Nat Schouten, Couper. “Factors Influencing Beekeepers Income, Productivity And Welfare In Developing Countries: A Scoping Review”. Taylor & Francis, 2020, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2020.1844464.

When I first read this article I was skeptical, because what more could these little insects provide? They already keep whole ecosystems running, and they essentially feed the globe, but apparently bees are the gift that just keeps giving. It so happens that this gift they give is the source of income, which is incredibly valuable to developing nations. However, it seems that this gift comes with a catch, because unlike the honey that bees make reliably, it turns out that beekeeping can be a bit hit-and-miss.

This article reports on the success rates of beekeepers in developing countries, and how and why they may or may not be successful. It turns out that there’s quite a few significant positive factors that will determine how good the honey yield is, and consequently the net income. Those factors are based on things like how many hives the keeper has, the knowledge or willingness to learn, and general environment. Couper goes into the highly varied results when it comes to success in beekeeping, it’s so varied that not even the average number of colonies is stable, its 19 plus/minus 18 (Nat Schouten). It really goes to show you that what works for one person might not work for another, especially when it comes to bees, as it turns out these little guys can be quite finicky (Nat Schouten). But what was reported as somewhat reliable is the participants who’ve stated that this was a good form of supplemental income (Nat Schouten). However, a slightly more problematic thing was touched upon, that due to the high variation form keeper to keeper, you couldn’t pinpoint exactly what caused the profitability, or the welfare of the keeper.

This article really paints a good picture on finding sources of income in developing nations that doesn’t degrade the environment, however it does a really good job in highlighting the difficulties in doing so. Near the end of the article it does offer some solutions to help combat this problem such as government subsidies, and organizations, as well as education.

To keep this short and sweet, bees are super cool little insects, that can be a very sustainable way to make an income, but the catch is they’re picky, and the only way to further what makes a keeper successful or not is to conduct more research.