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Theft, cooked bees and a happy ending
Language: English
Year of publication: 2012
Number of pages: 1
Type of publication: Your Story
Publisher: Bees for Development
Publication location: Text on this website
Country: Kenya
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I am a Kenyan Bee Farmer leaving in the Eastern part of Kenya place called Salama. I was born in Kenya and after school I got few jobs but they were always inside the companies. I saved some little money and with some support from a lady from US I started my first hives about 4 years ago. When I was 10 years I used to go with bigger boys for honey hunting and we would burn the wild colonies and take all the combs, honey or no honey. We used to do it in the night. One day we found a discarded Top Bar Hive and stole the honey it had a lot of honey and it changed my life about bees. When we took the honey home my old Uncle told me that it was a taboo to try and harvest someone's bees. It could lead to many things - among them sudden death. I later stole my Mum's cooking pot and placed on a mango tree where a swarm had come to hang and it was just few meters from our house. When I came back from school the following day I found the swarm had entered the pot. It was my happiest day. I told all my friends that I would be having my own honey soon. After one week Mum wanted to cook and she could not find the pot. I was away playing and when I came back home late evening I found my brother had lit a a fire and on it a pot with a lid. All my bees had been cooked alive! Anyway that was over 20 years ago and now I found myself back with bees again. I have lost many colonies to wax moths, honey badgers and safari ants. I am still learning about bees and teaching communities about the importance of bees. I teach young students in their schools about bees too. I came across this web and knew that this is where I belong. I share my bee experiences and conversations on my facebook under the name Samir Bokelo.
Great story Sam. I am still sad about those cooked bees though!