An Excursion into the Karo Highlands
by PYP 5/6 students
On March 18, the fifth and sixth graders took a trip to the hills to visit a place called Madu Efi and learn more about how they have used the land to create a safe place for bees and many plants and animals.
Madu Efi was founded in 2014 by a man named Felix Zuihendri PhD. Before Madu Efi became an agritourism site, there was a cattle farm and an orange grove. Felix Zuihendri lived in New Zealand for over 12 years, worked as a scientist for 5 years, and 2 years in Intellectual Law Practice. Felix was inspired by what he saw in New Zealand about the benefits of propolis. Madu Efi was named after Felix Zuihendri’s mother, Effy. It turns out Madu Efi used to harvest the bees’ honey, but now they don’t. Instead they harvest propolis! If you didn’t know, the benefits of propolis include healing sickness, keeping your health stable, and healing skin problems. To make it even better, Madu Efi makes chocolates made out of 90% propolis. They even create creams made out of propolis for skin problems. You don’t need to hunt for propolis creams anymore, you can just find them at Madu Efi.
Madu Efi is a quiet place in the hills that is just cool enough for trigona bees to live. They also have sheep,horses, dogs (one has the name Covid!), turkeys, rabbits and a pair of peacocks.
They have glamping cabins. They even have some large picnic places that look like big wooden tents!
Bees make honey. This is true, but did you know they also produce propolis? Propolis is made from sap, wax and the bee’s enzymes. Bees first collect resin from trees. Then, the bees carry the resin with basket-like things they use to hold pollen that are on their hind legs. Then, they mix the resin with wax and the bee enzyme.
Pro means for, or in front of and polis means city. So, as the name suggests, the bees use propolis to protect their hives. Propolis protects bee hives by sealing small cracks and openings and making the interior walls smoother. Propolis also helps by blocking other animals like snakes and lizards from entering the hive. Another way propolis protects the hive is by blocking rain and harsh winds from entering the hive.
Some interesting facts you may not know about bees are:
- Bees can live about approximately 22 days
- There is a bee that doesn’t sting in Madu Efi and they are called trigona bees.
- Some predators of bees are ants, wasps, and bears, but in Madu Efi there are no bears.
- Turns out, bees and wasps are not friends and they hate each other!
- Bees don’t like to socialize with other animals.
- Queen bees can lay 2,500 eggs per day!
- Bees venom may kill some animals, but not the bees at Madu Efi.
- You might think that bees hate humans…. Here’s a good fact, they actually don’t.
- There are no bees that don’t have a queen.
- If the queen doesn’t die at the right time, the other bees have to exterminate the queen.
