The gift of giving

My next port of call is Willowdale Farm – also in Stanford – to meet with

Chris Oosthuizen, the man behind Honeybee Heroes.

It takes me all of five minutes to discern that his approach to beekeeping wouldn’t fly on Wall Street. “We try our best not to make any money,” he says, settling into his seat on the deck. His Great Dane, Abby, doesn’t leave his side. “Honeybee Heroes is a registered NGO that I started in early 2020 during lockdown. I first became interested in honeybees while chatting to friends around a campfire one night. The conversation centred around the commercial side of beekeeping, but after doing my own research, I realised that bees are so much more than a means to make money. They are intrinsic to our survival as humans.

“I wanted to educate people about bees and food production, so I approached Karim Kamwendo, who’s worked for my parents for 15 years, and asked him if he’d be interested in embarking on a beekeeping journey with me. After more research – I’m talking hours and hours of YouTube videos, talking to established beekeepers, joining online forums and reading everything we could get our hands on – we ordered our first 50 hives.”

By initiating an “Adopt a hive” campaign, Chris started drawing crowds of visitors to Stanford who were eager to learn more about bees. “When you don’t do something for money, it retains its wholesomeness. I’ve had 148 visitors come to the farm this past month – we’ve been overwhelmed by genuine investment in our mission and it’s touching to see how much people truly care about these little creatures.” Some people even adopt hives to commemorate important dates, like the birth of a child. “It’s fun to see babies interacting with empty hives. Don’t worry – the bees are at a safe distance! It gives me a lot of hope for the future.”

Beyond education, Chris uses his

NGO as a tool for socioeconomic upliftment. “We saw a gap to provide women in our community with tools to start their own small-scale beekeeping operations. We provide them with bee boxes, protective clothing, a smoke machine – everything they need to get started. When the time comes to harvest, we buy the honey back from them. In this way, we create an opportunity for them to generate an income and the bees have a stable home base.”

What does Chris get out of this?

“I get to feel like I’m contributing towards something bigger than myself. Bees are critical to our ecosystems, so working with them and supporting them in their growth feels like making a small contribution towards our planet and all of its inhabitants.”

When it comes to the spoils of beekeeping, Chris believes that honey is a misunderstood commodity. “Like any other ‘crop’, honey has plentiful and slim harvest years, depending on what the bees were able to forage over the summer. The problem is, our demand as humans only gets bigger with each passing year, so to make up for the shortfall, some manufacturers blend different honey varieties to create that dark, treacle-coloured substance we’ve come to associate with supermarket honey. You know, the kind that comes in a Winnie the Pooh bottle? We need to change the way we view honey and develop a palate for it in the same way we appreciate wine. Canola honey tastes different from fynbos honey, which tastes different from eucalyptus or lavender honey, and so on. It comes in different colours, textures and consistencies and is wildly under-priced. My main mission is to uplift local honey producers and open people’s eyes to the dangers associated with cheap imports.”

A little under two years since launching Honeybee Heroes, Chris now hosts

700 hives on his farm. “If the bees have taught me anything, it’s that we all have a role to play in each other’s success. Donate your time, buy from local producers and make conscious choices about your consumption. Cut down on TV time and plug in to what’s going on around you. Together, we can all enjoy each other’s success.”