Bee farmer makes lip balm and chocolates from honey
Lisa and her colleague Colins at the Nakuru Cultural week.
While many appreciate bees for their honey and use it as a sweetener or mix it with concoctions to fight a flu in cold seasons, one entrepreneur has cracked other ways to use it.
Lisa Njenga, a bee farmer in Ngata estate, had been in the business of selling organic honey for two years, until three months ago when she decided to do value addition to the honey and wax collected from her farm.
“I got into the honey business because my grandmother was diabetic. We thought honey was good for her. However, most of the honey we got from the market had additives and this was not good for her health. That is when I decided to put up my hives and extract organic honey she could use and sell the surplus,” she said
Ms. Njenga noted that from her fifteen hives, she could extract a lot of honey and bee wax which moved slowly.
Some of the products from Oh honey company.
“I thought of what more I could do to add value to what I had at hand. I decided to make body butter and lip balms from wax and honey.,” she said
In the first month, Ms Njenga made no sale. However, three months later she has made sales worth Ksh 40,000.
“At Oh honey we strive to give our clients products in their most natural form. Our lip balm is glossy, with a smooth consistency, can be worn longer without getting gummy, and has a sweet mango scent among others,” said added.
She also makes chocolates infused with honey instead of sugar and mixes it with cocoa powder to come up with the finished products.
The lip balm goes for Ksh 700, the body butter for Ksh 1,650, a pack of 10 chocolates for Ksh 800 while the honey prizes range from Ksh 950 to Ksh 1,750.
"If you are looking forward to consuming organic products, try our honey and our beauty products," she said.