Last night we went to a special presentation at the local zoo by the CEO of an Orangutan rescue/rehabilitation organization (BOS). They have set up wonderful areas where orangutans, especially babies, can be cared for, then taught to be orangutans (climbing, foraging, making nests, etc.) and finally released into the wild to live naturally. The CEO of the BOS was very interested in setting up bee hives to give the local people a source of income. As he said, hungry people are not interested in conservation, and conservation of the forest is vital for the orangutans. He felt that the honey would not only give the residents a source of food, but provide a source of income. One of the zoo curators told him about our beekeeping, and he wanted to meet us. After his presentation we met and chatted with him for a bit. The upshot of all this is that this morning we gave him a dozen of the "starting bee keeping" booklets my husband wrote, a brief summary of the different sorts of hives, and the offer of any technical support we could offer. Sorry this is such a long post, but without the background it doesn't make a lot of sense. And no, we are not going to Borneo, although we were invited!
Ohhhhh work on that invitation,..but if you go,.. do come back,..don't even consider taking home an Orangutan
No Philip, we couldn't leave the three cats and 16 chickens, the vegetable gardens and flower beds even to visit Borneo. We aren't set up to foster an Orangutan, so we'll just do what we can to help establish a honey business for the locals in Borneo. I just love these international connections!
What an interesting posting. Also interesting is that the letters. BOS is a Dutch word that means forest. Contributing to the setting up of a honey industry in Borneo is such a good idea.
Borneo is such a lovely place, used to go there for scuba diving. The orangutans are majestic gentle creatures.
KK, sorry to be a bit late responding, but this is a busy time of year for us--cleaning and prepping gardens, etc. The local zoo has four orangutans--three adults and a baby. The curators are going to visit Borneo to see the rescue/rehab facility, and discuss cardiac care. We are proud to be members of such a caring, conserving zoo! Orangutans are majestic, and have such a beautiful community in which they live. However, they are incredibly strong, and don't realize it. No one is ever allowed in the orangutans' enclosure, and when giving them treats, the apes are trained to stick out their lower lip to receive the treat (used in training). If you tried to hand a treat to an orangutan, you could easily lose a finger or two--unintentional, they just don't realize how strong they are.
