My beekeeping potential came to light the day i became a widow, Beatrice Knight

My name is Knight Beatrice, but I use Beatrice Mande because I’m married to Mande Clovis RIP. Its my late husband that started beekeeping under Bunyangabu Beekeepers cooperative (BBC) and started with only local hives. BBC trained my husband very well in good beekeeping practices and they enjoyed a very healthy working relationship. After some time of working together, BBC started to supply my late husband with modern hives (KTB). These greatly improved his apiary and increased his production. My late husband closely worked together with all our children in his beekeeping business. Personally, I wasn’t interested in beekeeping. Beekeeping was useless to me because he always provided everything I needed. In 2013, my husband died and this was a big blow to all of us including BBC. The good thing is that he had trained all his children and had also left the apiary in a very good state. This helped us so much to continue with the project because my children knew where to start from. I later joined my children in beekeeping because I was now the head of the family.

I thank BBC so much for accepting to work with me after my husband’s demise. BBC has always been there for me and my beekeeping project. Even when I lost my husband, BBC was there for me, they sent their sincere condolences and this helped to strengthen me even when my husband was gone. BBC has always encouraged and supported my children to study hard and has also improved their beekeeping skills. Truth be told, beekeeping has greatly sustained me as a widow together with my children. Every season, I am earning a total of 800,000 ugx from honey sales. This has enabled me to pay school fees for my daughter who has since graduated with a certificate in Nursing. I have five children and four of them have already acquired senior four certificates apart from the one in nursing. My journey in Beekeeping has not been smooth all through, I have encountered some challenges. On two occasions, bees got wild and killed all my goats. this made me extremely sad and felt like giving up but BBC came to my rescue with 300,000 ugx. This not only helped me revive my goat rearing business but also helped cushion me from the pain of losing my goats. BBC through TUNADO further enrolled me to the Bee a Champion programme. It’s through this program that I was able to receive modern hives (KTB) on cost share. BBC has also trained me and my children in almost all beekeeping skills.

Right now, everyone in my home know how to do queen rearing. What gives me joy is that BBC fully recognizes us as members and I was given an opportunity to serve on the BOD of BBC as the Vice chairperson. They are now used to me as one of their own, even after my husband’s demise