Researchers have proved beehive fences repel elephant raids on smallholder farms by 86.3 per cent while earning farmers an extra honey income.
The study conducted over nine years by research charity Save the Elephants in Mwakoma and Mwambiti villages next to the Tsavo Conservation Area proved that the beehive fences prevented 2,603 out of 3,027 elephant attacks during the peak crop-growing seasons between 2014 and 2020. Farmers living near Tsavo National Park experience the highest recorded cases of human-elephant conflict every year with the animals breaking into farms to eat maize, beans, watermelon, and pumpkins.
Kenyan farmers living next to national parks and reserves with elephants are estimated to have a ‘costs of living with elephants’ bill of at least Sh15 million annually. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) erects regular fences, that are easily trampled on by elephants, in many of Kenya’s parks because it lacks the funding to construct all-electric fences. Electric fencing can also only be used in areas that are properly zoned and people only live on one side. Electric fences also require skilled labour to maintain and as elephants get used to living with them they are increasingly able to maneuver their way past these fences as well. Farmers for their part use traditional thorn fences or barbed wire fences which are no match for hungry elephants.
For farmers in Imenti North, Meru County constant raids by elephants that break the fence that keeps them inside the Upper Imenti forest are a perennial cause of economic and medical losses. “If food is scarce in the forest and we dare to put anything on our farms they raid our growing maize, potatoes, cowpeas, and beans. Even one elephant can wipe out your entire crop,” said Roseline Kanini a farmer in Nkunga. After destroying their crops, elephants not only leave farmers hungry and poor but those bold enough to chase them away from their farms are sometimes left with lifelong injuries. Joash Munene, a neighbour to Kanini spots a distinctive limp that has encumbered his ability to work his shamba. “My kids are not old enough to farm so I’m forced to go into my pocked for hired labour,” he rued.
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Beehive fences create a triple safety barrier against elephants that also generates an income from honey and wax for farmers. The barbed wire is a physical deterrent while bees’ smell and sound which elephants fear serve as an extra layer of protection.
The bees also pollinate more crops which increases the amount of food farmers produce.
Each of the 26 farms had one and 1.5 acres of farmland and had 12 to 15 beehives along the fence. These hives were hung seven metres away from each other on a set of two-meter-long posts that were three meters apart. A real or dummy beehive was hung every 10metres apart. For the fence, an interlinked 2.64 mm plain fencing wire was used.
The hives used were Langstroth beehives which cost Sh 5,000 to 7,000 depending on the wood used and Kenyan Top Bar (KTB) Hives made out of plywood which cost Sh1,800 locally. The KTB hives made of plywood were replaced after three years as they began to weaken.
The posts used to hold up the hives and the fence were from the African myrrh tree or Kitungu/Mukungugu tree among the Kamba and Kikuyu.
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This was taken free from the surrounding bushed and has the advantage of re-growing once it is embedded in the the soil. Purchased posts could cost approximately Sh385-–514 each for a total cost of Sh24,700 for 48 posts.
Photo Courtesy: The Elephants and Bees Research Project