BEEKEEPING
A hobby you can do into old age
Beekeeping: welcome to this most fascinating farming occupation that starts in the back yard and extends far beyond just keeping bees, but also into the vast, wonderful and beautiful flora of our country and into the pollination of any number of crops imaginible. The beekeeper has all these features at his front door to enjoy. He becomes the friend of every farmer and a most sought after person when he has to remove troublesome bees from odd hidey-holes. In cases where he offers free pollination services to farmers, heisalways“ baie welkom.” Beekeeping is successful and most enjoyable when one, with some knowledge of bees, can work with confidence and determination. This is obtainable by working with and learning from an
Interested in beekeeping but don! t know where to start? Here! s some insight into this fascinating and vital pastime that can become a lucrative business, by Peter Clark, chairman of the Eastern Highveld Beekeepers! Association
experienced beekeeper. It is this“ hands on” learning that cannot be attained from books or classroom lectures. As one meets successful established beekeepers, one will find that all of them were taught by an established beekeeper at the outset of their careers. The craft is capital intensive and a very costly outlay to build up to an operating outfit. However it is an undertaking where one can start small and grow at one ' s own pace of development. Mostly the work is outdoors, often into night hours, so one has to be healthy and fit and not be troubled by back ailments. Hard work that can be hard on the back is the order of the day if one is to succeed. One becomes attuned to the demands and requirements of the bees and to discipline oneself to these situations spells great success. Good planning is essential, as goals must be set and adhered to, as one needs to know what will be happening twelve months hence, and then through every month as the year progresses. One learns to observe the various plants that flower throughout the year and what crops will be flowering, and how one is going to get the honey from those flowers in those days. Therefore one has to keep proper and accurate records of honey flows and the amount of honey obtained from each flow. To meet these requirements the bees have to be kept up to strength at all times. Beekeepers are loners and because they have succeeded at a great cost of time and money to obtain good sites for their apiaries, they are very reluctant to disclose their sites and any details of their operations. The value of the bee industry cannot be assessed. By some it is stated as a R20 billion industry and by others far more. That ' s because one needs to consider the value of foreign revenue brought in by the fruit export industry, the fresh juice industry, the cooking oil and the use thereof in the food preparation industry. Then add to that the pollination of crops for the fruit and nut production industries, for
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