Restoring the Balance in Bee Keeping

8/14/2019 Restoring the Balance in Bee Keeping

1/4

Restoring the Balance in Bee Keeping

Honeybees cannot be domesticated in the sense that cows or pigs or sheep have been. Theyare essentially unchanged by man, despite many attempts to breed them to suit our needs.Their unique mating behaviour and reproductive cycle ensure that diversity and

adaptability will continue to be the dominant themes in their evolution.As I see it, our main job as bee keepers - or bee guardians, or bee herders - is to to beobservant and to understand our bees to the best o our ability. !e cannot ully enter intotheir world, but we have the opportunity to gain a greater appreciation o it. And once we

begin to understand how deeply embedded they are within the natural world, and whatsensitive indicators they are o disturbances in the natural world, we may ind ourselvesunable to image a unctional planet without them.

"o beore launching headlong into the keeping o bees, I would urge you to take a deepbreath and consider what it is that really interests you about them, as this will give yousome important inormation about how best to proceed. An hour or two o careul

deliberation at this stage could save you weeks or months o time, trouble and money.To help you decide where you stand on the #beekeeping spectrum#, I have identiied si$types o bee keeping, three o which all on the %conventional& and three on the %natural&side'

Honey farming' production-ocused, intensive management o bees or

ma$imum honey yield or or migratory pollination. Typically involves routinesugar eeding and prophylactic medications, including antibiotics and miticides.(ueens are usually raised using artiicial insemination and replaced requently,

while drones are suppressed and swarming is prevented by the e$cision o queencells or by splitting colonies. )sually involves some movement o hives,

sometimes over large distances. This is a business run or proit, and like otheragricultural work, there will be good years and bad.

Sideline beekeeping' a smaller-scale, part-time version o honey arming. The

principal aim is proit, but your livelihood may not entirely depend on it.

Association beekeeping' a miniature version o commercial or sideline

beekeeping, as promoted and taught by most bee keepers& associations. )suallythe intention is still to produce the ma$imum amount o honey, but rom ewerhives and not necessarily or inancial reward. (ueens are oten marked andclipped and in most other respects the methods ape those o the honey armer.

Balanced beekeeping' the emphasis is on bee welare and acilitating thenatural behaviour o bees, with the intention o providing conditions in whichbees may ind their own solutions. *estrained taking o honey and other beeproducts only when plentiul and appropriate. +eekeepers may or may not usemite treatments or medications, but i they do, they use non-to$ic, naturalsubstances that support bee health rather than target speciic disorders. (ueensare open-mated, splits optional and swarming may or may not be managed.

Natural beekeeping' similar to %balanced beekeeping&, with the emphasis on

%do-nothing& approaches. ittle or no management is attempted, and rarely aresplits made or queen-rearing conducted beyond what the bees do themselves.Hives are rarely opened routine inspections are discouraged honey is rarely

taken other hive products barely at all.

Conservation beekeeping' bees or their own sake no honey taken and no


2/4

inspections, treatments or eeding. +ees do as they please and take their chanceswith the weather and orage. +ee-riendly plants may be incorporated in aconservation-style scheme, which may include other pollinator species.

!hile I have shown these as distinct categories, they should really be thought o assegments o a continuous spectrum, rom most to least invasive and rom most to least%production-ocused&. It is also possible - at least, in theory - or a honey producer to

operate apiaries along %arwinian& lines - with no medication and relying on survivor stock- thus closing the circle.

/ou may notice that in the above list I have not mentioned any particular types o hive.!hile it is true that certain designs are more suitable or speciic applications, it is possibleto be a %balanced beekeeper& using a conventional rame hive, and in 0rance there arehoney armers using !arr1 hives - a vertical variant o the top bar hive, which wasdesigned or honey production.

It would also be perectly possible to be an %interering& beekeeper in a top bar hive, so Idon&t think it is useul to categori2e beekeepers purely by the shape o their hives or eventheir personality traits' it is their intention and attitude toward their bees that matters.

The origins of natural beekeeping

"ome o you who have read my books and are amiliar with my methods may be wonderingwhy I appear to be creating a category o beekeeping - apparently out o thin air - just as wehad become used to using the term %natural beekeeping&. !here did this %balanced

beekeeping& thing come rom3

The term %natural beekeeping& was irst 4to my knowledge5 openly discussed at a meeting oabout a do2en interested people at the oices o +ees or evelopment in 6onmouth in7889. !e were trying to ind a generic term or what we were all attempting - in slightly

dierent ways - to achieve, and to dierentiate ourselves rom the conventional methods aswidely taught in the ): and elsewhere. !hile we recogni2ed the parado$ hard-wired intothe term, we also elt that it encouraged discussion and drew attention to the distinctions

we were keen to make.

;ver since that meeting, there has been an on-going discussion about what %naturalbeekeeping& actually means - given that no keeping o bees is entirely natural - and justhow natural we should be, and what is unnatural about conventional methods. Thisconversation has generated urther distinctions and it has become clear to me that some%natural& beekeepers have come down - at least tentatively - on the %no interventions& side othe ence, preerring to observe bees and keep them in containers not designed to beopened very oten - or at all, in some cases - while others want to keep bees in a way that

still allows or some measure o swarm control, compliance with inspection requirementsand with the possibility o the removal o some honey when plentiul.

In short, %natural beekeeping& seems to have shited towards the %conservation& end o thespectrum and created a gap between itsel and the %amateur beekeeping& promoted byconventional bee keeping associations. This is the gap in which, I suggest, %balanced

beekeeping& happily sits.

Balanced beekeeping! bridging the gap

+alanced beekeeping, thereore, allows or the use o a wide range o equipment and

methods, while tending to preer the %natural& over the conventional. It is or people whowant to do more than just observe bees' they want to be bee #keepers# rather than just bee#havers# they want a more intimate relationship with their bees than is allowed by never


3/4

opening the hive < while understanding that this should always be done mindully and nottoo oten. They want to keep healthy bees without resorting to medications, but they alsoare happy or the bee inspector to call occasionally and check their charges or signs odisease. I a hive becomes bad-tempered and begins to cause a nuisance to neighbours,they are willing and able to replace the queen i appropriate, or move the hive to anotherlocation. !hen combs become black with age and propolis, they can easily remove them. I

a hive becomes honey-bound, they can rectiy the problem. They know how to raise a ewe$tra queens - should it become necessary - and they can tell when a colony needs somee$tra eeding and can provide it' they recogni2e that beekeeping is both a science and anart and constantly strive to improve their skills.

"o the point o balance is somewhere between doing too much and doing nothing beingover-controlling and letting nature take its course being a bee-armer and a bee-watcher.

I would suggest that the three principles I outlined in The Barefoot Beekeeperully applyto this sector and there is still no need or a %book o rules& - everyone can decide e$actly

where the balance is or themselves.

+alanced beekeeping is about working with the natural impulses and habits o the bees,

respecting the integrity o the brood chamber, leaving them ample honey stores overwinter and generally arranging things in order to cause their bees as little stress anddisturbance as possible, while being willing and able to intervene when the bees need helpor when their activities are causing a nuisance to others.

=ompared to the more %honey-ocused& approaches, more time is spent observing the beesand some operations may need to be perormed a little more oten' honey harvesting, ore$ample, is likely to be done by taking smaller amounts over a period o weeks or months,rather than the typical all-at-once, smash-and-grab raid practised by honey armers andmost amateurs.

!e do not aim to e$tract every possible drop o honey rom a hive. !e respect the bees#

need to eat their own stores - especially over the winter < and regard sugar syrup as aninerior supplement to be given only when bees are short o their own ood, due toprolonged bad weather or other causes.

Supporting other species

>ur natural allies are gardeners, smallholders and especially those who understand anduse the principles o permaculture, which are also the principles o nature. A mutually

beneicial and sustainable relationship with our bees must be based on such a truly holisticapproach' we need to learn more about how the colony works as a complete, living entity

and the maniold ways in which it interacts with its environment, with us and with otherliving things. 0or too long we have been locked into an un-balanced, old-ashioned,reductionist approach, dealing with bees as i they were mere machines created solely orour beneit, instead o highly-evolved, wild creatures, with which we are privileged to work.

I believe that keeping bees or honey shouldbe small-scale, local and carried out in thespirit o respect or the bees and appreciation o the vital part they play in our agricultureand in the natural world. I disapprove o large-scale, commercial beekeeping because itinevitably leads to a #actory arming# mentality in the way bees are treated, handled androbbed. I believe we should think o honey much less as a ood and much more as amedicine, and adjust our consumption accordingly. !e should not e$pect to seesupermarket shelves piled high with jars o honey rom around the world, as i it were jam

or peanut butter. Honey should be valued as the product o innumerable bee-miles and theassimilation o priceless nectar rom myriad lowers.

An important aspect o %balance& is to ensure that our activities as beekeepers do not have a


4/4

negative impact on other species. Honeybees evolved to live in colonies distributed acrossthe land according to the availability o ood and shelter. 0orcing 78, ?8, @88 or morecolonies to share the territory that < at most - hal a do2en would naturally occupy is

bound to lead to concentrations o diseases and parasites. )nnaturally largeconcentrations o honeybees can also threaten the orage and thus the very e$istence oother important pollinating insects, such as bumble bees, mason bees and the many other

species that beneit both wild and cultivated plants. This means that we do not over-stockany location and we create habitat or other species, which may take the orm o %beehotels& or simply piles o old wood and leaves. Anything that is done to improve theenvironment or honeybees will also be beneicial to other pollinators.

Having a deep appreciation o the interconnectedness o all living things, and anunderstanding o the impact our own species has had and is still having, leads us inevitablyto the conclusion that we have a responsibility towards everything that walks or crawls orslithers on the earth or beneath it, or that swims in the sea or lies in the air, and sharesthis precious planet with us. As bee keepers, we have a special responsibility to also be#earth-keepers#.

hil =handler

Bovember 78@C

Books by "hil Chandler

The +areoot +eekeeper 4788D5

earning 0rom +ees' a hilosophy o Batural +eekeeping 478@75

+alanced +eekeeping I' +uilding a Top +ar Hive 478@C5

+alanced +eekeeping II' 6anaging a Top +ar Hive 478@E5

Available rom ulu.com, >the+ookshel.com, Ama2on

"eewww.biobees.comor details and purchase options

hil#s blog -http://beesontoast.blogspot.co.uk/

Podcast http://biobees.libsyn.com
http://www.biobees.com/http://beesontoast.blogspot.co.uk/http://beesontoast.blogspot.co.uk/http://biobees.libsyn.com/http://beesontoast.blogspot.co.uk/http://biobees.libsyn.com/http://www.biobees.com/

Documents

Restoring the Balance in Bee Keeping