: Kerala Mechanic Launches Buzzing Business, Harvests 1500 Kg of Organic Honey #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs Three decades ago, while Bensislas was working as an electronic mechanic, he would have never

Kerala Mechanic Launches Buzzing Business, Harvests 1500 Kg of Organic Honey #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs
Three decades ago, while Bensislas was working as an electronic mechanic, he would have never imagined that some day, he would take up beekeeping and find success in it.

Though he was skilled at repairing television sets and radios, Bensislas, a resident of Vattiyoorkavu in Thiruvananthapuram, says that he had to give up his profession after he lost the sharpness of his vision, which was essential for the kind of job he was doing.

“I started working as a mechanic at the age of 25. But after a few years, I noticed that the sharpness of my eyesight has reduced, which started affecting my work. So, I had no other option but to quit my job,�? says Bensislas, who then decided to try his hands at agriculture.

He started with rubber farming and, over the years, experimented with animal husbandry; raising rabbits, ornamental fish, chicken and finally, bees. He says beekeeping was the only trade in which he succeeded.

Cut to 2022, Bensislas now beekeeps full-time and has been able to harvest around 1200 kg of honey yearly, through his brand — Amma Honey — thereby earning a decent income in lakhs.

A successful experiment

After leaving the mechanic job, Bensislas says that he decided to sell his land to buy a rubber plantation at Kallikkad in Thiruvananthapuram, expecting a steady source of income.

“I used all my savings to buy three acres of rubber plantation, and it did turn out to be profitable, at least for a few years. Later at one point, there was a huge fall in the rubber price and I struggled a lot, as I didn’t have any other means of income or savings left. It became a necessity to look beyond doing just rubber cultivation,�? says the 58-year-old.

That’s when he heard about the training provided by the Livestock Management Training Centre at Kudappanakunnu. Thus, he decided to try his hands at animal husbandry after attending the free training courses.

“I learnt how to rear rabbits, fish, goats, chickens, and so on from the centre and started attempting each. But none of my efforts worked out. I faced losses one after the other. Finally, I heard about the scope of beekeeping and decided to experiment with that as well,�? he recalls.

Thus in 2010, Bensislas took training for beekeeping and set up his first five boxes in his rubber plantation at Kallikkad.

“Though I took initial training for beekeeping, I eventually realised that it wasn’t enough to ace it. In the beginning, there were several instances where I lost boxes full of bees as I was an amateur. But I was determined to try again and kept new boxes,�? he says, adding that as time passed, he learnt more tricks of the trade and mastered it eventually.