Bees at last offer IT graduate a job he had yearned for

After a 30-kilometre drive from Matuu, we arrive at Ezekiel Mumo’s bee farm in Kithyoko village, Machakos County.

The village is littered with dozens of acacia trees, which are drought-resistant, among other indigenous vegetation, making it a perfect site for beekeeping as the insects love the plants for nectar.

We find Mumo, 27, wearing his protective clothing smoking the hives to calm down the honey bees.

“The first harvest normally starts around March,” says Mumo, a business and information technology graduate from Multimedia University. “This is what I am working on,” he adds.

The beekeeper has employed seven youths, who help him in making beehives, harvesting and packaging honey before it is distributed to buyers in Machakos and Nairobi, mostly in markets, hotels and residential areas. His workshop is located in Ongata Rongai, Nairobi.

“Beekeeping is easy to set up, especially in rural areas where there is plenty of natural vegetation,” says Mumo, who began the project in 2018 with an initial capital of Sh2,000 from his savings, making his first beehive.

He keeps the bees on part of his grandfather’s five acres, where he has set up his apiary comprising 14 beehives.

“It takes about three months for honey to be ready for harvest. When the season is not good, each beehive gives 8kg of honey, which comes to 122 litres. He sells a kilo for an average of Sh800.”

For quality honey, bees need plants that offer good nectar, which include flowers and water, says Mumo, who attracted bees in his Langstroth hives with wax in the frames.

He uses an extractor to harvest the honey from the hives, where each has a frame that holds the produce.

“I normally pick the frames and extract the honey away from the apiary. The honey is harvested in a hygienic way,” says Mumo, who also sells his products at farmers’ events under the business name Bee Farmers Hub Ltd.

Beekeeping, he says, is pocket-friendly because one does not need to spend money to beef up security for the bees.

Mumo says he got interested in beekeeping when he worked for a short time with an NGO in Kisumu, whose one project was beekeeping. He picked up lessons there on bee farming and making hives.

“I thereafter employed myself after failing to get a job in my area of expertise, but so far so good. I work with many small-scale beekeepers in Matuu, mainly by installing hives, which I have done in about 500 homes,” he offers.

He makes an average of 200 beehives a month, which he sells at Sh800 each.

“I also make value added products like peanut butter blended with honey. The process starts with drying crushed nuts thoroughly, grinding them and then mixing them with honey. A kilo of peanut butter goes for Sh450 but prices start from Sh100.”

Mathew Kipsang, an entomologist at the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology, says honey is composed of 70 per cent natural sugar and more than 20 water, so there are many ways to tell if honey is pure or not.

“Fake honey dissolves easily in water while pure honey has a denser texture that settles at the bottom of water. The colour of honey depends on the nectar bees used — it can be brown or dark brown,” he says, adding that through agribusiness, young people can create jobs for themselves and others.