Bweyale Beehives

[aggienaut]

[I missed last week's LJI deadline due to mistaking the due date, but still wrote an entry, please check it out (: ]

Thursday, October 29th, Day 26, Bweyale, Northern Uganda - As is all too often the case, we didn't get to actually openign any beehives until we'd been in Bweyale several days, until the last evening we were there actually. People are often enthusiastic about showing me beehives sitting in fields, but opening it up? Oh noe, we have to do that later, we're not ready now because we uh, didn't bring the suits or the smoker or there's children playing nearby. By and large it all amounts to excuses. I get it, opening beehives can be intimidating, and I think that's one of the single biggest obstacles to overcome with training, if you're always apprehensive about opening your beehives you won't do it enough, you won't take good care of them, but if you just can't wait to see what they're doing and you're constantly telling yourself to give the bees at least a week before opening them again so as to not bother them too much, and feeling impatient about that, then you have the right idea.
   Alex had said we'd go see the bees the evening before. He initially proposed something like 8 or 9pm, I said "how about 3pm?" I think we compromised on 5 but he waffled around didn't show up till nearly eight and then I declared it was too late.
   Unfortunately, Alex, who is otherwise very forward thinking about development projects, was solidly possessed of the pernicious belief that beekeeping should be done at night. Another significant thing I try to change, since you can't see things like pupae, much less eggs, or anything else really, in the darkness of night, especially while wearing a bee suit.


The road just near the field with the beehives, as seen during the day. Picture from my DSLR, notice the big ugly splotch that looks like bird crap on the lense ): ):

   So Thursday evening we again compromised on 5pm, twilight, and once again he was late arriving (this is a common Africa thing, "Africa time," he'd usually pick us up in the morning about two hours after he said he would), and by the time we got to the field with the beehives it was pitch black out. I groaned inwardly about this but it was the last evening and I did want to see how the hives looked on the inside.
   We tromped along a narrow path between waist high crops (corn? cassava? I don't remember exactly), lighting our way with flashlights. Grace would occasionally shriek as some giant insect flew into her face, attracted by the flashlight. Finally we arrived at a little clearing next to a hut. The hut was the storage shed for beekeeping supplies ... and they had forgotten the key! Fortunately we had bee suits but I think it contained all the smoker fuel. Two young men who had come with us started a camp fire to get fire going for the smoker. This took some minutes and I took the time to enjoy the cool night air, the small of damp organic earth, the infinite stars overhead (stars are pretty good in rural Uganda!), and the hut flickering in the campfire light.
   Creepy crawly things in the night were bothering Grace so she opted to return to the car and wait for us there. Finally we got the smoker going, donned locally made bee suits, and went to check out some hives. As predicted, through the obstructive netting of the veil, one could hardly see anything, we were just bumbling around in a void. Pretty soon we had bees all over us and in our suits. They work bees at night because they believe the bees won't be so bad, but bees are very crawly at night and frankly I think that makes them more likely to get into a sub-optimum bee suit -- certainly I think all my most unpleasant getting-stung-all-over experiences have been working ebes at night. As far as Icould tell the hives were mostly poorly constructed and maintained, which is not surprising, but made it even more difficult to do anything useful with them in the dark abyss. After going through about half a dozen hives I declared we'd seen enough even though the young fellow who was working with me seemed ready to keep on going all night.

   They have a beautiful field full of beehives (I had some nice pictures on my phone, taken during a daytime visit ....) that they plan to use for training, but if they don't learn to work it during the daytime, what's the point?

Comments

[froganon.livejournal.com]

Cousins had hives and I was treated to a new bee hatching in my hand unplanned. I was too fascinated to be afraid. I said something like "look, a bee is hatching". Cousin scooped up the bee and put it somewhere else. Cool. Yes, I would be willing to do it again. The smoke was pleasant and the bees were lazy. Sorry your folks are afraid!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

How fun! One of my former coworkers the first time I took him to the bees he experienced a queen hatching out in his hand. I was like "you lucky bastard, it took me years to experience that"

[absynthe77.livejournal.com]

I've been keeping up (mostly) on your posts, and I just want to say thanks for doing this. Your life is worlds away from what I see on a daily basis, and I find it both entertaining and broadening to see your first-hand accounts of your travels and travails. I am also now possessed with a desire to visit Ethiopia. I had the good fortune to work with a gentlemen from there many years ago, and with your stories and pictures, I find I am captivated by the beauty of the land and the people.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh Ethiopia is absolutely lovely. Safe! Relatively clean as far as Africa goes. I usually wing it but if you want something more structured there's plenty of tourism agencies in Addis which could organize whatever you want to do for you. More world heritage sites than anywhere else in the world... Gosh I love Ethiopia. :D

[watching-ships.livejournal.com]

Seems like beekeeping is something you'd really rather do in the daylight. I have no experience with it myself, but your description is very vivid and I don't think I'd feel confident out there in the dark, confined by the suit.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah like I said, you can't see a thing! Beekeeping IS looking at the frames of the hive and determining what's going on there and what you can do to best help them! All you can do in the dark is steal honey!

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Ohh...I wish Alex would have learnt his lesson and may venture out in the day next time onwards. Interesting read as always..:)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah. There's a family that lives maybe 200 meters from the beehives that he claims get stung if they work them during the day, but that really ought to be more than enough distance. /:

[yachiru]

I am so so afraid of bees but you're kinda making them grow on me. At least the keeping aspect of them.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Well I'm not sure this episode is exactly much encouraging but they're really quite sweet (:

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine the obsession for working the hives after dark. You can't see where the bees are (including on you), and like most insects they'll tend to gravitate toward light-- which probably doesn't help, but also means they're not doing whatever they normally do in the hive.

Was this a place you were returning to (where you helped them set up the hives a while ago), or a new place you were visiting to offer help?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly, during the day they're all busy, during the night they've got nothing better to do than all come out and see what the commotion is about, and yeah, come right at the flashlight. This can be mitigated by putting red cellophane over it, since they can't see red light, but I don't think we had any on this occasion.

New location, hopefully either I'll get back there or send a qualified friend.

[pundigrion.livejournal.com]

I would figure the bees would be grumpy about being woken up and the flashlights!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

They are!

[murielle.livejournal.com]

This is the second entry in this mini-season about beekeeping, and it makes me wish I had wasted so much of my life being afraid of them. What wonderful adventures you have. So glad you share them I can dream.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Did someone else write about bees??? Or are you just referring to my entries?

[murielle.livejournal.com]

I think it was someone else. It wasn't about Africa, and it wasn't for this prompt--the one I'm thinking about.

[rayaso.livejournal.com]

I love reading your entries, and really look forward to them. I can't imagine inspecting bees at night -- even with flashlights, how can you really check on them? Making you do this after dark really does defeat the purpose.

[lab-jazz.livejournal.com]

Great read - beautiful photo.

Australia is going to be somewhat boring for you after Africa

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

Bees.. i love those stingy little dudes... have only been stung twice in my fifty odd years and both times because someone else freaked it was on my person! We are losing so many of our pollinators. Please keep educating people on their importance environmentally also! Thanks for this write! Peace~~~D

[vik_thor]

Do they actually ever inspect the hives, or just steal the honey?

(I've been sorta thinking of starting beekeeping sometime. I am actually in a house with a yard now, so it is more possible than it has been in the past.)

[prog-schlock.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated about this. It sounds like there is almost a different cultural understanding of what bees are like among the Ugandens. I recognize, from where I live, that there are different cultural perceptions of the place of, for example, the dog, the cow and the pig regarding their relationship to humans, their relative intelligence/holiness, and whether they are a potential food source or not, but I didn't realize that local experts in different countries might have different ideas about how to best interact with bees. At some point, shouldn't the science take hold? Or are there different cultural beliefs about the science involved?

The song this made me think of is either an excellent song to rock out to or something that will make you cringe. I know of no in-between reaction to this artist. Also, the reason I thought of it is because this is the song I always sing to myself when its pitch black out.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I am continually impressed with your knowledge.

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

"...bumbling around in a void..." I love it! AW