The Effect of apiary management practices on honey yields in Kenya and the moderating effect of bee species

Abstract

A large proportion of Kenya can be classified as Arid and Semi-arid lands which have been identified as suitable conditions for beekeeping. Despite this geographical advantage, the country is still far from reaching its honey production potential with the varying level of honey yields. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of apiary management practices on honey yields in Kenya and the moderating role of bee species. Specifically, the study’s objectives were to examine the effect of apiculture’s colony management practices, socioeconomic management practices and environmental management practices on honey yields and to explore the moderating effect of bee species on the relationship between apiary management practices and honey yields in Kenya. The target population of interest was 135 members of the Apiculture Platform of Kenya who are directly involved in beekeeping. This study was guided by the research philosophy of post-positivism and applied a descriptive cross-sectional research design. With the aid of IBM SPSS version 20 software, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was used to analyze the primary data together with regression analysis to determine the relationship among the study’s variables. The findings showed that only apiculture’s colony management practices had a significant impact on the variation of honey yields. Apiculture’s socioeconomic and environmental management practices had a week relationship with honey yields; stakeholders are encouraged to evaluate how they can get more out of these practices to increase honey yields. This study was limited by its target group being a beekeeper’s association therefore the results of the research study cannot be generalized to the whole of Kenya. The honey yield data was collected over two seasons in one year. The data on honey production was self-reported. Suggested areas for further research include: the use of an experimental research design to investigate the effects of apiculture’s colony management practices on honey yields, qualitative techniques in the use of apiculture’s socioeconomic management practices, and an experiment to compare precision apiculture systems performance with conventional apiculture colony management practices.

Key Words: Apiary, Bees, Colony, Dearth, Honey, Internet of Things, Monitoring, Precision Apiculture, Yields.