Building a Fortified Hive of Beekeepers in Guyana

Building a Fortified Hive of Beekeepers in Guyana 

Abecky Williams, 26, fell in love with apiculture after taking a university lecture.  

"I was fascinated by bees - by the way they communicate and how they do things in the hive," Williams said. "Each bee in the hive has their job outlined. I love agriculture and I realize the importance of beekeeping.”

Beekeepers Abecky Williams and Donald Isaac prepare to monitor Abecky’s beehives. Georgetown, Guyana. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

Williams, who works during the day as a science teacher, is one of the newest and younger members of the Guyana Apiculture Society (GAS), Guyana’s lead and exclusive beekeeping association established in 2010.

Their primary objective is to foster a thriving beekeeping culture in Guyana that promotes rural livelihoods while contributing to strengthening Guyana’s natural environment and sustainable agriculture. With 35 members managing close to 600 hives, GAS represents a wealth of years of beekeeping experience, and yet GAS Chairman, Neil Grant, said that he sees vast unrealized potential due to lack of technical knowledge, adequate government support, training, and best practices.

The power of bees and their byproducts are well known and, in Grant's opinion, largely untapped in Guyana. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 75% of the world’s crops depend on pollinators like bees. Conversely, bees and other key pollinators such as bats, birds, and other pollinator insects are under threat globally as their habitats are increasingly destroyed due to agro-industrial shifts towards monoculture production, increased use of pesticides, and climate change impacts.

Therefore, organizations such as GAS play a vital role in safeguarding bees and promoting beehive products such as honey, wax, royal jelly, and propolis.

Guyana Apiculture Society Chairman, Neil Grant. Georgetown, Guyana. Photo Credit: Edward Cook

Grant dreams of Guyana scaling and operating as a country with a robust beekeeping and honey production industry supplying national and international demands. He looks up to vibrant beekeeping countries like Jamaica, which although is smaller in land size than Guyana, supports honey production with adequate honey houses (production spaces), government financial program support for beekeepers, and ample access to markets.

To level up beekeeping in Guyana, USAID-funded Partners of the Americas’ John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) Guyana plays a pivotal role in engaging U.S. bee experts and other organizational development experts to transfer necessary skills and insight to encourage GAS toward solid growth and development.

Beekeepers Abecky Williams, Neil Grant, and Donald Isaac enter beehive farm. Georgetown, Guyana. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

Guyana is home to Africanized bees and, as such, Guyanese beekeepers require specialized experts familiar with this breed. F2F volunteers this year included Dr. Cahit Ozturk, a queen rearing expert.

"[Ozturk] blew open the doors for us as beekeepers and showed us the way forward,” Grant said.

Grant explained that largely beekeepers go out to the forest to hunt beehives to start and/or increase production. While they are also familiar with queen rearing, GAS members did not fully understand the strategic benefits and impact that queen rearing can have for beekeepers seeking to expand production.

Ozturk’s trainings empowered beekeepers to gain better control of necessary conditions for prime queen rearing as well as increase honey production and colony productivity. By understanding how to manipulate queen bees in a productive manner, beekeepers are now better able to also schedule development and management of hives in preparation of honey production seasons, which lie between March-April and September-December.

Beekeeper Donald Isaac preparing smoker to uncover beehive. Georgetown, Guyana. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

F2F's Organizational Development Volunteer, Johnson Ndi, who visited during October 2022, also addressed other types of challenges GAS was struggling with for some time. As an organization, various fundamental elements were missing, hampering a sustainable growth path. With his guidance and exercises, GAS gained a firm understanding of important issues, such as how to build a board of directors and update or develop key documents, such as bylaws and their constitution. Fundraising is a key area that they were not aware of how to build nor effectively capitalize.

Ndi played a key role in providing sound recommendations and next steps to building organizational capacity toward increasing membership and generating an action plan for sustainable growth.

“Organizational development helped us build a portfolio for the organization because if you want to do any proposal writing, for example, they are going to want to know about the history, background, membership etc." Grant said. "Now, we put that all together and we are ready to pull that out whenever we need it to put into proposals that we want to pursue."

Abecky Williams’ Africanized beehive comb. Georgetown, Guyana. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez 

When F2F Grant Writing Specialist Volunteer, Rozetta Williams, visited GAS in September 2022, she spent a considerable time with Grant and other key GAS members to develop winning grant proposals, empowering the organization to seize opportunities that up until now they have passed on simply because they did understand the process. Grant recalled that in the past international organizations have approached GAS with interest to partner and support apiculture initiatives.

By teaming up with Williams, GAS is now better positioned to research, identify funding sources, and determine how to submit winning proposals for grant funding. GAS now operates with a grant proposal model for future opportunities.

Grant felt reassured that even after Williams's service with F2F, GAS could still reach out to her virtually for advice or follow-up questions. He has felt this way about all of F2F’s volunteers who they have engaged with in the past.

“The good thing about F2F is that the volunteers are continually available to us via WhatsApp or another mode," Grant said. "Even though, they are not physically here, we still have access to them and that has been a big support.”

Freshly cut honeycomb from Guyana Apiculture Society beehives. Georgetown, Guyana. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

 

GAS realizes that their efforts contribute to increasing food security and livelihoods for Guyanese in a country whose economy is largely agriculturally driven. Today, with the support and encouragement from F2F, GAS beekeepers are taking lessons from the beehives themselves and learning to work together more efficiently to reach their dream of building a thriving beekeeping culture and industry in Guyana.

The USAID John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program in Guatemala is implemented by Partners of the Americas. F2F connects specialized volunteers from the U.S. with farmers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, extension services, government agencies, and other institutions in developing countries.