Am I a bad beekeeper?

[Murox]

the term Bee-Haver

I do not like the term bee-haver. So in an attempt to better define it, I trawled the web (as you do)
I believe the term was created in the USA as a mildly derogatory word used for those who merely had bees but did not want beekeeping to consume their time or interest, so they spent little to no time 'keeping bees', they simply 'had bees' and bought more if they died.

A beekeeper is simply someone who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles and breeds them in order to produce something – honey for instance.
I think the vast majority are beekeepers regardless of the numbers or types of hives.

Some make a living out of it and some practice transhumance; and those with many hives tend to be called bee farmers .
I think we are all apiculturists or apiarists.

 

[bingevader]

I think we are all apiculturists or apiarists.

Nah, both are defined as, "for commercial or agricultural purposes"!

I'm happy with 'haver'.
It might be an insult or derogatory, but it's stuck now and is almost a badge of honour!
It's a hobby I'm passionate about, but no more.

 

[Monbees]

Had to look up the meaning of transhumance which was not at all as l thought it meant from the context of the sentence. Another word to add to my vocabulary in recent weeks, together with the correct meaning of furlough, which in modern parlance has been taken to mean to be laid off 'with pay' which was not the original meaning.

 

[thedozzer]

I do not like the term bee-haver. So in an attempt to better define it, I trawled the web (as you do)
I believe the term was created in the USA as a mildly derogatory word used for those who merely had bees but did not want beekeeping to consume their time or interest, so they spent little to no time 'keeping bees', they simply 'had bees' and bought more if they died.

A beekeeper is simply someone who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles and breeds them in order to produce something – honey for instance.
I think the vast majority are beekeepers regardless of the numbers or types of hives.

Some make a living out of it and some practice transhumance; and those with many hives tend to be called bee farmers .
I think we are all apiculturists or apiarists.

Knew the term was Bee Haver was a slightly derogatory term for a novice beekeeper or someone who does not follow the traditionally prescribed bee keeping methods, was being facetious
I will refrain from using it again.
We love keeping bees, learning about their amazing life cycle and good husbandry.

 

[mike99]

Knew the term was Bee Haver was a slightly derogatory term for a novice beekeeper or someone who does not follow the traditionally prescribed bee keeping methods, was being facetious
I will refrain from using it again.
We love keeping bees, learning about their amazing life cycle and good husbandry.

As I said previously. I would class myself as an amateur beekeeper but not a Commercial Beekeeper. they are two distinct catagories as far as I am concerned. I can never see myself ever having more than 3 colonies. I just want to learn the art of beekeeping to keep bees as well as I can. the help I have gained from this forum has been extremely helpful over the 3 years I have kept bees. I got my first colony from Millet which was a lovely gesture. The thought of losing a colony due to my miss management or neglect would leave me heart broken.

 

[Saluki]

as my inspections are limited to smelling the hive (it can tell you a lot)

Can you tell me a bit more about this please?

 

[Beardy Weirdy]

I certainly feel like a bad beekeeper today for various reasons, but mostly because it doesn't matter how many questions I ask, videos on youtube I watch, or books I read about bees...I am still at a loss to understand my bees.

I keep bees because I find them enchanting. Every morning I sit next to the hives with my cup of tea chatting to them and watching them flying to and fro.

I certainly find beekeeping a rather bitter-sweet experience.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Can you tell me a bit more about this please?

Last year, everytime I opened one of my hives it smelt bad, I can't tell you what the smell was like, that would be like trying to describe the colour yellow, but it was not a nice smell. A healthy hive smells of honey, it smells of sleepy dog's feet, it smells of your Mum's perfume -- however you interpret it it just smells right. If it doesn't smell like this there is something wrong. Maybe there are dead mice in the hive, maybe the honey is fermenting because there are not enough bees to care for the hive. I never did find out for sure what caused the smell in that hive but for sure it made for a lot of inspections. I removed a lot of dead bees, I changed some frames, I cut back some of the trees so they got more heat and light. Suffice to say that whaever I did solved the problem as after a couple of months the hive smelt as sweet as all the others.

 

[ShinySideUp]

I keep fish, or perhaps I have fish. I started with a small fish tank many years ago. I knew precious little about the hobby, I made mistakes and some fish paid with their lives due to poor husbandry borne out of ignorance. I learned, a lot, my tanks got bigger and the water quality became second to none. The environment in each tank was tuned to the requirements of the fish I was keeping and they lived out their natural lives in a place that was tuned to their specific requirements. I have only one tank now, it is six feet long and with everything in it weighs nearly a tonne, I change 300 litres of water (half a tankful) every week. It is specifically tuned to keeping Clown loaches alive and well and they are now fifteen years old, half their wild lifespan. They provide me with nothing except visual stimulus and the knowledge that I have done well by them. It was not until I bought them in my ignorant years that I found they were wild caught and someone had ripped them from their natural home to sell to me but I could not put them back so I made it my job to look after them to the best of my ability...

...so it is with my bees. Without my help they will probably not survive because as a community we have interfered by breeding bees that are nice to us. They don't sting much, they have very little in the way of self-protection -- they have been castrated. They can't handle a small mite, they have little or no defence against hornets and other nasties, we have ruined them. But we have to deal with what we have and, just like my fish, they find themselves in an artificial situation for which we, as beekeepers, are responsible. Whether you see yourselves as bee 'havers' or bee 'keepers' your duty is the same, you have to keep them alive and well and if you can't do that within the limits that the bees themselves dictate then one should be neither a haver nor a keeper. I don't think there is much of a distinction if the welfare of the bees -- however many colonies you have -- is your first priority.

 

[Saluki]

Thanks for the explanation on the hive smells I really appreciate the reply.

I have to disagree with you on the above post though. I think the bees are perfectly capable of looking after themselves and it is quite wrong to state (like many people do) that bees need us to look after them. Using your bad smelling hive as an example, despite numerous inspections you didn't know what the problem was or what cured it, it could have been the bees sorting it out themselves?

I don't describe myself as a beekeeper. I don't do regular inspections, nor am I interested in obtaining honey from them. I wouldn't describe myself as a bee haver either: 1) I see it being used in a derogatory way and 2) they are not my bees to have. I didn't put them in the box, they arrived in my garden of their own free will. I don't claim ownership or responsibility for the birds in the nest boxes in my garden so as far as I'm concerned it is the same thing.

This attitude seems to be labelled as irresponsible by 'beekeepers', that somehow I'm threatening the health of their hives. Would they have the same attitude if the bees found a natural cavity in one of my trees? Am I still irresponsible then? In fact often the reverse is true, bees in natural cavities are valued for their survivor genes and potential mite resistance. Bees and mites will reach a point when they can co-exist together, it is the continual treatment of mites by beekeepers that is delaying this. Nor am I likely source of AFB/EFB - the bees were healthy enough to swarm and have built all their own comb.

So what makes a bad beekeeper? I guess if you dropped frames often or killed queens often during inspections you could be labelled as bad. But a lack of knowledge is not bad (only the most arrogant think they know everything). Nor is not treating bad - it might be bad for the individual colony, but is not bad for the species.

I guess the lack of swarm control measures is most often associated with 'bad beekeeping' due to potential problems with neighbours. But really if 'your' bees are causing problems (whether in a hive or natural cavity) then you are a bad neighbour, not a bad beekeeper. Whilst swarms can obviously cause problems, over zealous inspections could equally cause problems. If I had a small garden and my beekeeping neighbour inspected his bees every Saturday morning, which meant I couldn't use my garden every Saturday morning, I would be raging mad.

Since I've had bees in my garden I've enjoyed watching them a lot. I've appreciated other insects more too, and what plants are hosts to which insects. What I don't understand is how having more hives would enhance this enjoyment. Is 5 hives more enjoyable than 2? Presumably it is the greater honey that is more enjoyable, but are people just enjoying the greater money? When does it stop being a hobby and is more like a small business? And then is the well being of the bees honestly always top priority? At the extreme end you have bee farmers with hundreds if not thousands of hives. They are likely (particularly in America) supporting environmentally destructive farming practises which will certainly harm other bee species. Incidentally I'm not sure livestock is the correct term for bees. Surely they are comparable to pheasants and they have a similarly confused livestock label?

So to end this rambling post, I don't think beekeepers should be labelling each other (or themselves) as good or bad as they probably just have different aims or circumstances.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Six years ago Stan and I put an insulated box up into one of the trees at the bottom of the garden.
We have had three swarms into it.
The first two colonies didn’t survive their second winter. The present colony arrived last year and because it was early and a big swarm I had high hopes for them but they have dwindled to almost nothing I suspect with the odd bee flying in every few minutes with pollen.