Save Elephants And Giraffes - Africa's Giants

Around Meru National Park, our Saving Meru’s Giant team work with farmers to deploy beehive fences. These fences are a simple, yet effective tool in deterring elephants from farms.  

The beehive fences are not just an elephant deterrent tool, Born Free is supporting farmers to earn money from these hives, supporting sustainable livelihoods and skill development.  

Elephants, despite their big size, don’t like bees...especially honeybees! When beehives are placed around a farm, and connected by a wire, they become an effective tool in warding off elephants from farmers precious crops. If an elephant tries to enter the farm, they will knock the wire, causing the beehives to sway. Sensitive to any disturbance the bees will then swarm towards the elephants, protecting their home. Afraid of nasty bee stings, the elephant’s best options is to leave the farm away from the bees, 

The Saving Meru’s Giant’s team have worked with farmers to deploy beehives around the western and northern section of Meru National Park, where crops are particularly vulnerable to being eaten by elephants.  

As many of these honey hives have now become productive, the Saving Meru’s Giants team is working closely with the farmers to build their knowledge and skills in honey harvesting and processing.  

Along with two of Born Free’s Community Conservation Assistants, who work closely with the farmers, five beehive farmers attended training in March at the National Beekeeping Institute. The training focused on transforming raw honey into higher-value, market-ready products with the aim of increasing income and reducing post-harvest losses. There is a huge demand for honey not only locally, but also abroad. Demand far outstrips supply and our farmers are regularly overwhelmed by the number of people wishing to purchase honey. Whilst honey is an important income source for these farmers, ensuring it is handled, processed and stored properly is vital to ensure they are able to benefit from this resource in a sustainable way.  

The training also covered the production of various honey products, including how to prepareflavouredhoney using ingredients such as ginger and cinnamon, which offer added health benefits, as well as the processes for producing creamed honey and minimally processed comb and chunk honey.  

The farmers were also given advice on how to process the propolis, which is the resinous mixture produced by honeybees in the hive and is often used medicinally by people. By providing farmers with these skills and knowledge, we are helping support sustainable livelihoods, which protect wildlife and generate income for communities by offering alternatives to activities such as poaching and charcoal burning. 

The Saving Meru’s Giant’s team will continue to work with farmers to enhance their expertise in beekeeping and honey processing, and we look forward to purchasing a pot of their honey!