Before we get to the nitty-gritties of a day in the bee farm, you need to know more about bees and why they are so important to us & the environment. This way, you can have more appreciation when I take you through a day in a bee farm!
Bees help pollinate & grow about 90% of the world’s wildflower plants and 35% of the world’s crops which amounts to ecosystems all over the world. There are various programs in place all over the world to help this cause put in place by the United Nations in efforts to protect the bees. These black & yellow critters are also under a barrage of threats as the result of human activity. Some examples are introduction of invasive insects, pesticide, change of land-use etc.
So… Bee Farm?
Back to the topic at hand! In bee farms located in Singapore, most of them give guided tours around their farms with slightly different engagement programmes and of course, their own touch. Recounting from my own personal experience, the first thing that happens at the start of the bee farm tour is wearing your bee protective suits to minimize any chances of your getting stinged! The beekeepers themselves are so comfortable around bees that they don’t wear their protective suits.
Next, you are then brought to the areas where they keep the bees. They keep a few species of bees, some local and some foreign species and each of the hives have their queens named! The beekeeper gives an introduction to the bees and then proceeds to let us hold a section of the beehive for pictures. We are then brought back to the main area, away from the hives for a less intimidating section of the tour – honey tasting! That’s about the end of the tour after the honey tasting.
What can you expect and learn from a trip to a bee farm?
What do beekeepers do on a day to day basis outside of giving guided tours of their farms? Firstly, let it be known that beekeeping, when done right, helps boost the honeybee population and strengthens their gene pool. Bees are very susceptible to weather conditions so beekeepers spend a lot of time year round to check on their colonies. They spend a few hours each day checking on each hive to rectify any possible issues with them. During the honey production season, they have the additional task of harvesting the honey as well! Aside from these tasks, they have other miscellaneous tasks like making sure the structure of hives (frames) are intact and replace them if needed etc.
The tour around the bee farm will give you a general understanding about the different types of species of bees and what is local to Singapore. You will also learn more about honey – how it varies and what affects the taste!
Bee farms or beekeeping in general do help the environment in three ways. First being that beekeeping promotes pollination which in turn ensures that diversity within and between native species of plants are maintained. Beekeeping also provides food for predators, which are the fruits resulting from pollination. Beekeeping also helps to maintain nature’s balance to ensure a thriving ecosystem.
Image from humanappeal
Honey honey honey
When we buy honey, we tend not to think about the ways companies procure them for sales. There should not be strain on the bee farms to produce honey as that will negatively affect the bees and overstocking on honey is one of the causes of this issue.
Market for Good’s brand partner that deals with sales of honey has a JIT (Just-In-Time) model to ensure that the procurement of honey supplies is proportionate to the consumer demand. Rather than ordering in larger amounts that might not necessarily reflect the consumer demand and placing stress on our supplier’s bee farms, they order on a demand basis. This means that there will be pockets of recuperation time between ordering, for the bee farms to recuperate. This ensures that while we are procuring honey for our business, the bee farms do not suffer at our expense. Customisable honey jars & handmade honey soaps are some of their products they offer! Every jar of honey purchased helps with employment for women in need. For each honey jar sold, a portion of the sales will go to a network of stay at home mums who put in the effort to wrap each individual honey jar!
