Farmer makes money from bees

Stanley Imbusi’s grandfather Lumbasio was a traditional medicine man whose trick for curing varied ailments was centred on honey from stingless bees found in Kakamega tropical rain forest.Today, Imbusi is a renowned stingless bee farmer in Kakamega Imbusi recalls how they dug the ground and peeled tree backs to extract the honey with tested ability to cure many diseases. In 1994, as a hobby of trapping the bees and keeping them at home, he made his first catcher-box that he set in the forest and carried the trapped stingless bee home. This is how he started his meliponiculture venture. “Increasing population around the forest affected the vegetation cover and distribution of the stingless bees, which is disappearing deeper into the forest. That is why I resolved to keeping them in my home where I planted flowers for their nectar,” says Imbusi. He adds that after giving them nectar, the bees “pay back” by aiding pollination of macadamia trees in his compound. Mbusi has over 60 hives with different breeds of the meliponines, ranging from Meliponula, Bocandei, Ferruginia to Hyporiconna, which he traps from Kakamega Forest and rears at home. He made smaller hives compared to those the common honey bees inhabit, measuring 24 by 10 by 10 inches and 18 by 6 by 6 inches. more