Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

We have built the La Gonave Honeybee Association page which is set to go live March 1st.  I will be releasing the page via here today so that you have a couple of hours chance to see the page before everyone else. For those outside of the US, I apologize as it is already March 1st where you are. Website:  lagonavehoneybee.tk Go Gonave!

We found existing hives on the island of La Gonave, which was great news.  These hives however are kept in logs and rocks by the beekeeper.  This "Old World" style of beekeeping isn't effective in honey production, hive maintenance, and brood production.  We will be working with this beekeeper to supply our stock of bees, since the deal in Arcahaie fell through. While on the island I successfully trained 6 people in beekeeping with 4 becoming beekeepers.  This is a major success as I had originally planned for only 4 people to be training.  With the help of a translator and using Greater Good's Campus, we were able to build a beginning honeybee project and officially launch the La Gonave Honeybee Association. Also I was there and put up the observation hive for Greater Good Haiti.  I assisted in applying for a grant that launched made this observation hive possible.  This hive will be great in teaching young students, new beekeepers, and the commun...

Hurko and La Gonave Honeybee Association is researching the building of an app that the public and local beekeepers can use.  The idea would be to explain what our association is about, the island, and projects that we have. This app will help link local beekeepers to important resources about beekeeping on the island, maps, and trainings/meetings.  We will decide by Summer of 2016 if this is a project that we are going to move forward on.  Currently we are also researching a virtual newsletter.  This newsletter is mainly for educating people outside of Haiti about the honeybee project to increase revenue and investments, however locals will be able to access the newsletter as well.  We are still looking into a potential website that would link from the app, and would contain the newsletter.  A website would be built from cooperative funds and have forums so that the association members would be able to help each other with issues that come up.  Las...

Part of the basics in understanding bees will be through education.  This will not only educate about bees, but also protection of the bee's habitat. The bee courses will be broken down into Biology, Management, and Industry.  Based on which track one follows will determine their role in beekeeping. With that said, there will be different levels of a beekeeper.  Some will be apprentices and work under someone to gain a better understanding of bees and ways to improve the bee's habitat.  The apprentice would not own bees, but would assist in the bee program.  Below explains the different levels of being a beekeeper. Apprentice - As mentioned an apprentice is someone who is just getting into beekeeping.  This is someone who has some or no hands-on knowledge of beekeeping.  This person also may not have had any formal education with beekeeping. Certified Beekeeper - Is above an apprentice.  They have taken at least two cours...

The La Gonave Honeybee Association will follow the International Queen Marking Colors.  In many beehives the queen honeybee is marked so that she can be quickly locate the queen, but also it can let you know the age of the queen, or when it was introduced to the hive. This is very instrumental in how future beekeepers on the island raise bees.  By introducing established international practices it will allow the association to set recognized standards.  Below are the color codes that we will start with on La Gonave. International Queen Marking Color Code: Color: For Year Ending In: White (or gray) 1 or 6 Yellow 2 or 7 Red 3 or 8 Green 4 or 9 Blue 5 or 0 Given that the hives will be introduced on La Gonave in 2016, the queens will be marked white regardless of their age to represent the year hives were in operation on the island. Go Gonave!