Embu lecturer keeping bees for leisure

Bee farming for leisure... Peris Musyimi, a lecturer at Jeremiah Nyaga Technical Institute in Embu practices bee farming for leisure, an activity she says doesn't stress her since she attends to it during her free time.

"Bee farming is something I learnt from my rural home in Kitui where several people do it. It's something I am passionate about and I do it for fun though it turns out to be a very good business venture,” noted Musyimi.

While sharing about the challenges that come with bee keeping, Musyimi noted that juggling between her job and farming venture is not a tough hustle but she placed her challenges in other areas of pest attack on the beehives and drought.

Bees rely on flowers to harvest the nectar for them to make the honey, and when drought sets in, like it is currently experienced in the county, plants dry up, no flowering and as such no honey making as noted by Musyimi.

"Pest attack on beehives and drought are the greatest challenge I face, especially drought. When it sets in, we experience bee swarming - a situation where bees migrate and move to whatever area where they settle depending on the weather pattern. Without water and flowers, then there's no honey making - no activity for the bees. Remember they also feed on honey. They will naturally move and there's no way one can stop that."

Musyimi adds that: "Some of us don’t just keep bees. We also take part in environmental conservation by planting more trees, doing other crop farming and generally preserving water catchment areas. By association, we are environmentalist. We really would like to encourage fellow citizens to plant trees - currently we are facing drought largely due to our activities that degrade forest cover."