Below are some of the questions that we at Honey Care Africa get asked frequently. We trust that they will serve to throw some light on other issues that cannot be addressed properly under any of the sections above.

Why is Honey Care's Langstroth Hive better than the traditional hive or the Kenya Top Bar Hive (KTBH)?"

Firstly, Honey Care's Langstroth hive has exact specifications and dimensions that ensure that an accurate 'bee space' is left between the frames and around the hive so that bees can travel comfortably from one section of the hive to another. This is not achieved in either of the other hives.
All Honey Care's Langstroth hives are manufactured from properly seasoned timber, which ensures that the hive will not sag or warp. In addition, the various components of the Honey Care Langstroth Hive are cut by machines to ensure accuracy and a flush fit between components. This also ensures that all our hives have a uniform shape and size, thereby ensuring that all other requisite components (like Super Boxes, Queen Excluders) will fit each and every hive perfectly. All the components are then assembled using the best materials and hardware to ensure that the end result is a strong, durable, and long-lasting hive. The hive is then treated to ensure that it is weatherproof and will do well under different climatic conditions. Lastly, a quality control check is done before the hives leave our factory. None of this is done with the traditional log hives, and to the best of our knowledge, none of the KTBH makers do this.
Honey Care's Langstroth hive has various movable sections that allow for maximum manipulation and control of the bee colony, while at the same time making harvesting honey very easy. Although this is partly true in the case of the KTBH, the KTBH does not allow for the same level of brood manipulation and control, and definitely not with the same level of ease as the Langstroth Hive.

The frames of Honey Care's Langstroth hive has comb foundations (or starters), which are made of pure recycled beeswax. These are fused onto the structure of the frame and then reprojectsrced with wire braces. These comb foundations produce a faint but very attractive smell, which draws scout bees to the hive, thereby ensuring prompt colonisation of the hives. Most Honey Care's Langstroth hives are colonised by bees within a few weeks of being placed out in the field. On the other hand, the KTBH has a reputation for remaining uncolonised for a very long period of time, and it is not uncommon to find KTB Hives remaining uncolonised even after three - four years after being placed in the field. In fact, traditional log hives are known to have a better colonisation rate than the KTBH!
Apart from attracting the bees, the comb foundations in Honey Care's Langstroth hive play an integral role in ensuring that the bees build the honey comb cells within the hive in an organised and regulated manner. The imprint of the cell structure present on the comb foundation acts as a guide for the bees and ensures that they build cells of the right size and shape, which they can then fill with honey. Even when full of honey, the comb starter (and the wire braces) ensure that the honey can be harvested without breaking or damaging the honeycomb cells. None of this is available in the traditional hive or the KTBH.
Honey Care's Langstroth hive has been designed, developed, modified and tropicalised to ensure that an ambient temperature is maintained within the hive at all times. This allows the colony to live comfortably in these hives and permits them to develop their own thermo-regulation mechanisms while at the same time ensuring that the temperature does not exceed the norms that the bees can cope with. One of the main problems cited for the absconding of bees from the KTBH in tropical countries like Kenya has been its inability to control the temperature norms, thereby forcing the bees to flee the hive and seek a cooler place to live.
Honey Care's Langstroth hive has two chambers separated by a Queen Excluder, which confines the Queen bee to one chamber only. This results in a de facto division of the hive into two separate sections: a chamber where the Queen bee, eggs, larvae, pupae, and young bees live (brood box), and a store where pure, excess honey is stored (super box). This therefore allows the bee keeper to harvest clear, pure, and unadulterated honey from the Langstroth hive with great ease, while at the same time ensuring that the Queen bee and the rest of the colony is not disturbed. This is not possible with the KTBH or the traditional log hives.
In addition, Honey Care's Langstroth hive allows one to harvest the honey without killing the bees or destroying the brood. This ensures that the bee keeper has a strong and stable resident colony all-year round that is ready to take advantage of any burst of flowering as well as the regular nectar flows, thereby guaranteeing maximum honey production. None of this can be properly done with the KTBH and traditional log hive.
The process for extracting honey from Honey Care's Langstroth hive, although very simple, ensures least contamination from smoke and other processing procedures. This ensures that the quality of the honey and the integrity of its character and flavour is retained. In addition, once the honey has been harvested, the frames holding the now fully built combs can be returned to the hive so that the bees can fill the empty combs with honey again. Since the bees do not have to re-build the honey combs, they are able to concentrate on collecting nectar and making honey instead, thereby ensuring a quicker harvest each subsequent time. This is not possible at all with the traditional log hive or the KTBH.
Finally, Honey Care's Langstroth hive allows for an average of up to four harvests of high quality honey in a year. It therefore produces more honey than the traditional log hive and KTBH. More honey means more money!


What is the production capacity of the Langstroth Hive versus the traditional hives and KTBH?

On average, the KTBH can produce about 20Kg of honey in a year. Unless being harvested by a skilled beekeeper, the honey generally is of a poorer quality than the honey from the Langstroth hive. The traditional hive can produce about 15Kg of honey in a year, on average. However, the quality of this honey is generally very poor. On the other hand, based on Honey Care's experience here in Kenya, the Langstroth hive produces about 45 - 60Kg of honey in a year, all of which is off superior quality. Countries like Italy, Canada, the United States, and China usually receive yields in excess of 80Kg of honey a year from their Langstroth hives.

Why does Honey Care only buy honey from Langstroth hives?

In our experience, the quality of honey produced by beekeepers using traditional log hives, the KTBH, or other types of hives simply does not conform to our standards. The honey from these hives generally has a smoky smell and taste, has suspended particulate matter, has very poor texture and consistency, a very disagreeable colour, and generally an unacceptably high moisture content level. Since this honey has already been harvested and is presented in liquid form, it has been our experience that this honey is adulterated with water, molasses, or other substances. In addition, this honey is sometimes boiled thereby altering its chemical properties by releasing a toxic chemical called Hydroxymethyl Furfural (HMF). Further still, the storage and handling of this crude honey rarely meets the most basic Food Handling Procedures (FHP), let alone more stringent regulations like HACCP and ISO 9002, we can never be sure of its integrity.
Therefore, since cannot be completely certain of the nature and quality of this honey from other sources, and since we have carefully developed a reputation as being an organisation that deals with honey of the highest quality only, we have opted to buy honey only from Langstroth hives. Buying honey that we can trace back directly to individual bee keepers that we know, and being present at every stage from the point when the honey is extracted from the hive is the only way that we can stand behind our product with confidence and know that we are providing the consumers with the best quality honey that we possibly can.
It is also becoming clear that the market for crude, impure, adulterated honey that is generally produced by traditional hives and the KTBH is slowly shrinking both locally and internationally. Consumers in our liberalised economy now have more choices: high quality honey from all parts of the world is now readily available in most major supermarkets across Kenya. Likewise, due to Honey Care's recent entry into the market, high quality honey that is produced right here in Kenya is also available in most major supermarkets. Kenyan consumers who previously had no option but to buy crude and adulterated local honey from questionable sources are simply refusing to continue spending their hard-earned money to buy a low quality and sub-standard product.

How does Honey Care's buying price for honey compare with that of other buyers?

The price that most other buyers offer for honey is generally in the range of between KSh. 45.00 ($0.55) and Ksh. 90.00 ($1.125), depending on supply and demand, and other factors. The price is not guaranteed and may fluctuate dramatically from one month to the next. Further, these buyers will only take what they require or force the price down as a condition to buy the entire quantity of honey from the beekeeper. In addition, using one beekeeper against another to drive the price of honey lower is a very common bargaining tactic, and the beekeeper always loses. Payments are rarely made on the spot, and there have been numerous anecdotal incidents of bee keepers being swindled by con men.
The current international price for honey is below KSh.100.00 ($1.20) per kilogram including freight and duty to Europe. This price has been brought down due to the increased production capacity of China, the United States, Germany, and other countries who now have the capacity to mass-produce honey on a very large scale.
On average, Honey Care's buying price ranges between KSh. 80.00 ($1.00) and KSh. 150.00 ($1.80) per Kilogram of honey, depending on whether the bee keepers will deliver the honey to our factory, how long the bee keeper has been with Honey Care, the average production of the bee keeper, and many other similar factors. This price is guaranteed for all the honey the beekeeper can produce, and for the entire period of the contract (generally two -three years), regardless of any fluctuations in the market. This guarantee to buy all the honey allows the beekeeper to be rest at ease knowing that there is a ready and stable market for all his/her honey, while the price guarantee allows the beekeeper to plan ahead and forecast his/her income. In addition, we make all our payments to the beekeepers promptly, directly (no middlemen), and always in cash. This ensures that the beekeeper's payments are never delayed and there is absolutely no room for any misappropriation of monies whatsoever, unlike what generally happens in other agricultural sectors. This instant cash payment boosts the beekeeper's morale and provides an added incentive to work harder and produce more honey. We understand that the only way we can develop strong and sustainable partnerships in the long run is by being honest, responsible, and accountable. Honey Care is striving to operate as an ethical organisation and believes in the principles of fair trade; we believe in paying a fair price and a fair wage to all those involved in the entire chain of honey production.

How can Honey Care continue to guarantee to buy all the honey from their contracted beekeepers?

The answer is very simple: we have done our homework and we understand the honey market. Our thorough and extensive market research both in Kenya and outside has provided us with sufficient projectsrmation to clearly recognize the various segments in the market, their particular needs and requirements, and the different marketing strategies that will have to be applied to cater for them.
Based on this and other factors, we have developed a very thorough and detailed strategic and business plan, which we update regularly. This gives us a very clear vision of the future and allows us to make intelligent, rationale, and sensible decisions on a daily basis. We can also make carefully thought-out and reasoned commitments to our bee keepers to buy back all their honey from them with a great deal of certainty and confidence.
We have also developed a step-wise / tiered approach to our development and expansion which will allow us to keep in step with the increased honey production in this region in the future.

What are the trends in the local market, and what emerging opportunities are there for related products?

The most important trend over the last three years has to be the importation of honey into Kenya from countries like Australia, USA, Mexico, and elsewhere. Due to the liberalization of the economy and the relaxation (and the unscrupulous evasion) of import duties, this imported honey has flooded the local market. This clearly demonstrates that there is a strong demand in Kenya for high quality honey, which local beekeepers have not been able to meet.
As a result, the inferior local honey has become very difficult to sell and some retail outlets are refusing to stock it any more.
The impact of Honey Care's emergence on the market is only just beginning to be felt primarily because their product have only been recently launched onto the market (although trials over the last few months have been very positive), since the company has been focusing on strengthening its production and community-based bee keeping model. Honey Care is confident that the quality of the labels, jars, and the product itself is comparable to the imported honey and should compete head-on with the imported honey.
All indicators suggest that there is a huge latent demand for high quality honey of different natural flavors in this country. Consumers who have spent their money buying imported honey have time and again indicated that
they would opt for a local product if the quality was the same as that of an imported product but the price was slightly lower. Numerous industries have expressed a strong interest in using honey for their food and pharmaceutical manufacturing needs, and have been waiting for a reliable producer who can supply high quality honey all year round.
The frequently quoted statistic states that the local market demand for honey is approximately 180 Metric Tonnes per annum. Our independent research emerged with a similar number. The statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Department suggests that Kenya produces more than 10 times this amount. However, this is difficult to substantiate; the government's statistical extrapolations are deeply flawed and based on far too many variables. Therefore it seems that although there is general agreement on the demand for honey, there is little or no projectsrmation on the supply side of things. Further, the government numbers do not provide any breakdown of the quality and type of the honey, and therefore it is difficult to get and idea of the pricing structure, or other such pertinent projectsrmation.
The opportunities for developing products from bee keeping are immense. Honey, Bees Wax, Propolis, and Venom all lend themselves to being combined to produce a vast array of permutations and combinations. Examples of this already exist in other countries where the bee keeping sector is quite successful. As mentioned earlier, local industries have already expressed an interest in these products, while the retail market has shown strong signs of moving pure honey in large volumes if properly packaged and marketed.

Is Honey Care exporting honey? If not, why not?

Honey Care does not yet have sufficient volumes of honey to start exporting honey. However, we have already conducted export trials of our range of honey, and the response has been very positive. We have already developed a strong international network of organizations that are interested in importing our honey when we have the volumes to begin exporting in the near future.
It would be of paramount importance that any organization interested in exporting honey receives numerous food safety certifications like HACCP and ISO 9002 before beginning. The expertise to do this already exists in-house at Honey Care and we have personnel who are familiar with the regulations and requirements for these certifications. Likewise, we have already conducted our preliminary feasibility studies for receiving additional certification like Fair Trade, and Organic (in accordance with EU 2092/91), with positive results. Without this additional certification, honey from Kenya would not be able to receive a premium price on the international market and exporting honey would be a very difficult thing to do due to the intensely competitive international market structure.

What makes a successful sustainable community-based bee keeping project?

In our experience, a successful sustainable community-based bee keeping project does not occur by coincidence. There are numerous elements that go into developing, implementing, and managing a successful bee keeping project. Through our hard work and serious commitment to making this community-based approach to bee keeping work in this region over the last few years, we have learnt what should and what core structures need to be put in place in order to ensure the long-term viability of a project. Needless to say, each community group is different and every project is unique and must be addressed differently, but all the same there are some areas where there is some common ground. Some of these have been integrated and elucidated in the 'Memorandum of Understanding' section that follows.