May 15th Bee Keeping Report

							May 15th Bee Keeping Report

Mount Huye

RVCP Attending Members: Mushuru, Hovaire, Bindi, Alex, Ally
Participants: Close to all 36 members of the Widows Association attended the work session
Session Duration: Approx. 6h 00mins
Session Details: Earlier in the week we bought the metal sheets to finish the roof on the second
beekeeping house. The amount for each sheet was 1,100RWF more then expected because of inflation.
Nevertheless, we got all sheets required and brought them to the project site the following day. The
wood for the second house had been set up and Emmanuel and some of the women began nailing the
metal sheets to the wood. For the next session we will have to buy more nails to ensure that the roofing
on the second and third houses can be finished.

Meanwhile, we searched for a good area to set up the third house. We decided on a location somewhat
in the woods, close to the second house. There was some debate on whether this was a good idea or
not because it is suggested that the different bee keeping houses be at least 100 meters from one
another. However, it was finally concluded that the forest was dense enough to have the two houses
within 50 meters of one another.

When the location for the third house was finally decided the women began hoeing and leveling the
ground. This took the better part of the morning with many women hoeing and working. The main
obstacle was the chopped tree which was in the middle of the hoed area. This had to be taken out and
we soon discovered that the roots reached deep into the ground. Thanks to the help of the Agricultural
overseer, and young boy (the son of one of the women, or perhaps just a boy from the village?) and
Mushuru, as well as some of the women we managed to use the panga to cut through the roots and get
the tree out of the ground. This took about one hour, but there were great celebrations at the end.

The day of Umuganda was successful and much was accomplished. However, I am writing this report a
few weeks after the session and last week we did not have a session so I am slightly worried about the
timing of finishing the houses, building the tables for the hives inside the houses, buying the hives and
exchanging the queen houses for the bee hives since this all needs to be done within the next few
weeks.