Timothy's sweet photos from April 22

First honey harvest!

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:32 AM PDT
      Last year while walking through The Garden of Eden, I happened to see and film a swarm of bees move in to one of my empty hives. The video is in a post titled A home for a Swarm and is a post from August. Yesterday, Alexander and I harvested honey from those bees. It was our first harvest and the end result was 25 pounds of honey! Not bad for a first harvest.
     It is always fun and exciting to harvest, and the bees where not as aggressive as the ones in Congo. I was testing out a new bee suit design made from local materials, and by a local tailor. I came away with multiple stings on my body and face. I think the suit needs some modifications before it goes in to combat again.
     There are still some kinks to work out, and problems to solve, but I hope this harvest shows that beekeeping is possible and worth it. Last week I had another swarm move in to another empty hive.


We use the Kenya Top bar hive here. A few months ago Alexander and I moved the bees from the small hive they moved in to, in to a larger full size hive.


I worked one end of the hive so Alexander could see how it is done. The kind of hives we have often have honey at both ends and larva in the middle. It was really fun pulling out all that honey with the sun shining on and through it.


Alexander worked the other end, and did a great job. 



Alexander and I squeezing the honey out of the honey comb and through a cloth. 


Small plastic coke bottles are quite common around here. I have been collecting them for just this occasion.


The label still needs some work, but as of right now it is Anzere aho, Mafuta ti awotoro. Mafuta ti awotoro is honey in the Sango language. Anzere aho is hard to translate exactly, but is something like 'better than anything else'. The phrase is used quite a bit in Sango. Below that is a reference to Psalm 119:103, which says, �How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!� NIV.


The final product! Each one of these bottles sells for about 1000 Central African Franks, or $2 in the market. I don't think any of these will make it to market though. : )

    I have to leave CAR for a while since all the missionaries here at Gamboula have left or are leaving tomorrow. I hope to be able to return with Danforths, but until then, I will be finding things to do in Cameroon.