African Ingenuity and honey

The baobab tree is enormous, with a very large and interestingly-shaped base. It looks to me like a Disney cartoon creation. Baobab trees grow up to 9 meters (about 27 feet) in diameter and can reach a height of up to 18 meters (about 54 feet). During the dry season they have no leaves (as in the picture). The trunk is fibrous and holds a certain amount of water when no surface water is available (not quite as much as a cactus). During drought elephants often inflict considerable damage to the tree in search of moisture. When I asked a native about the tree, he replied that it was useless because it could not be used as firewood, took up lots of space, and crops would not grow under it. However, it is definitely an African landmark and has a unique beauty of its own. These trees can be seen from miles around, towering above all other vegetation. Look closely at the rectangular structures in the branches.

The rectangular structures are logs which are used as beehives. One of our friends has 5 "beehives" and harvests honey from them. There are many bees in this area of Africa; the locals make beehives from hollow logs that they put in tree branches. When a bee colony finds the log, they settle in and start producing honey. To get the honey, the bee keeper climbs up an ingenious and inexpensive "ladder," created by pounding sticks into the trunk of the tree. Before climbing the tree to harvest the honey, the beekeeper will have started a small fire at the base of the tree to create a smoke screen in an attempt to keep the bees from swarming and attacking him (though he gets stung often when harvesting the honey). Our friend said that baobab trees are good places for beehives, except that if you fall (which I would think could happen with some frequency if you are being stung by bees), the fall is very far. The trees are enormous.

You can see by the closeup of the tree trunk that the bark is kind of a cross between a cactus and a tree. The "ladder" looks very small because the trunk is so large.