Safeguard Bees and Beekeepers in Madagascar

As Project Renitantely nears the end of its first year, we wanted to give an insight into the fantastic work that is done by our beekeeping team day to day. Many of the villages in which Renitantely works are extremely remote, often requiring extended travel for bee specialists Juvenal and Jevago. Last month they travelled to all of the project villages in order to see how they’re getting on. During their time in the bush, Juvenal and Jevago were able to deliver modern beekeeping veils, in order that the beekeepers can harvest honey and attend to their hives confidently and safely. During meetings with the beekeepers and wider community, they were also able to pass on the exciting news about a new deal with a local honey distributor. The hard work from the whole team in establishing this deal means that our beekeepers are able to sell their honey at an equitable price, ensuring a reliable route to market for their produce, one of the main goals of Renitantely!

The team were also able to conduct the monthly monitoring and training required to ensure the hives are on track and producing lots of lovely honey. They sat down one-on-one with the primary beekeepers to discuss various topics, including how frequently they were harvesting honey, and the yields that they were collecting. The data gathered is vital for understanding how the project is progressing and if there are any issues that need addressing in order to keep developing beekeeping as a source of income for our beekeepers.

Part of this month’s training included a session on natural varroa remedies. The infamous varroa is a parasitic mite that lives on the backs of honeybees. While tiny to our eyes, it is the equivalent of us walking round with a lemur on our backs! The mites also spread diseases to honeybee colonies and pose a threat to bees worldwide. Learning to control levels of varroa is therefore a hugely important aspect of Project Renitantely, and is an essential part of cultivating healthy, happy hives. The varroa mite is often treated with harsh chemical compounds, which can be effective in reducing varroa populations, but also pose great threats to the surrounding environment. However our beekeeping specialists recently found a natural remedy readily available right here in Fort Dauphin! Simply leave the packet inside the hives and let the fumes from the natural ingredients drive off the varroa.

So it was off to the bush to trial the new treatment in hives across the different villages, testing the effectiveness before rolling them out on a wider scale. If the results from the trial show it to be effective, it could mean a natural remedy, easily accessible to our beekeepers to help in the fight against the varroa mite.

As Project Renitantely approaches the end of its first year, it does so with a sense of pride about what has been achieved so far, and a buzz of excitement about what is still to come!