Beekeeping: A Practical Guide for Southern Africa

It’s a fact … southern Africa needs thousands more beekeepers to produce hive products for cosmetic, health and industrial use – and for export. South Africa, for instance, is currently a net importer of hive products such as honey, wax and propolis. This book is the first truly accessible (non-academic) guide to beekeeping in southern Africa and has been written with the aim of developing the skill, art and business of beekeeping in the region. Beekeeping – A practical guide for southern Africa thus seeks to:encourage and inspire potential beekeepers (whether weekend hobbyists, rural people, farm workers or entrepreneurs); promote the craft of beekeeping as a profitable and sustainable small to medium-sized business initiative; promote understanding of the organised and productive society of the honeybee; provide a store of useful data on bees and beekeeping and advance a vigorous honey producing industry in southern Africa and, ultimately, the export of surplus hive products. Honeybees have been successfully farmed for thousands of years and their products are highly valued in the home and at market. It’s surprising then that beekeeping isn’t practised more extensively in southern Africa. After all, beekeeping is a comparatively low investment activity which requires only beehives, protective clothing and a few simple tools. In addition, the honeybee is a natural resource (and as such is ‘free’), land ownership is unnecessary and there is no daily routine of feeding, watering and medicating. Along with the reward of a crop of honey and other useful hive products, the finest fruit, vegetables and seed result from bee pollination.