Non-Violent Beekeeping:

can we re-negotiate our relationship with the honeybee? Our first encounters with honeybees were long ago, most likely in Africa. omeone !isco"ere! # probably simultaneously - that these tree-!welling insects pro!uce! a sweet, sticky substance unlike any other, an! that they ha! stings in their tails. $hen fire became portable, someone else !isco"ere! that smoke cause! bees to become more amenable to robbing. ome time later, a more settle! tribe foun! that they coul! house bees in baskets or pots, which sa"e! them the trouble of climbing trees to get the honey, an! the craft of beekeeping was born. %ots, baskets an! logs continue! in use for many centuries, an! while proficient beekeepers woul! ha"e un!erstoo! a goo! !eal of the beha"iour of their charges, the inner secrets of the hi"e remaine! close! from obser"ers until the en! of the &' th century, when a blin! wiss by the name of (ran)ois *uber foun! them out through the me!ium of his faithful # an! sighte! # ser"ant, Burnens. *uber+s New Observations on the Natural History of Bees remains a classic to this !ay. ome ,- years later, .an /0ier1on !e"elope! *uber+s e2perimental hi"e further to create the first truly practical, mo"able-frame beehi"e, an! shortly afterwar!s in &'34, 5e". 6oren0o 6orraine 6angstroth patente! his own "ersion. uch was his talent for publicity an! marketing that the +6angstroth+ became an! remains the stan!ar! hi"e in the 7 A an! the mo!el upon which most other "ariants are base!. *owe"er, this type of hi"e is e2pensi"e to buy, "ery !ifficult for amateur woo!workers to buil! # !ue to the precise !imensions an! many small parts nee!e! for frames # re8uires constant maintenance, causes great !isturbance to the li"es of bees, an! is hea"y an! cumbersome in use. 9any women, especially, ha"e been put off beekeeping by the weight-lifting nee!e! to har"est honey from a 6angstroth-type hi"e, an! hernias are commonplace among commercial beekeepers. :n Nepal, honey-hunting is still practise! by men !escen!ing cliffs on ropes an! using long poles to !islo!ge chunks of comb. ;lsewhere, bees are kept in skeps, baskets, pots, ca"ities in walls an! other containers !e"ise! from local materials an! # we can !e!uce from their longe"ity # more-or-less suitable both for bees an! for their keepers. :n Africa, probably the original home of the honeybee, the top bar hi"e was !e"elope! as an +interme!iate technology+ solution, capable of being constructe! using local skills an! materials an! being, in essence, a beekeeper-frien!ly hollow log, ha"ing the a!"antages of mo"able combs but without the nee! for machine-ma!e parts. $hate"er the accommo!ation we offer them, our meetings with bees ha"e always been a process of negotiation, albeit somewhat one-si!e!. $e can protect oursel"es from them, but they ultimately ha"e no protection from us. <he encroachment of chemical agriculture, !eforestation an! urbani0ation ha"e re!uce! their natural habitat, while to2ic cocktails of insectici!es ha"e poisone! their flowers. <he honeybee has come to be seen as the +canary in the coal mine+ of our ci"ili0ation an! she is showing early warning signs of her imminent !emise, to which we must pay urgent attention. Our challenge now is to re-negotiate our relationship with bees: we must learn to protect an! nurture them, rather than simply e2ploit them, an! we nee! to learn to listen to what they nee! from us. <he process of !isco"ering how we can most effecti"ely !o that is the pro=ect that myself an! others ha"e set oursel"es, an! we hope that many more will =oin us an! carry this work forwar!. $e acknowle!ge the para!o2 inherent in the phrase +natural beekeeping+: as soon as we consi!er +keeping+ bees, we begin to stray from what is truly +natural+. :n nature, only bees keep bees.

<o be consi!ere! +natural+, our beekeeping practice must take into account: the natural impulses an! beha"iour of bees, inclu!ing - foraging, swarming, storing foo! an! !efen!ing their nest how hi"e !esign affects bees the suitability of materials use! in hi"e construction, inclu!ing consi!erations of sustainability the nature an! fre8uency of our inter"entions the impact of a locali0e! increase in honeybee population on other species of pollinators the balance between honey har"esting an! the bees+ own nee!s the nature of any a!!e! inputs - me!ications, fee!ing $e are engage! in a process of working towar!s the ultimately unattainable notion of completely +natural+ beekeeping, while acknowle!ging that the bees will go their own way regar!less of our wishes. Our relationship with them is that of facilitator or min!er rather than +keeper+. $e coul! say that the role of the natural beekeeper is to enable our bees to attain the fullest possible e2pression of their bee-ness while in our care. Our overall goal in natural beekeeping is to achieve a state of sustainability: balancing inputs and outputs such that our activities enhance rather than damage the health of our bees, other species and the planet. <o be truly sustainable, a system must be as close to carbon-neutral as it can be, re8uiring no synthetic inputs an! ha"ing no !etrimental impact on the natural en"ironment. o if we are to continue to ha"e a relationship with honeybees, we ha"e to consi!er what impact current beekeeping practices ha"e an! how our +natural+ approach seeks to impro"e on this state of affairs. A typical commercial beekeeping operation is a real energy hog. 6umber # which may or may not come from sustainable sources # is slice! an! mille! by powere! machinery prior to assembly into hi"e bo2es, which are transporte! by roa!, sea or rail to be further !istribute! by roa! to their apiary sites. 5egular "isits by beekeepers re8uire oil-!eri"e! fuel, an! more is nee!e! to fire the boilers to heat the consi!erable 8uantities of water nee!e! for sterili0ing woo!work an! washing !own !e-cappers, e2tractors, tanks an! floors. 9ore power is nee!e! to retrie"e the crop, to e2tract it an! to mi2 an! !istribute the sugar syrup nee!e! for the bees+ sur"i"al following the remo"al of their stores. *oney must then be filtere!, bottle! an! !istribute! to wholesalers an! thence to retail outlets. 9eanwhile, beeswa2 is reco"ere! by means of steam or boiling water, cleane! an! filtere! an! sent off to be remelte! an! turne! into sheets of foun!ation, which are then sol! back to the beekeepers for insertion into frames for ne2t season. 9igratory beekeepers in the 7 A truck hi"es by the thousan!s clear across the country for the almon! pollination, while in the 7> this type of acti"ity is nowa!ays largely restricte! to taking hi"es up to the moors in August for the heather crop, an! some orchar! pollination work. /ue to what might be calle! the 6angstroth hegemony, this whole scenario is also enacte! in miniature by amateur beekeepers, who largely mimic the acti"ities of their commercial brethren. <hey may only ha"e a few hi"es at the bottom of their gar!ens, but in most cases they ha"e not consi!ere! any alternati"e to the e2pensi"e, energy-hungry e8uipment a"ailable from the glossy catalogues of the beekeepers+ suppliers. $e know that bees nee! nothing much more than a !ry, "entilate! ca"ity in which to buil! their nest. :nstea!, +mo!ern+ beekeepers insist on supplying them with a bo2 full of woo!en frames, in which are mounte! sheets of wa2, helpfully imprinte! with o"ersi0e! +worker-bee+ he2agonal cell bases. A newlyhi"e! swarm of bees must be surprise! in!ee! to fin! so much !one for them: rea!y-ma!e comb bases

hung in neat rows, with spaces all aroun! them for access # what a boon for a busy colony? But what may at first sight appear to be a great con"enience, also has some significant !rawbacks. All these imprinte! cells are the same si0e, yet anyone who has obser"e! natural comb knows that cell si0es "ary consi!erably, an! not =ust between workers an! !rones: worker cells themsel"es "ary in !iameter accor!ing to rules only bees are aware of. All those !ea!-straight frames may look neat, but bees !on+t buil! !ea!-straight comb # they like a gentle cur"e here an! there. An! if you watch bees buil!ing natural comb in an unrestricte! space, they hang in chains, legs linke!, as if laying out the !imensions of the comb in space as they work abo"e their own hea!s # something they cannot !o on foun!ation. o a goo! !eal of so-calle! +mo!ern+ beekeeping # in fact, "irtually unchange! since the mi!-&@ th century # is unsustainable from our point of "iew, as well as being a nuisance to bees. :n terms of honey yiel!, it is clearly an impro"ement on logs an! skeps, but in terms of bee health an! energy efficiency, it has turne! out to be a !isaster. <he =ob of the natural beekeeper is to fin! ways of interacting with bees that are truly sustainable, both for the bees themsel"es an! for the planet. :n The Barefoot Beekeeper, : propose! the following three, simple principles for the +natural+ beekeeper to consi!er: . !nterference in the natural lives of the bees is kept to a minimum. ". Nothing is put into the hive that is known to be, or likely to be harmful either to the bees, to us or to the wider environment and nothing is taken out that the bees cannot afford to lose. #. The bees know what they are doing: our $ob is to listen to them and provide the optimum conditions for their well%being, both inside and outside the hive. <hese principles seem to me to form a soli! foun!ation for our thinking about how we approach bees an! beekeeping. As soon as we step beyon! those basic principles an! attempt further to !efine the parameters, we fin! oursel"es in !anger of beginning to create a +book of rules+. An! it !oesn+t take much looking aroun! the worl! to!ay to see how !i"isi"e an! !estructi"e other +books of rules+ ha"e been. +Natural+, +balance!+ or +sustainable+ beekeeping # whate"er name we gi"e it # is a process, not a !estination. $e ha"e to remain fle2ible an! always be on the lookout for ways to impro"e our techni8ues, so e"erything in this book is offere! in this spirit: in!ications of what seems to work, always with the possibility that there are e"en better ways yet to be !isco"ere!, or # more likely # re!isco"ere!, as there is really nothing new in beekeeping. *istorically, we began our relationship with bees when somebo!y !isco"ere! that the taste of honey was worth the pain it cost to har"est. $e became honey-hunters, an! while there were few of us an! many of them, this was sustainable. $hen somebo!y !isco"ere! that it was possible to offer shelter to honeybees while they ma!e their honey, an! then kill them off to rai! their stores, we became bee keepers, an! while there were few bee keepers an! many honeybees, that too was sustainable. <hen someone in"ente! a way to house bees that !i! not re8uire them to be kille!, but instea! allowe! people to manage an! control them to some e2tent, arranging things so as to trick them into pro!ucing more honey for their masters than for themsel"es, an! we became bee farmers. An! that was sustainable for a while because there were still many of them an! although there were also many of us, we coul! manipulate their repro!uction so as to make more of them as we nee!e!.

Now it has become clear that we ha"e gone too far, for bees ha"e begun to suffer from !iseases that were "irtually unknown in the ol! !ays, an! they ha"e to be gi"en me!icines in or!er to keep them ali"e. An! because a whole in!ustry has grown up aroun! the farming of these bees, an! there is a lot of money at stake, beekeepers ha"e been slow to change their ways an! many coul! not !o so for fear of bankruptcy, an! so the health of the honeybees has become worse an! they are sub=ect to parasites an! "iruses that ne"er trouble! them in the past. 9eanwhile, we forgot how to grow foo! in the way that we once ha! !one because we were no longer incline! to labour in the fiel!s, an! instea! !e"ise! cle"er ways to make the soil support more crops. $e poure! fertili0ers onto our fiel!s an! kille! off incon"enient creatures with +pestici!es+ # !efining a whole class of li"ing organisms as our enemies an! therefore !ispensible. <his was ne"er sustainable, an! ne"er can be. An! that is where we fin! oursel"es to!ay, an! this is the problem we face: bees ha"e become weakene! through e2ploitation an! a to2ic agricultural system, allie! to the impossible e2pectation of continuous economic growth. As +natural beekeepers+, our most pressing work is to restore bees to their original, healthy state. $e think of oursel"es as +keepers+ in the sense of +nurturing an! supporting+ rather than +ensla"ing+. $e must seek to protect an! conser"e the honeybee by working within their natural capacity, not constantly urging them towar!s e"er greater pro!uction. $e must challenge the whole agricultural an! economic system that has cause! us to arri"e at this point, because without change at that le"el, the future for both us an! the bees is bleak. $e can make a start by re-establishing more natural, non-"iolent ways of working with bees: neither we nor they ha"e any nee! of routine or prophylactic +treatments+ with synthetic antibiotics, fungici!es or mitici!es. $e !on+t nee! to operate +honey factories+ # we can content oursel"es with pro"i!ing accommo!ation for bees in return for whate"er they can affor! to gi"e us. :n some years, this may be nothing at all, while in others there may be an abun!ant har"est. uch is nature: bees !epen! on honey for their sur"i"alA we !o not. :f the price of returning bees to a state of natural, robust health is a little less honey on our toast, is it not a worthwhile sacrifice? &hilip 'handler <he Barefoot Beekeeper is a"ailable from the author+s web site www.biobees.com an! from book shops.