Beekeeping Manager

Role Overview

You will lead and coordinate all field-level beekeeping activity across our Isiolo apiaries, making sure every hive is productive, healthy, and ready for harvest. Day to day, this means planning where hives go, checking colony strength, organising feeding and treatment schedules, and supervising beekeepers who carry out the hands-on work. Your decisions directly affect honey yield, product quality, and the overall profitability of the operation, so you will be expected to balance practical bee care with tight production targets and disciplined record keeping.

Key Responsibilities

• Direct all commercial apiary work, from hive placement and colony expansion to seasonal feeding, inspections, and harvesting.
• Supervise beekeepers and field crews, assign daily tasks, and enforce standard operating procedures across every site.
• Track colony health and productivity, and respond quickly to signs of disease, pests, queen failure, or environmental stress.
• Coordinate the full honey harvest pipeline, including timing, extraction, filtering, container handling, cooling, and safe storage before transport.
• Maintain hives, tools, extraction equipment, protective gear, and vehicles so that field operations never stall due to avoidable breakdowns.
• Keep detailed records on each apiary site, including colony counts, treatments, honey output, and labour hours, then use that data to suggest improvements in yield and efficiency.
• Train team members in modern, sustainable beekeeping methods and support them in building practical skills around swarm control, requeening, and seasonal management.
• Work alongside the quality control team to make sure all extracted honey meets food safety standards and is traceable from hive to container.

Requirements & Qualifications

• A degree or diploma in agriculture, animal science, horticulture, agribusiness, food science, apiculture, or another field related to crop or livestock production.
• At least seven years of hands-on experience in commercial beekeeping, including responsibility for large-scale apiaries of multiple hundred hives.
• Proven ability to manage field teams, set work plans, and hit production targets in an agricultural or rural environment.
• Strong practical knowledge of colony biology, seasonal manipulation, honey extraction techniques, and post-harvest handling that preserves quality.
• Familiarity with common bee diseases, pests such as varroa mites and hive beetles, and safe control measures that keep colonies strong without contaminating honey.
• Comfort with working outdoors in remote, rural locations and adapting plans to weather, forage availability, and unexpected colony behaviour.
• Solid literacy in record keeping and reporting, with the ability to produce clear operational updates for management.
• Leadership and communication skills that allow you to train staff, resolve field problems, and coordinate with quality control and logistics teams.

What We Offer / Why Join

This is a senior operational role where you can shape the success of a growing beekeeping enterprise. You will have the freedom to apply your own management methods and technical expertise across multiple apiary sites, while building a skilled local team around you. The position offers real responsibility for production results and provides a strong career step for an experienced apiculture professional seeking to lead commercial operations in Kenya.