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Juma Hamada is one of Bahrain’s few lone rangers, raising and rehabilitating bees at his farms in Budaiya and Hamad Town. However, he sees it as more than just a job; it’s a calling…especially in a time where honey bees are slowly becoming extinct.
Hamada Bee honey, which can be found every week at the Hoorat A’Ali Farmer’s Market, is made 100 per cent locally, mostly at Juma’s Budaiya bee farm, which currently has almost 400 hives.
“It’s the bees that do all the hard work,” said Juma, 41. “They fly up to three kilometres from the hive to collect nectar, even with all this heat.”
Bahrain’s summers especially can be torturous for the bees, which slow down significantly in activity at temperatures greater than 38 degrees Celsius and start to die once it hits 45 degrees Celsius.
However, while the rest of Bahrain may benefit from a summer work ban at these temperatures, Juma and his bees buzz along. He has set up all the hives in a shaded spot and especially in summer, replenishes each hive with water and syrup so the bees don’t feel compelled to travel as far.
GulfWeekly checked out Juma’s bees and farm first hand and the operation may seem fairly small; there is a greenhouse with “many varieties of local and imported flowers and some tree saplings” as well as a small wooden shed harbouring Africanised, Italian and European bees.
The variety of species is due to a number of reasons. Honey production has not hit commercial levels in the Middle East and thus, Juma rehabilitates and raises whatever bees show up on his radar.
He added: “Sometimes, people will call me to come get rid of bee hives in their garden or near their house. I try and save as many of these bees as possible, especially the queen. Every hive is different and sometimes they survive, and sometimes they don’t.”
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Moving and rehabilitating bee hives is no easy feat, considering each hive can occupy 20,000 to 60,000 bees, each of which may have a sesame-seed-sized brain but has spent its life learning and remembering foraging routes and distances.
The bee is also a crucial part of every ecosystem it becomes a part of, pollinating flowers and crops. Juma’s bees, for example, depend on the balsam flower (Commiphora gileadensis) in spring, the al Kinar fruit (Ziziphus mauritiana) in summer and the palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera) during the winter and in turn, help pollinate these by design.
Each harvest, after a “growing” season of six weeks, produces a different kind of honey. As a result, Juma usually has at least two different kinds of honey on hand. GulfWeekly’s beeporter Naman as well as his eponymous photographer, Honey (no pun intended, he swears), tried two different varieties.
A lighter honey, which tasted sweet and flowery, with a slight scent reminiscent of the balsam tree, probably was sourced from a combination of the balsam flowers and sugar water, which is necessary as the temperatures rise.
The second variety was a darker, richer honey with a hint of the decadent taste of dates, which was the universal favourite. It had a smooth, fruity taste, with a velvety texture and to say it tasted celestial would be a disservice to the noble work of the bees, and of course, Juma.
Each hive can produce as much as two kilograms of honey and Juma estimates his annual output to be at least 100 kilograms; but this may vary due to the health of the hives and climate conditions.
Bees, which have been farmed since the dawn of human civilisation, have seen their existence threatened in the last decade due to what has now been named the colony collapse disorder. When this happens, majority of the worker bees in a colony fly off, leaving the queen bee, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees.
Bees are critical pollinators. They pollinate 70 of around 100 crop species that feed 90 per cent of the world. If they die out, then we may lose all the plants that the bees pollinate and all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain.
No universal cause has been found, but climate change seems to be triggering a lot of the individual colony collapses, including change in mite migration patterns, immunodeficiencies, loss of habitat and change in beekeeping practices.
Juma said: “Sometimes, bees will just leave, but usually, as long as there is a single queen, they have enough food and water, they keep working.”
He has been keeping bees for the last decade and running the farm for the last four years, having taught himself most of what he knows about bees but the apicultural spark can be traced back to his school days.
He added: “When I was in Al Diraz Intermediate Boys School, one of my teachers, Ismael, dedicated a portion of our biology class to beekeeping. Since then, I have always enjoyed watching and working with them.”
He carries that passion forward, conducting field trips and classes in Arabic for children from the nearby schools and his farm’s Instagram is populated with adorable pictures of kids in oversized beekeeping suits looking on in wonder as the Hamada Honeyman roams freely amongst the bees with no fear of any stings.
Even though I went to university in Guelph, Canada, where I regularly visited the Honey Bee Research Centre to score some of the winter goodness, I still felt the need to get decked out in our beekeeping suits since this was our first meeting with the bees.
Juma added: “Yes, the bees have definitely gotten used to me. They don’t sting unless you bother them or get in their way. And even if they do, it just stings for a bit. And it’s medicinal.”
Not wanting to test this theory out, I zipped up completely, even though there are mixed reports that bee venom has anti-inflammatory properties that may help treat certain conditions like migraines, eczema and psoriasis.
While some people visit the farm just to get bitten, we stuck to the traditional route this time as Juma showed us the impressive hives that he nurses.
Beyond the venom, honey has many medicinal properties and is the healthier alternative to processed sugar.
He hopes to encourage a similar passion in the kids that come for field trips as well as other farmers in Bahrain.
“Other than selling honey, I also raise and sell bees, so others can also learn and benefit from a honey hive.”
Hamada Bee farm is located in Budaiya near the Barbar temple and you can check out the latest happenings on Instagram @hamada__bee
