Help women increase their income with beekeeping

On our last report we have shown the collect of the harvest of raw honey in the villages.

This raw honey purchased by our association to the beekeepers at a fair price needs to be conditioned before to be sold. For this harvest we bought over 1.000 kg of raw honey.

The separation between honey, wax and residues is done in 2 steps. The first step is to press the raw honey to extract as much honey as possible. It is a bit like pressing a sponge. The leftover of this operation is then placed under a glass plate in the sun to melt the wax and get some additional honey.

The honey is then kept for at least 30 days in plastic containers until it is conditioned and labelled in glass container. The honey is then ready for sale.

The wax still needs to be refined before it is sold mainly to artists making bronze statues using the “loss wax method”.

Finally the residues of this process can be used as fertilizer. Nothing is lost.

The revenues which women gets from this activity is very important to help them go through medical and education expenses of the family.

The women who have got hives thanks you for your support.

Many more women are asking us for hives!!! Thanks to promote this project around you.

Harvest time for honey: harvests for honey happen twice a year in Burkina Faso. In April for the large honeydew and in October for the small honeydew.

Type of hives: there are still traditional hives in the trees. These are not good for the environment, not good for the bees and not good for the taste of the honey. We provide modern or kenyan hives to the beekeepers .

Harvesting of raw honey: The honey coming out of the hive is a mix of wax and honey. You can see the alveolus on the pictures attached to this report. It takes at least one year between the swarming of the hives and the first harvest. The hives ditributed to women beekeepers via this project will not be harvested this time.

Conditionning of the raw honey: the honey is extracted from the wax alveolus using (cold) pressure. 

Results of the recent large honeydew: beekeepers collected an average of 7kg of raw honey per hive. One liter of raw honey weighs 1.5 kg.

Water for bees: at most of the water wells of the villages you can see bees coming for water. There is no danger for the women and girls who are coming to pick up water. 

Situation of the funding of the project of beekeeping:

With the funds collected so far we can provide 11 women with 5 Kenyan hives. We still need funds to complete the project to 20 women equipped for beekeeping.

What is happening now?

In January 2017 we will select 11 women from the villages of Sokourani and Sissa.

In February they will receive a training in the city of Bobo Dioulasso on general information about beekeeping. They will also receive 5 hives against a participation of 64,5US$. This participation can be a loan against future sales of the honey.

In March the hives will be set up in the villages. A second training will help them locate the best place for them and how to attract the swarms in the hives.

What about the harvest of the honey?

Harvests happened twice per year. In April is the main harvest and in October a smaller one.

What happened with the honey harvested?

Our association can buy the raw honey (honey mixed with wax) at a fair price. It is then processed and conditioned to separate the honey and the wax.

Honey is then sold on the local market by our association.

THE WOMEN OF BURKINA FASO THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN TO THEIR DEVELOPMENT.

WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR FUNDS TO REACH THE 20 WOMEN GOAL. THANKS TO COMMUNICATE THIS PROJECT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES.