It’s that time of year again when we are celebrating Christmas here at Enoch Initiative and we are excited to share with each of you a progress on the YODELI Beekkeeping Project many of you have donated to help create a sustainable economy in Alebtong, Uganda!
A Quick Recap
Through the generous donations of donors, we raised $938 USD which was sent to YODELI back in 2021. As a result of those funds sent over, 2 apiaries were set up each containing 15 hives. This video shares that story:
What's New?
Since the initial set up of both hives in 2021, it has been a fun and interesting journey and we know our donors want to hear about it so we’ve highlighted some of them here for you to enjoy reading and experiencing:
Does that hive look short to you?
Early this year we experienced some interesting challenges with hives getting shorter! On closer inspection, a group of termites had moved in and were slowly eating the posts that the hives rest on!
We tried a number of natural interventions to stop the termites, but at the end of the day a pesticide was our only recourse to keep our hives safe! In the future, we hope to invest in some more pest-resistant materials to hold up our hives and avoid pesticide use altogether. But for now, our hives are safely growing!
Taking the hives to the bees
Some of our hives colonized quite quickly after we set them up, but after a couple months with no change in the # of hives colonized, we knew something needed to change.
Patrick, Opio, and the Yodeli Team concluded they would take the uncolonized hives out of the apiary, and hang them in trees that had bee colonies in them. This method proved to be successful in getting the hives colonized, and slowly the hives are being moved back into the apiaries as they grow in number and gain strength.
Amononeno apiary is fully colonized!
After months of our bee searching efforts, our apiary in Amononeno is fully colonized. (15 hives!). The hives that originally colonized have ~50,000 bees per hive. The hives that colonized late still have fewer numbers. But we are getting really close to the levels where we can begin harvesting honey regularly (~60,000 bees per hive).
What's Next?
We are so excited to be preparing for Phase 3 in our journey! The whole YODELI team has worked so hard to cultivate both the Amononeno and Awei apiaries to prepare them for honey production, and we are nearing the point where we will be able to harvest and sell honey!
This is an exciting next phase for this project because it will begin to bring an income into the YODELI Organization which will help them begin to cover there basic hive inspection costs, and support their local economies by paying those who have been performing the hive inspections.
As we begin to prepare for honey production, we are working with the YODELI team to identify the necessary materials they will need to produce quality honey and supply that honey to the larger markets in Lira or Kempala. They have outlined an initial budget (~$1500 USD) and we are actively raising donations towards phase 3!
As we enter this Christmas season and on into the new year, we invite you, our donors, to continue this journey with us, and help us raise the funding needed to see this project move forward.
We also want to express our profound gratitude for each volunteer and donor, each member of Enoch Initiative, each member of YODELI, who has worked tirelessly to see this project come to life! Without their tireless efforts, continued patience and perseverence, these two apiary sites would be nothing more than bare ground. Thank you to each one of you for all you do, and we hope you find joy and peace this holiday season, and if it fits, Give the gift of Honey our friends in Uganda.