June 13th---Our first day at work on the Coast

The first thing on plate was to head to Kwetu Training Centre for a meeting with Mercy, the projects coordinator. Here we met Benson, our beekeeping contact on the coast.  We discussed the partnership of Penn State University and ICIPE, and also any possible partnership that could be made with Kwetu and the York County Beekeeping group as represented by Jeremy. Some really interesting points were brought up and great ideas were put on the table. After the meeting we headed to our first site at Bomani. We processed 4 hives in the morning and 5 hives in the afternoon. It was a long day to say the least but was a great start for the rest of the week!  Here are some pictures from the field:

                                          Kilonzo and Jeremy cleaning out the vacuum.

                                           Fiona and I preparing for sampling.

                                           The "Bee" house

                                           The beekeepers hard at work in the bees!

                                           Fiona, Ayuka, and I looking at the brood from a colony
                                           "Our search for varroa"