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Sweet Island Honey By Thomas Tomczyk

The Beekeeping tradition of the Bay Islands provides a way of saving Honduras bees from Africanization
Beekeeping is a family tradition on the Bay Islands. While the islands' bee population is particularly vulnerable to weather and hurricanes, it has become a bastion of European bees, specifically Italian bees. The archipelago is still and amazingly unaffected by the aggressive and less productive Africanized bees.
Roatan's honey comes from maintained hives and wild bees whose nests are gathered by honey hunters. Several people on Roatan gather wild honey, smoking out bees that make their nests in trees. The practice is controversial as the bees have little chance of survival after most of their food source is gone. "People who hunt wild honey leave the bees stranded," says Pastor Perry Elwin, 44, who has been a beekeeper for over 30 years.
Over the years Perry has managed to build-up his beehive community to 13, just 100 meters from his French Harbour home. Each hive has several hundred thousand bees. "If you maintain several hundred thousand [bees in each hive] you're doing OK," said Perry, who carries his fascination with beekeeping from his father-in-law Vincent Hyde, who taught him about bees when Perry was still a boy.
Off season Elwin has to check on his bees only once a month. In season he checks every box 2-3 times a week. But the honey production can vary greatly year-to-year and one never knows how abundant the pollen will be. In 2006, Perry's honey production peaked at 100 gallons, and in 2007, it fell to 50 gallons. "There was very little pollen this year," explains Perry who picks around 2.5 gallons of honey from a small bee box and 5 gallons from a big box. The bee boxes where bees make their hives are made from uncured lumber and painted white. Frames lined with wax are slid vertically into the box and over time accumulate as much as seven gallons of honey. The boxes are stacked vertically on top of one other, as many as six.
In 2005, Perry gathered 75 gallons of honey of which 60 gallons he packed and put up for sale as "Elwin's Honey" at island stores. To produce the honey the sweet product has to be extracted, drained into a pail, cleaned of wax and impurities, and placed in bottles that are then labeled. The honey is sold in Eldon's, Lula's, Woody's and Fantasy Island.
Perry says that for much of the honey sold around the island, the base is sugar, not nectar. Many beekeepers feed their bees with sugar and add as much as 30%-40% water before they sell it. "My honey is pure and it doesn't crystallize," says Elwin who raises Italian bees, the only type of domesticated bee living on Roatan. Bay Islands were fortunate not to become overridden with Africanized bees that have overwhelmed much of South and North America, endangering local domesticated bee communities.
The Italian bees raised on the island can count on a few dependable sources of pollen and flowers of cohoon palms are especially liked by the insects. "If the bees here liked mango blossom, we [Roatan beekeepers] would be in luck," said Elwin, who explained that mango blossom is likely too acid for bees to use. Right now the best place for bees is Diamond Rock and Santa Helena. That is where the best, most varied flowers and pollen can be found. Diamond Rock also boasts the islands biggest beekeeper community: five people keep hives there.
Roatan's typical bee season lasts from April to September. Once the rain sets in, the amount of pollen the bees can find becomes small and taking out any additional honey would threaten the bee's existence. Honey left after the keeper 'robes' them is barely enough for their survival.
Roatan honey consumption is greater than the honey the island produces. The island is also a market for honey brought if from Honduras and the US. There are several honey vendors who regularly visit the island from the mainland. One of them is Juan Manuel Nietos who every month makes a journey from San Lorenzo to Roatan to sell his sweet product. In a shoulder bag he carries recycled 750ml bottles filled with golden colored dense fluid. He walks from door to door offering a liquid that is both sweet and healthy- honey. Nietos's family has been in the bee keeping business for generations. The family formed a micro company, "El Panelito," employs six people and produces eight barrels, or 1,500 liters of honey a year. The honey is gathered in two harvests, a big one coinciding with major flower bloom in May, and a smaller one in October.
African bees have rendered havoc with Mainland Honduran beekeepers that have resorted to burning forest patches to eradicate the troublesome insect. Some of them take advantage of the Bay Islands market and an easy 10% to 20% mark-up to sell their product which comes in three main varieties.		 "White Star" honey (Miel Estrella Blanca) he sells for Lps. 150 and it serves as natural medicine for ailments such as gastritis. It is made by a medium size black bee that doesn't bite. The "Castle" honey (Miel de Castilla) sells for Lps. 100 and is great for general consumption with waffles and bread. Only on Roatan is this "Castle" honey produced. A yellow bee with black antennas and a ferocious bite makes this most widely available type of honey in Honduras. The yellow and black mainland Honduras bee that is smallest in size makes this most valuable honey, "Jimerito" "Jimerito" and is sold at Lps. 300. "There are not as many flowers on Roatan as on the mainland," said Nietos. According to the honey seller the best places for beekeeping on the island are in Punta Gorda, Diamond Rock and Port Royal.
When in 1956 Africanized bees were accidentally introduced and released in Brazil, it took 30 years before the Africanized bees reached Central America and many desperate beekeepers just abandoned their hives. It took several decades to rebuild the beekeeping industry and just as things were looking up, in 1998 Hurricane Mitch hit. The damage was so devastating to the Honduras beekeeping industry and being a honey exporter, the country had to import the product.
The Bay Islands worst affected area was Guanaja, which at that point was the most vibrant beekeeping community of the archipelago. The island has been a Bay Islands honey producing center for decades until Mitch. During the storm almost all of the islands trees and pollen producing plants were destroyed or damaged and almost all delicate Italian bee colonies were destroyed. Only a few survived and nearly a decade later only one beekeeper, Mr. Dave, was able to restart beekeeping and currently has three bee boxes in North-East bite. Utila, with only 3,500 inhabitants, has no beekeepers.
Elwin says that the bees are very delicate and subject to weather changes. "They get diseases just like humans. If they get parasites, it's best to destroy the whole nest," says Perry whose bees suffered a parasite infection three years ago. The parasites attack the bees and bee larva and when one nest becomes infected, it threatens the entire bee community living in proximity. One also has to be vigilant of marching army ants who can destroy a bee hive overnight.
According to Perry the best time to 'rob honey' is between 9 and 11 am, when the most of the bees are out working and in the afternoon from 3 to 4 pm. Elwin uses a smoker to control the bees while he robes their honey. He uses fever grass pressed into an aluminum container and, with a few pieces of pinewood, lights it. "You can't have honey without it," Elwin says about his smoker. "The bees would be just too uncontrollable without the smoke." The smoke is used to calm the bees down, disorient them a bit, and pacify them. "I've been stung so many times that I don't swell anymore," said Elwin looking over his fingers.
If and once one bee stings, other bees immediately smell the venom and become more aggressive. The only way to react is to stay calm and take out the stinger and cover with light colored clothing. The trick is not to panic, not to run or wave your arms. All of that just makes worker bees more aggressive and ready to sting while defending their nest.

 

Perry Elwin tends to one of his 13 bee hives in French Harbour.
Worker bees are responsible for feeding the queen, gathering nectar and for maintaining, cleaning and protecting the nest. During the height of the season, hardworking worker bees live only two weeks. An average bee flies within three miles of the hive, but there are bees that fly as far as five miles looking for flower nectar.
The non-working bees of each nest are the drones. If the population of drones in a hive reaches one-eighth, the nest could de in trouble. Drones don't work or sting. They just eat and burden the entire nest. Still, drone bees are not useless. Their only, but vital role is to ensure that once a year the Queen is impregnated. In June or July, the queen will fly out of her nest and mate with one drone who after impregnating her, falls dead. A queen bee lays between 1,500 and 3,000 eggs a day for entire life, sometime as many as five to eight years.
Queen bees live between five and eight years, but can at any moment be de-crowned by a younger, stronger, more fertile queen. Occasionally the nest is split amongst the two competing bees and workers have to choose which queen they will serve. It is the beekeepers role to make another box for the departing queen so the tribe doesn't need to migrate too far.
Her abdomen is noticeably larger than that of other bees, but to facilitate identification many beekeepers will mark her with a daub of paint. According to Perry, raising queens can be the most lucrative as individual insects can be sold for as much as $400-$500. This year Elwin has a standing offer from mainland beekeepers for his Italian bee queens of $200. "People on the mainland know that the island bees are not Africanized and are willing to pay for them," says Elwin.
Perry Elwin tends to one of his 13 beehives in French Harbour.
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What's in a Name?by Thomas Tomczyk
The unwritten Bay Islands law says that "if you can buy it, you can name it." Since just about everything in the Bay Islands is for sale, plenty of people take advantage of this rule.
When Carnival Cruise Lines announced that its "experienced marketing company" decided that Mahogany Bay is a better name for Dixon Cove I was faced with a dilemma. I was finishing a map of Roatan and had to decide: face the future and name Dixon Cove- Mahogany Bay, or stay with the tradition and keep it as it has been for at least a couple hundred years?
Dixon's Cove has already been marked as such on the 1775 map "Ruatan Map" surveyed by Lieutenant Henry Barnsley, the Cartographer to the King of England. While Ruatan became Roatan, just a few cays and bight names survived the 232 years and even Dixon Cove was in danger of losing its identity to a Central American hardwood. Coincidences rule the world and marketing companies love predictability. You can predict that people will just love 'Mahogany,' but could they ever fall in love with 'Dixon?'
The name changing phenomena isn't exclusive to XX and XXI century. If fact, marketing has determined what Bay Islands should call themselves for as long as people have lived here. Different people- different names. Even the spelling Cay vs. Kay was an issue as most of dropped C for a K as the English left and the US stepped in. In all that change and chaos what is perhaps most amazing is that some places manage to retain their names through several centuries. (E.g. Anthony's Key).
For Marketing executives Arch Cay certainly doesn't sound as attractive as Fantasy Island and they surely love you if you make their life easier. Marketing fantasy and not arches, bare feet and not burials, is just so much easier.
Some name changes are just bound for failure. When attempts were made to rename Coxen Hole- Roatan City the christening never took off. But stay tuned. Marketing 'a hole' might prove too much for Royal Caribbean Corporation and their nearby cruise ship terminal. Its marketing department might just decide that in the name of getting an extra 5,000 shore excursions a year, it would help to rename the island capital a more inspiring, 'Buccaneerville.'
And what did I do as far as Dixon Cove? I decided to keep the community of Dixon Cove on the map and substitute the Cove's aquatic name to Mahogany Bay, a truly Solomonian decision. While I think that change is good, let's not forget the roots or the context of the places we live in.

Substituted, but not Forgotten Island Names
Coxen Hole - Roatan City - Calkett's Hole
Brick Bay - Brig Bay
Saint Helen - Helena Island
Mangrove Bight - Cohoun Bight
Gibson Bight - Turtling Bight
Brig Bay - English Harbour
Jonesville Harbour - Falmouth Harbour
Bodden Bight - Welshe's Lagoon
Coral Cay - Green Cay
Barefoot Cay - Burial Cay
Fantasy Island - Ezekiel Cay - Threlfall Island
Osgood Cay - Big Cay - Bennet's Island
Arch Cay - Big Cay
Stamp Cay - Poinsetts Island
Stamp Cay- Half Moon Cay
Connors Cay - Flevells Kay
Ross Cay - Little Helena
  • Cay, or kay - a small, low island consisting mostly of sand, or coral
  • Cove - most often a circular, or round inlet with a narrow entrance. Colloquially, cove can describe any sheltered bay.
  • Bay - An area of water bordered by land on three sides
  • Bight - A large and often only slightly receding bay, shallower than a sound
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More Music then Shrimp

RISF attracts the biggest music stars to ever visit the island

Miss Pollitilly answered "What can be women's contribution to the development of the island?" by saying: "Women of the island need to focus of the culinary arts."
"This is a bit embarrassing that they can't think of anything else," said Lidia Medina, chief of Environmental department at the Roatan Municipal, about the spectacle. Judges faced a difficult task of deciding from the five, but it was Miss Sandy Bay who dawned the crown in the end. The verdict was in: food - 6, beauty contestants - 7, Music - 10.
While the two previous Shrimp Festival events either broke even, or lost money, the 2007 festival focused on local and internationally recognized artists and actually made money. "The difference was that we had a cause and it was easier to raise money," said Hyde. While organizers aimed at getting 3,000 visitors, it was the sponsorships that pulled the event into the black. In the end Little Friends raised $31,000 towards the construction of the French Harbour Community Clinic.
Selling the tickets at $12 for children, $29 and $34 for adults, for some people the price of entry remained the biggest obstacle. "If I wanted to take all my children [five], I would have to spend over a hundred dollars. Then there would be food, etc. I just couldn't afford it," said Justus Fallenroth, dive shop owner from West End.
Next year the festival is planned for Marbella beach at Palmetto Point and should be back in the hands of Suyapa Edwards.
The five finalists of the beauty contest
Third Roatan International Shrimp Festival was more about music then food. On June 16, over two thousand people cheered on as a Country music star sang "Look what followed me home," and a 67-year-old Calipsoan from Trinidad rediscovered Roatan's reggae roots. "I feel like I came home," told the audience Lord Laro.
Little Friends Foundation Kandy Hyde working with Coral Cay organized the event in six weeks flat and despite the hurry, the festival attracted the two biggest international music stars in the island's history: David Ball and Kenneth Lara AKA Lord Laro.
The other attraction of the festival was the beauty pageant where island constants remained poised, trying to keep their smiles during the two hour contest. Still, the hardest part was yet to come. While the competitions showed plenty of confidence and beauty, they faltered a bit in showing off their intellect. The five finalists had to answer questions about Roatan and while all the girls knew the questions and had two days to prepare the answers their answers were a bit surprising.
Boat Rams Another, Killing Three
The Potential Negligent Homicide Escalates Tensions between Helene Island residents and Barbaret workers
A day trip for 14 Saint Helena men and teenagers to hunt Barbaret Iguanas and dive for lobster ends in tragedy. On June 20, after being chased by Barbaret security guards away from the North Side of the island the 14 men got in their 18' boat, circled the island to the south where a more powerful, bigger boat 'Sea Fox' steered by Barbaret security man Esmelin Paz rammed them.
According to Wally Bodden, Santos Guardiola Councilman from Saint Helene and owner of the sunken boat, Esmelin Paz was waiting in ambush for the boat filled with passengers just past the eastern tip of the island. Paz's boat rammed into the Helene boat with such an impact that it broke away a seven foot chunk of the boat, sunk it and flipped the 'Sea Fox.' Helenian Karoll Bowman died on impact, Tracy Dilbert was knocked unconscious and in the ensuing chaos, drowned.
According to Esmelin Paz, their boat was trying to stop the Helen boat for iguana inspection and it was the Helene boat who rammed them. DGIC has made preliminary inspection of the 'Sea Fox' and the boat suffered damage only to its front making it unlikely to be rammed from the side.
While the 18' boat sunk, most of the men were picked up by a small Saint Helene fishing boat that was in the vicinity. The three, and according to some witnesses four, Barbaret security men swam back to Barbaret and according to witnesses fired their weapons in the air. Esmelin Paz claims to have helped some of the Helena men out of the water and denies firing any weapons.
Bodies of Bowman, Dilbert and three seriously wounded men were brought in to the Alternative Missions clinic on Saint Helene around 1pm. "There was little we could do for them," said Larry Benson, director of the Helene Clinic. The three seriously wounded men, Luckie McKenzie, Gary McLaughlin and Jovie Bodden, were transported via boat and car to Woods Clinic in Coxen Hole and flown on a chartered plane to La Ceiba's D'Antoni Hospital. Later in the day, McKenzie died. McLaughlin remains in a coma and Jovie Bodden is at risk of losing his eye.
When the news of the attack arrived on Saint Helene, anger at the perpetrators was ready to spill over. "If it wasn't for me the place [Barbaret] would have been burned down and people lynched," said Wally Bodden.
 Preventiva Police showed-up in the evening, arresting three of the Barbaret security guards: Esmelin Paz, his brother Gleny Paz and cousin Olman Paz. Within hours the entire staff and workers of Barberat, 60 people, were evacuated to French Harbour. Around 20 Paz family members returned to Santa Barbara.
Esmelin Paz has a history of confrontational behavior with locals. Adversarial relationships between Esmelin Paz and locals escalated from time to time as some Saint Helena men came to Barbaret to hunt iguanas and pick coconuts. In the last month alone several Helene youths were arrested by Esmelin Paz, their arms tied and kept on the island for over a day. "We always had had an attitude of protecting the iguana. Once we caught five men with 29 iguanas and turned them in to Oak Ridge police," said Esmelin Paz.
Esmelin Paz moved 12 years ago to Barbaret from Santa Barbara and was reported by Helene community members on several occasions to the police and his previous employer and owner of Barbaret -Peter Townsmire.
Over the last two years Esmelin Paz worked as a security guard for Kelcy Warren, an American Billionaire who purchased majority of Barbaret from Peter Townsmire in 2005 to build his holiday home there.
With all the Barbaret workers hailing from the ladino community on the mainland, many Saint Helene people feel left out from the development boom on the island. While Townsmire emploid several Saint Heleneans, Warren has not hired a single employee from an island less than two miles away. "Kelcy should have come and met with the people on Saint Helene," said Wally Bodden.
"I don't accuse Kelcy, but the management of Barbaret," said Wally Bodden who also sees fault with BICA's iguana and green turtle protection efforts that ignored local traditions and sensibilities. "They just can't impose this [iguana protection] laws. This is our culture," said Wally Bodden.
The sad thing is that the violent confrontation was predicted by several people in the community, yet little was done to prevent it. Wally Bodden said that he expressed his concern to Congressman Jerry Hynds and Governor Arlie Thompson as recently as a month before the incident. "I said 'you need to do something about this. He [Chilie] is going to kill someone,'" said Wally Bodden. According to Governot Thompson the responsibility of resolving this matter lay with Santos Guardiola authorities.
Wally Bodden sees the three deaths as a result of neglect of the Saint Helene community: local politicians not addressing a growing conflict, Barbaret management's inability to engage local community and overzealous efforts of BICA at protecting iguanas and green turtles without taking into account the sensibilities of the local community. "We are the dump place of the island. We are forgotten," said Wally Bodden.
RECO Ready for Change

Company's Board of Directors accepts a purchase bid from a US billionaire retired part time on Barbaret
Kelcy Warren, 50, has several decades experience of working in gas energy in Texas and is a Co-Chairman of Energy Transfer Partners Company, earning a reported $1.15 million a year. "He will infuse the company with new equipment, offer a reduced rate for the poor and pursue alternate power generation methods," explained Danzilo about Warren's proposal for RECO. "It behooves everybody that he will realize the purchase." RECO operating capital is estimated at Lps. 10 million and Warren has the option to purchase controlling share of RECO stock- 52%.
The deal is not yet final as RECO stockholders have 15 days to exercise their right of first refusal. Also, a June 20 incident involving Warren's security guards on Barbaret and death of three men from Saint Helene has spilled over into anger at the American amongst the Roatan's ladino community.
The situation is complicated further by a confrontational attitude of the patronato leadership which has paralyzed RECO in the past. "The RECO board squandered their shares of the company and now we the people own 60% of the company," said Pablo Nelson, president of Roatan Independent Tour Companies. According to Nelson, at a recent patronato meeting in Sandy Bay Rosa Hendrix, president of the Bay Islands patronatos, discussed taking over RECO installations and bringing in engineers and staff to run the company. "We are not giving these shares to the 'gringo' [Warren] and we are getting ready to take over RECO," said Nelson.e
After 15 years of struggle to become profitable and find good management RECO might finally be seeing light at the end of the tunnel. On June 11, after five months of emergency management by ENEE and several low-ball offers from the mainland power company owners, an American billionaire building a holiday home on Barbaret won the bid for the option to buy the controlling stake in Roatan Electric Company.
"We had three serious bids, including: one from Cayman Islands and one from mainland Honduras," said Felipe Danzilo, RECO's lawyer. According to Bay Islands Voice sources, some of the Honduran offers were 'lowball' offers at a fraction of RECO's value. "[Kelcy] Warren's offer was by far the most comprehensive," said Danzilo.
Not Enough Want
Arsenal finds itself and looses a chance at playing inDivision I

The stadium turned into a pandemonium. Arsenal fans banged the corrugated roof of their stands as reserve players and police run onto the field. While Canales refused to leave the field, arguments broke out and Savio's bench threw accusations at the game's referee- Ricardo Zelaya. It was 10 minutes before the game resumed.
Still, Arsenal could not play in unison and any rhythm that the team had playing with one-man less evaporated. The French Cay team limited itself to "center and jump" type of plays hoping for a lucky break. That break never came and after a lucky post saved Savio, it was only the referee's delay in blowing the final whistle that kept Savio from picking up the trophy.
Again, like three month before, Arsenal found itself one goal from forcing an overtime with the Santa Barbara team. Again, Arsenal fell short. "We were a better team, but refereeing could be done much better," said Victor Lopez, Savio's treasurer.
Savio is not a novice to division I and II. The Copan team has a 32-year history and 18 of these years it spent playing in division II. In 2001 and 2002, Deportes Savio qualified to play in division I.
Savio just wanted to advance more and maybe the loss was a blessing in disguise to the young Roatan team. They have another year to prepare to enter into division I: to build a stadium, organize their fan support, etc.

A play in front of Savio's goal.
On a hot Sunday afternoon, around 1,750 people bought Lps. 70 and Lps. 100 tickets to stand behind a chain link fence, an arms length away from their island football heroes. While Roatan stood on the brink of classifying to Hondura's division I, they got plenty of drama.
After loosing 1:0 on May 27 in Santa Barbara, Arsenal found itself at home trying to at least win with a one-goal difference.
In minute 40 Arsenal's Carlos Martinez received a red card for dangerous play and Arsenal found itself playing 10 on 11. Things seemed like they were getting better for Roatan when in minute 70, Savio's goalkeeper, number 13 Elmer Canales, received a second yellow and red card for purposeful delay of game.
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Affordable Dreams by Thomas Tomczyk

Bay Islands' first low income housing project nears completion