Traditional Bark Hive in Malawi

The February SOBA meeting will feature a presentation by Dan Carr on Beekeeping in Africa.

Dan Carr will talk about his experiences working with the wonderful beekeepers and farmers of Malawi and Uganda.  He was a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural village called Mwazisi in northern Malawi from 2007-2010.  He learned to keep bees from a Malawian school teacher, and together they started the Mwazisi beekeepers association.

After returning to the United States and managing Stone Barns’ bees for three years, he was invited by the USAid Farmer to Farmer program to go back to Africa to work on a special project with a beekeepers cooperative in Kasese, Uganda called the Liberty Development Foundation LIDEFO.  We will talk about the differences between African and western bees and the most suitable hives for Africa, and the wonderful people Dan had the pleasure to work with in the Warm Heart of Africa (Malawi), and the Pearl of the Nile Uganda.

Dan Carr is a Livestock manager and head beekeeper at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in the Hudson Valley of New York.  He manages 30+ hives and teaches a variety of beekeeping classes at Stone Barns Center.  He was born and raised in Broomfield Colorado, and graduated from the University of Montana with a BA in Political Science and History.  He spent three years as an agriculture and environment Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi,  where he fell in love with bees, and has been a beekeeper ever since.