, the end result aimed for
is a sustainable income for families in order to help this crippled
nation. The devastating January 2010 earthquake has set the
project back once again.
REJEPMA (Regroupements des
Jeunes Progressistes de Mathurin: http://www.favaca.org/?q=node/300), a
coalition of farmers, agricultural students, and beekeepers partnered with
FAVACA to organize the training. The rural village of Plaisance de Sud is
in the mountains of southwestern Haiti, about an hour’s ride off the
grid. The lectures took place at the local Catholic Church, that being the
largest meeting place in the village. Like much of the Haitian infrastructure,
everything is pressed thin for a multitude of uses. The village is
agriculturally based where everyone has a garden plot of root
vegetables. Gardens are getting scattered further from family homesteads
as land is passed on and divided up among family members. The
island’s geology is mostly limestone and the surface topsoil is very
poor, which in itself makes everything a challenge to grow. Their
diet is mainly white rice (US imported) and pigeon peas with carrots.
Haiti is the poorest
nation in the western hemisphere, with problems rooted deep in its
history. The people have a genuine hunger for education and it is one
of the main items they spend what little money they have on. Average wages
are $1-3 US /day and schooling is $10 / month / child. They
believe if you pay for education it must be better and most village
churches have schools. Haitians know that to survive as a nation, education
is key.
Beekeeping has been
part of Haitian culture for generations, perhaps even tracing back to
honey-hunting traditions
from ancestral Africa.
The island of Hispaniola,
which is shared with the Dominican Republic, is likely
the repository of the first European honeybees transported to the new
world by early Spanish explorers/colonists; Apis millifera has been on the
island for over 400 years as best we can determine and a majority of the
honeybees are solid black in color. Haitian[s] “beetenders” hive their
bees in logs much as they would have in the 16th
century, having a minimal knowledge of modern apiculture and using
smoke from dried banana leaves in old kitchen “smudge” pots. When showing
them a bee smoker it was greeted with wonder and jubilation: “What is it? A
smoker! What a great idea!” I handed out 10 pairs of bee gloves,
only to have everyone put them on upside down. I was laughing and then I
realized, they had never seen a pair of gloves in this tropical environment.
Major issues with using
traditional bee logs include limited production capacity and colony
survivability after harvesting honey due to disruption/destruction of the hive,
which affects the sustainability of beekeeping enterprises.
The diverse group of 40
was made up of men and women of all age ranges and was excited about the
information; many of the class participants were college students from the
capital, Port au Prince. One
farmer walked four hours each way to class for four consecutive days. It showed me how much they valued
education.
Language is a
problem and even with an interpreter, a second person
was needed since the dialect of the village is different than
basic Creole-French; as luck would have, the second translator was an
agronomist.
The first 3 days of the
training we stayed in the classroom and talked about bee biology and how this
superorganism functions. The students showed up everyday. One man would walk 4 hours each way to
class in the mountains. He did this for 4 days in a row for the education. The
final day was spent building a top-bar hive (TBH) and transferring a log
hive; sticking my arms into the log and cutting out the comb is
something I will never forget. It is something they never teach or write
about in textbooks.
Wood is valuable and a
scarce product in Haiti. Deforestation of the island for cooking fuel over the
past 100 years has taken its toll. We were able to purchase 6 sheet of plywood
(US$80/Sheet) and they will be able to build 24 TBH’s with this material.
I thought to myself how it would take a month’s wages for them to buy the
wood for 1 hive, so I scaled down the size of the TBH to get a 4 hives per
sheet of plywood. As a proponent of IPM (Integrated Pest Management),
I included screened hive-bottoms in the design since Varroa mites are
present (but hard to find in this part of Haiti). I hate the thought of
Small Hive Beetles in a log hive.
SHB have been reported in Dominican Republic, so it’s a matter of time
till it spreads across the island.
Haiti is the perfect place
to try TBH’s; simple to use with limited woodenware that anyone can build
and with no need for extractors. The Langstroth equipment I did inspect was
generally being misused as most hives were missing frames and comb was
being pulled from the lids, apparently due to lack of equipment or lack of
knowledge, most likely both. The largest beeyard I visited
had increased from 7 hives to 60 in 2 years. Wild honey bees are
plentiful and easy to catch, the downside is that Africanized honeybees have
been reported in neighboring Dominican Republic.
We know the perfect storm
that looms on the horizon for all beekeepers; it doesn’t matter how remote the
village is, disease and pestilence loom at the hive entrance. This was one more
good reason for a movable frame hive project as it’s hard to inspect a log
colony.
Peace Corps beekeeping
manuals were printed in French and distributed along with blueprints of
hives and smokers among the class members. Hopefully this would give them
a guide to reference after we leave; it takes longer than my 3-4 days with them
to teach beekeeping.
The beekeepers all made it
through the earthquake disaster, but most lost everything and moved to the
countryside to survive. If any culture can survive the hardship of another
natural disaster, it’s Haiti.
The earthquake has set
them back once again, but the rebirth is beginning. An Apiculture college
is north of the capital in Hinche. It is supporting youth orphans from the
earthquake. It has 30 students, both male and female. This is the bread basket
of Haiti, so it is the perfect location for training new beekeepers. I
found the Haitian beekeepers are like most beekeepers, willing to learn if
given the chance. Here we have
started using steel drum TBH’s.
Drums are prevalent and
cheaper than the wood.
I stay in contact with the
REJEPMA’s president, Amainvil Yossoiné, on a monthly basis. Amainvil was an
elementary education teacher but his school was destroyed and cannot be
rebuilt, so he is unemployed. Better beekeeping is still a goal and he requests
my return regularly for more training classes. He tells me this, without
a roof over his head and living night to night with friends or family. He has
never once requested funds from me, only bee information; I hope to return
this coming year to aid the beekeepers and Amainvil once again.
Beekeeping projects and
instructors in Haiti are always welcome.
Bo
Sterk, Master Beekeeper
email: honeybeeboy@ymail.com
References / Support:
David Westervelt, Chief of Apiary, State of Florida
Dr. Nicola Bradbear, Bees for Development, London, England
Dr.
Ricardo Jannoni-Sebastianini, Apimondia, Rome, Italy
Dr. Jamie Ellis, University of Florida, Bee College, Gainesville,
Florida
Gladstone Soloman, President, Association of Caribbean Beekeepers
Organizations
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