John's Beekeeping Notebook
Ukrainian Beekeeping - Page 2
A Beekeeping Museum
The Prokopovych Beekeeping Institute in Kyiv has a very good beekeeping museum. They have displays of skeps and historic beekeeping equipment. The log hives at left are up in a tree.
They also have many experimental and whimsy hives, including these two house-hives.
Equipment on display ranges from venom collectors to a treadmill for bees! The treadmill was used in experiments measuring how far bees would walk to find nectar....
I invite you to take a virtual tour of the museum with me: Prokopovych Beekeeping Museum.
My Ukraine Assignment
I was in Ukraine to help beekeepers develop their beekeeping association and build beekeeping businesses. My assignment was organized by Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, a non-profit organization, and was funded by a "Farmer to Farmer" grant by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
My hosts and I worked hard to develop their beekeeping association. We used successful U.S. associations, marketing cooperatives and beekeeping businesses as examples to get ideas.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has required beekeepers to change the way they sell honey and get supplies. There are near-term hardships, but there are also good opportunities to develop businesses.
We worked on their business plans and did a lot of financial and market analysis. I also shared American beekeeping methods with them, and learned a lot about their beekeeping methods.
Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs (CNFA) did a great job in organizing my visit and I highly recommend them to American farmers and agri-business people considering an overseas volunteer assignment.
