Evaluation of Kenyan Top Bar Hive for honey production in Gambella

The objective of the study was to evaluate the productivity and profitability of the Kenyan Top Bar Hive by comparing the users and non-users of the technology. To compare the honey yield of Kenya top bar hive with Modern hive or framed hive under farmers condition a total of 20 honeybee colonies which had similar colony strength were selected. The training was given to the selected PAPREGs, bee experts and bee technicians of the Mengeshi woredas about the importance of Kenyan top bar hive, honey bee colony transferring from traditional hive to Kenyan top bar hive, honey harvesting and routine honey bee colony management and inspection. Out of total participants, 60.0% participants who engaged in the apiculture improvement project were male headed households the other 40% were female headed households. Most of the participants (60.0%) aged 30- 40 years. In this training, one PAPREGs (12 males and 8 females), 2 DAs and 2 experts were participated from selected districts during different times. The productivity of the modern beehives (12.20 kg/hive) was higher than the KTBH (7.20 kg/hive).