Bees help
pollinate plants and provide a sweet treat to eat. Their travel from plant to plant means more
produce from crops, gardens, orchards – and flowers, too. Beekeeping can be done part-time to
supplement family income, with small start-up costs and homemade
equipment. Honey and beeswax can be sold
for income that allows families to meet basic needs.
Bee Facts
- Bees produce about three times as much honey as the hive needs.
- A bee colony includes one queen bee, a few hundred drones, and many workers.
- When a bee returns to the hive, it “dances” to tell other bees where to find pollen.
- A starter colony is about 20,000 bees and is shipped to Heifer International partners in a 3 ½-pound package.
Bee Tale
Heifer International bees helped Agaba Jimmy Zab of
Uganda buy a bicycle. As instructed, he
placed beehives near his field of maize, beans and tomatoes. Crosspollination by the bees resulted in
better crops than ever before, and he got a good price at the vegetable market.
With that money and the sale of honey,
he bought the bike and is saving to buy land. He happily passed on a bee colony to a neighbor
and says, “Long live Heifer!”
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