Beehive Fences Offering Needed Solution To Elephant Conflict With Farmers

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Farmers have an issue with elephants who raid their crops as their actions can easily destroy their farm space and contribute to food insecurity in different regions. There is a great deal of devastation for farmers that has taken place as a result of uncontrolled elephants that trespass on unwanted farm areas.

A unique solution that has been tested to try and alleviate the issue however are beehive fences.

Essentially, the beehive fences are made with a number of beehives being attached to fence posts around a certain farm area, they are attached with wires.

Once any pressure is placed on the wires then it in-turn disturbs the nearest occupied hives that are attached to the fence.

Researchers working on this solution have suggested that having a higher percentage of occupied hives is going to fuel better results, offering more success in discouraging an elephant visit.

The beehives have proven to be an eco-friendly way to protect farms from unwanted tresspass from elephants.

With the beehives being attached to the fence and surrounding the property, it has been shown to dramatically reduce that lost opportunity cost that comes along with unwanted elephants coming through the farm space.

Thanks to the bees, there are fewer instances of elephants coming through and being attracted to the field of crops.

Aside from the benefit of keeping away elephants there is also the opportunity for communities to manage those hives and harvest the honey too.

For farmers who are looking for solutions to this problem in certain areas such as in East Africa, it can be very costly to deal with the situation and it's been difficult to come up with creative, Eco-friendly solutions like this.

Now, these beehive fences are being tested in a growing number of areas.

It is believed that Kenyan farmers were the ones to first help foster support for this idea and help the trend to grow, once they noticed that elephants had avoided foraging in trees that had beehives in them.

Presently, there are zoologists and others who are working to implement these fences in at least 19 different countries, including 15 throughout Africa and 4 across Asia.

Some downsides to consider with this method however are that it can't be easily scaled for broad implementation all over the world, and there are certain factors that can greatly impact the overall success of the project. For example, the species of bee being used can impact that success, or the design of the fence etc.

But for some farmers already who have started using this tool, it's proven to be helpful in addressing the problem for them.

Pics:
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5 comments
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Natural methods... sounds good & peaceful.
Plus, anything supporting bee lives in our times is good
and necessary...

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But what about the elephant in the room?


i hope this works out for the bees and the farmers.
We will see if they can balance this out.

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As a bee-keeper this strikes a happy string, very resourceful and quiet a swell idea. Cheer$;)

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