Windy weather affects honey production in Katsina

Honey has a long history of human consumption. It is used in various foods and beverages as a sweetener and flavouring.People that are looking for honey for religious or medicinal purpose in the Kankara, Bakori, Funtua and Faskari local government areas axis troop to Guga and Kakumi in search of pure and undiluted honey.One of […]

Honey has a long history of human consumption. It is used in various foods and beverages as a sweetener and flavouring.
People that are looking for honey for religious or medicinal purpose in the Kankara, Bakori, Funtua and Faskari local government areas axis troop to Guga and Kakumi in search of pure and undiluted honey.
One of the local bee keepers in the area, Malam Sagir Kakumi, popularly called ‘commander’ said “the harsh and windy weather disturbs and sometimes even kills the bees making it difficult to produce the honey. Some years back in the months of April to June bees in the bush adequately produced honey which we collected from the hives we mounted on trees, but this year the honey we got in the month of October surpassed that of these months.”
Malam Sagir further said that he has spent about 22 years in the local honey production business and that though he farmed beyond subsistence level, his revenue comes more from honey than farming. On the average he realises about N400,000 from the business yearly.
This reporter gathered that in the villages a bucket of pure honey sells for about N12,000 while a bowl costs N4,000 depending on availability and demand. In the past, a bucket of honey can be obtained from a hive as against only one bowl that one gets now due to the harsh and windy weather.
Malam Sagir Commander explained that a bee hive is made of straws and thatches in a cylindrical shape with a perforated cover at each end through which the bees enter the housing and the hives are mounted on top of the tall trees in the bush to prevent passersby from bee attack.
Traditional preparation is applied in form of smoke to attract the bees to the hive, where they will settle to reproduce and excrete the honey, he said, adding that, “a bee hive can remain active for 5 to 7 years on top of a tree as bees will make it their permanent home where they produce honey and reproduce their younger ones. We normally collect the honey from the hives in the night after like 30 days’ interval because the bees are less aggressive in the night,” Commander said.
Natural honey is one of the most widely sought after products due to its unique properties, which are attributed to the influence of the different groups of substances it contains. The bees convert the nectar they consume from flowers into honey by a process of regurgitation and evaporation.