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A14 LOCAL
Monday 2 March 2020
Lui Bee Farm Aruba

ORANJESTAD — Honey wind, but fruits, nuts and Seeing the importance
bees wild and domestic vegetables are pollinated of saving the bees Aruba
perform about 80 percent by bees. Seventy out of the is not staying behind. We
of all pollination worldwide. top 100 human food crops have many people inter-
A single bee colony can — which supply about 90 ested in saving and pro-
pollinate 300 million flow- percent of the world’s nu- tecting these bees. Many
ers each day. Grains are trition — are pollinated by are practicing Apiculture
primarily pollinated by the bees. which consists of saving

and protecting the bees been helping out people
with the sole purpose to of Aruba to solve any type
produce honey locally. of bee problems at their
One of these persons is the homes. Luis together with
well-known on the island Giles, Jourdan and Suyen
Luis Winterdaal, founder of have been all over the is-
Lui Bee Farm Aruba. land bringing their passion
Luis Winterdaal was born and knowledge in order to
and raised in Aruba on save these bees.
October 10th 1954 in the
town of Savaneta. A per- Organic honey
son with great love for the At Lui Bee farm Aruba they
nature and all animals, Luis have special bee boxes
started working with bees which are filled with bees
when he was only 15 years that were rescued from
old. At that time there was different houses and loca-
no special equipment to tions all around the island.
use when working with Not always when rescuing
bees such as face masks bees you will find honey.
and smokers. Luis used to Sometimes you will find the
make his own face protec- wax with only baby bees
tion equipment from wired and if you are lucky you will
screens sewed to a t-shirt. find wax filled with honey.
He also cut out the legs of The honey from the boxes
his jeans to use them to pro- at their location are not
tect his arms and as smoker being emptied every time.
he used cookie cans. Why? Because of the lack
11 years ago Luis met three of rain on the island, most
young people who love of the time it’s very dry
bees and saw the impor- and this can be very stress-
tance that these bees ful for the bees. Why the
have for humanity: Giles, stress? Because they have
Jourdan and Suyen. With to make new wax and also
much passion and all the in such dry period they
patience in the world Luis use honey to feed them-
taught these three young- selves to survive. Honey
sters everything they need- that they produce and sell
ed to know about bees. at the farm does not con-
From there started the idea tain any chemicals. Their
of the farm. To save and honey goes directly from
protect these bees. They the wax to the bottles. The
all try to demonstrate and whole process takes place
teach the people of Aru- at their own facility. You will
ba the importance these encounter all types of color
bees have. Their vision is to of honey on the farm from
save as much bees as pos- light to black honey.
sible from being killed. For
more than 45 years Luis has Continued on Page 15