We would like to let our friends know that we have finally set up our first bee apiary! This has been long overdue since the kids got introduced into bee farming more than 10 years ago.

A good number of our children were trained at the National Bee Keeping Institute about caring for the bees. However, they had not had a practical means of applying whatever they had learned.

Last year, with the help from Blaisse of the National Bee Keeping Station here in Nairobi, we successfully applied for a donation from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).

Among the items we received from them are 20 bee hives and one bee suit for the handling of bees during honey harvesting.

We had another challenge of sourcing for a place where to set up our Apiary.

The vast Ngong Forest is about 500m from our gate but is a government-protected forest that requires long procedures before one secures any usage of the forest.

We made some efforts of approaching the forester and it was taking longer than we anticipated.

However by luck, one of our neighbors who has a wood patch in his farm offered us a place to set our bee hives.

We have worked very hard in cleaning the hives and setting them in strategic places within the little ‘forest’ and some of the hives now have bees in them.

The essence of getting involved with bee farming is to bring our kids to the knowledge of the roles bees play in conserving our planet.

By being taught how to handle the bees and still harvesting honey from the hives, kids understand that without bees, some plants would never produce seeds and we could have a food shortage in future, as well as a in increase in air pollutants with reduced crop reproduction.

We look forward to harvesting honey and if we get a good produce out of it, we can open a honey products shop where we can make some income to help sustain the HHFL programmes!