From the beginning
Both Kristie and her husband, Brian, have worked most of their careers in Game Reserves, and whilst conservation has always been at their core, it was not until they started keeping a few hives at home that they realised the true key to conservation. The foundation of it all starts with Bees.
In 2019, in pursuit of good schools for their children (aged 4 and 6 at the time), they decided to leave their farm life in farm town and move to Hilton. Kristie planned to continue with Learnership Training with every intention of practicing Beekeeping on the side but very soon Bushveld Bees (Pty) Ltd was born out of a dream for conserving Bees.
The Next Step
This in turn manifested itself as a business that helped farmers by providing them a more viable option of having their pollination needs met – “in-sourcing” instead of outsourcing. Further to this, Bushveld Bees (Pty) Ltd helped guide farmers as to planting the correct food for the Bees in order to grow their colony numbers naturally.
The Beekeeping quickly took up more and more time, and fast became a full-time job having grown to almost 400 hives in the first year. Bushveld Bees (Pty) Ltd was created to help farmers realise that the key to true conservation, and securing the Colonies needed for pollination, was to ensure that food sources (plants) are planted for the bees on their farms. As for most beekeepers the biggest challenge is finding secure venues and sources of food for their bees after pollination time.
Giving back to the beekeeping industry...
“Intro to Beekeeping”
A practical course for 'New-Bees'!
Kristie, having had loads of experience in training and being an accredited Assessor, could see the areas which were lacking, and developed an “Introduction to Beekeeping” course. Within the first 4 months of offering the course, Kristie and Brian trained close on 100 new Beekeepers, some attendee’s coming from as far as the Free State, Eastern Cape and Gauteng. The course gives all attendees the necessary practical experience, which was very lacking in many other courses which they themselves attended when learning to keep their own bees.
Kristie explains, “Beekeeping should be about sharing information and experience. This industry is shrinking, yet the demand for beekeepers and bees is growing quickly. We must be part of creating a solution to conserve, not only the Bees and their environment, but also the industry as a whole. At Bushveld Bees (Pty) Ltd we are trying to create a wholistic environment where this can be possible”.