Sweet gold: How Wire Forest beekeepers are turning night-time harvests into millions

Under the pitch-black canopy of Wire Forest in Homa Bay County, when the rest of the world is asleep, a quiet transformation unfolds. Dressed in protective coveralls, heavy boots, and thick gloves, local farmers venture into the dense thicket, not to hunt, but to harvest liquid gold from thousands of aggressive honeybees.

"We are at the site where farmers do beekeeping," explains Eric Owino, a beekeeper in Wire Forest. "We are going to do harvesting. The harvesting is always done at night, because at night all the bees have resided back, so it creates no interference within farm villages, it can't harm animals or interfere with the farmers."

For years, apiculture in the region was defined by unrealized potential. Despite managing over 1,200 hives across the community, harvests consistently underperformed.

"Last year around July, after Madaraka Day, we received a courtesy call from a team from LBDA who came here for a fact-finding mission," says Chrispine Osunga, Chairman of the Wire Forest Management Association (WIFOMA).

"After they reviewed the concept note, we received approval to enter into a collaboration. That partnership with LBDA has really helped us. Our production had been very low, even with a total of 1,200 hives. One hive is supposed to produce a maximum of 10 kilos or even more, but our production was below 5 kg per hive."

Through the initiative, 350 local farmers were trained in modern apiculture, and 600 modern beehives were distributed to help remedy the low yields. The overarching goal: elevate the local community into a regional powerhouse.

"We need to make WIFOMA the leading apiculture producer in the region," notes Aggrey Otore, Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) Deputy Director for Resource Mobilization.

"Lake Basin, as we speak, is installing a modern honey refinery in Ndhiwa, which will be used to process all this crude honey from the region. We don't want Wire, WIFOMA, to be left out. As we procure crude honey from Trans Mara and other regions, we also want WIFOMA to be part and parcel of the leading producers supplying crude honey to the LBDA modern refinery in Ndhiwa."

Once the raw honeycomb is gathered under cover of darkness, it is transported to the facility in Homa Bay County to be refined, packaged, and labeled for the consumer market.

"We have a packaging unit," explains an LBDA processing official. "This is where we pour the good honey after separation of the wax. When labelling, we also have to stamp the processing date, the packaging date, and the expiry date."

Designed to process up to 10 tonnes of honey every quarter, the Ndhiwa facility transforms the raw forest harvest into retail-ready jars of Lake Basin Gulf Honey, selling at market prices starting from Ksh.350 and securing a sustainable livelihood for local farmers.