A Beehive a Day Keeps the Elephants Away: Beekeeping in Northern Ghana

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Mr. Berube demonstrates how to harvest and filter honey.
During his recent Farmer to Farmer flexible assignment in northwestern Ghana, Mr. Conrad Berube of Nanaimo, British Colombia, introduced the basics of owning and keeping bees to interested local farmers. Mr. Berube is Executive Director of the Bees for Babar Society in Nanaimo, which helps subsistence farmers – specifically near Ghana's Mole National Park – install trip-wired beehives on their land to prevent elephants from eating their crops. 


Local farmers pose with Mr. Berube
From February 26th – April 6th, he arranged for the distribution of 30 hives, smokers and considerable technical information in the villages of Mognori, Murugu and Larabanga. Though not all materials have been distributed to date, several Ghanaian collaborators involved in Mr.   Berube's trip plan to complete the task.



Mr. Berube encounters an elephant in Mole National Park.
More than 120 individuals participated in Mr. Berube's technical trainings. He hopes that participants will eventually use their new beekeeping knowledge for income-generation; however, in the meantime, the presence of bees will help reduce crop destruction by elephants near Mole National Park, Ghana's largest wildlife reserve.



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