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Hi Robert,

You may wish to look at these manuals developed by UK ngo Bees Abroad. The aim of Bees Abroad is to provide education and technical advice in Beekeeping and suitable business skills. This is achieved by setting up and supporting field extension services, running training courses for local beekeepers and financing trainers.

They have a basic one which has some excellent pointers on developing top bar hives out of locally available materials and an advanced ones for when skills progress.

https://beesabroad.org.uk/?page_id=126

I have explored some bee keeping sites in Northern Tanzania and found the 'box' hives to be popular but most expensive and less easy to manage.

Bees can fly in a 3 miles radius of their hives and need to have access to flowering plants and water all year round to survive. It may sound very obvious, but have you seen any bees in and around your location/s? If you can find some in forests/ trees near then it is a sign that they can survive and thrive.

African bees are different to UK bees so I would use specific guides for African bees where possible.

Good luck, Lorna