Headline: Coming Soon: Honey from New Kind of Bee Imported from Israel

Belize produces one of the best quality honeys in the region, extracted from honeycombs created by the Africanized bees. But because the bees can be deadly to human and animal life if they attack in swarms, not very many people tend to gravitate to that line of work. But there’s a new proposal to move to another type of bees that are found thousands of miles across the Pacific. The Ministry of Agriculture’s Extension Officer and National Coordinator of Beekeeping, Miguel Huertas told News Five today that the ministry is considering putting the project in the care of a school that already has the infrastructure in place.

Miguel Huertas

Miguel Huertas, National Coordinator, Beekeeping, Ministry of Agriculture

“Recently one organization the Ministry and we had a meeting last two weeks where they want to assist schools in promoting a specific type of colony. They will introduce a colony that is brought from Israel. We are working on that to assist some schools. They have identified some schools, but we also need to do an assessment on if the school will be capable of handling – working with the colonies. We have one school in particular here in the north, which is Centro Escuela Mexico Junior College. That is a school that I attended when I was growing academically. And that school has an apiary where they grow their colonies. They have been working on harvesting honey and maybe we will just work hand in hand along with this project. One of the most important (aspects) of beekeeping is pollination. Without pollination we might only live four years. Albert Einstein said one time, “If bees are off the surface of the Earth, we only have four years.” So we need to emphasize the importance of beekeeping. They pollinate up to seventy percent of the food we eat. If we don’t have bees, we are no longer on this Earth. So this is what we want to educate the students on, for when they leave school they can venture in beekeeping. We have done an assessment where the beekeepers are in their late fifties, late sixties, so the (younger) generation needs to get involved.”