Expert tells how to make money from honey

In fact, they are offering beekeeper training for members of the communities bordering the Hellshire Hills, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Gregory Lynch, senior plant protection officer at the apiculture unit at the Bodles Research Station, just on the outskirts at the west end of Old Harbour, said beekeeping is very lucrative.

In 2016, honey production increased by over 200 percent, moving from 117,548 gallons in 2005 to approximately 247,000 gallons. It was projected that the 2017 crop would make some 288,000 gallons of honey with farm gate earnings of just under $1.8 billion.

In 2017, it was reported by the ministry that there were 3,000 beekeepers and 48,000 registered beehives in the industry.

These amounts, Lynch said, is not enough to supply the Jamaican marketplace.

“We are always under-supplied. We always need more,” he said.

The Jamaica beekeeping industry has many layers including honey producers, wax producers and sellers of bee stock. The industry also offers value-added earning potential in mead (honey wine), sauces, face scrubs, soaps, candles and other products.

He explained: “There are also persons who participate in equipment making — the boxes (hive bodies), bottom boards, the covers and frames. So, there are several different areas you can tap into.”

He explained further that there are educational-level barriers to entering the industry.

“We can train persons as young as eight or nine years old,” he said. “Over four days, the ministry offers basic training modules to show them how to produce the honey in both a theory and practise.

“We later encourage the farmers to join the active bee farming associations in each parish. There are smaller groups outside of the associations that we do group continuous training with, because we want to keep the farmers engaged,” Lynch outlined.

The ministry also assists the bee farmer to find markets for their honey.

“A new farmer can start off with five to 10 colonies and by applying the best practices within a year or two, they can move it up to even 30 colonies,” he said. “By 30 colonies, you are looking at maybe $700,000 to $800,000 worth of bees generated from even a small amount of $200,000 within a year. That is not including the monies to be made from the honey produced. All together, the honey, plus the bees, you are looking at over $1,000,000 you have earned, just from starting out with $200,000.”

And for those worried that bee farming is too time-consuming, Lynch said that is not the case.

“You really visit your bees every 14 days so that’s like twice per month. They do not need much monitoring or you become a nuisance to them and they can go away. Another advantage is beekeeping can be done concurrently with other businesses,” he said.

The Hope Zoo HeadStart Programme will provide seed capital to community members who want to start a business in the bee industry.

Community members who are eligible to access the training are the forest users, their life partners, their children who are 18 years or older and still live with their parents.

“If you are an unemployed and unattached youth, who is thinking of using the forest in the ways we have mentioned, we can help you to develop an alternative income,” Orlando Robinson, project consultant for the Hope Zoo Iguana HeadStart Project urged.

Bees and food security

Lynch explained that bees are important to Jamaica’s food security.

“There is a 30 percent increase in yield in terms of food production when there are pollinators around — not just bees but other pollinators as well — but bees tend to be the major pollinators,” he explained. “For example, fruit bearers such as your oranges, apples grapes, peppers, tomatoes, and cucurbits like cucumber, pumpkin and melon; those depend directly upon pollinators to increase food production.”

As with everything, bee farming is affected by climate change and habitat loss.

Lynch said that the recent rainy season, severely impacted the bee farmers.

“The hives can topple over in the heavy winds and be inundated by the flood waters. Once the bees have drowned you have to start back from scratch. The severe weather patterns brought about by climate change, are affecting the beekeepers. If it is an extreme drought (or dearth period) that is also a challenge for bee farmers or a period of scarcity caused heavy rain, bees cannot fly to search for food.”

Should that happen, the bee-keepers will have to feed the bees sugar in a syrup from cane sugar and this is expensive.

The ministry also encourages farmers not to just have bees in one area. But for those who stick it out, the rewards can overflow, more than many other farming ventures.

“For a person who is rearing say cattle, to get a second animal they have to wait nine-to-10 months to get an additional calf. But, five hives are bought, in a good season the farmer can double or quadruple the initial value of the investment before the year ends. It grows right before their eyes,” said Lynch.