Heidi Herrmann's responses to your countryfile discussions -

[sunhivebee]

Having perused some of the posts published here I am astonished at the tone and language used; to the moderators I would recommend to undertake a little study of the yahoo Warre forum, for example, in which the kind of mean-spiritedness, bigotry and narrow-mindedness manifested by many of your contributors would not be tolerated, if it ever occurred.

Of all the wild insinuations and foul-mouthed comment I have found only the contributions of Chris Kenn to display the attitude of reason, humanness and tact that one would ideally hope to find in people privileged with caring for bees.

It is therefore, I would imagine, absolutely vital that you should pursue your craft armed to the teeth, as no sensible bees would allow you anywhere near them when you exude so much bile towards your fellow human beings.

As for your fears that the bee colonies maintained by natural beekeepers might lead to the demise of all other colonies because they are not treated in the counter-intuitive ways some of you appear to favour, I commend to you the research published by

As for the BBC I would like to inform you that they have received a wealth of fantastic feedback from members of the general public as well as beekeepers, besides some hate mail from certain beekeepers who, they imagine, felt stung. Media interest in sustainable beekeeping is boyuant, I am pleased to assure you, and you will do well to inquire deeply into the species specific needs of the honeybee if you wish to be beekeepers in the future.

I will now address some of the issues raised in your post:

The fresh comb shown in the programme relates to a swarm that was housed in a sun hive, of which I identified queen failure within a few weeks; the bees were combined with another hive. Thanks to the detailed and sustained observation techniques employed by natural beekeepers this was identified before the colony started dwindling.

The crystals seen around one of the hives are a convenient way of blocking the inevitable gaps created by nadiring a skep with a box. They have no mystical significance, but appear in this instance to have served the purpose of eliciting all sorts of prejudice and wild associations.

My relationship my bee inspector is one of mutual respect, possibly much helped by the low incidence of varroa in my “alternative” hives and the caring attitude he finds in the natural beekeeping community.

I will conclude by wishing you all the best in your endeavours with bees, may they thrive and winter well, and may you succeed in becoming more fully human in the way you deal with each other as well as other beekeepers whose views differ from your own.

With best wishes

Heidi Herrmann
Natural Beekeeping Trust

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Spurred on by this condescending tirade I had a peek of the program on iPlayer.

Most comments made on this forum (not the personal ones) totally justified in my view, and the fact Heidi seems blinkered against the current accepted methods yet gets upset when folks disagree with her own seems rather hypocritical in itself.

As for insisting that the bees really like us (no, they are totally indifferent to us unless they feel threatened) and letting the reporter in without even the offer of protection, well thats just plain irresponsible.

 

[sunhivebee]

Spurred on by this condescending tirade I had a peek of the program on iPlayer.

Most comments made on this forum (not the personal ones) totally justified in my view, and the fact Heidi seems blinkered against the current accepted methods yet gets upset when folks disagree with her own seems rather hypocritical in itself.

As for insisting that the bees really like us (no, they are totally indifferent to us unless they feel threatened) and letting the reporter in without even the offer of protection, well thats just plain irresponsible.

Current accepted methods? I assure you that I have used them all, and was in fact treating my colonies with OA at a time when it was still illegal in this country as my basic knowledge of synthetic pyrethroids indicated to me that the mites would get resistant, which they did, thanks to the widespread and ill-advised use of Bayvarol. However, by the time the UK treatment regimes caught up with OA I had moved on to more progressive methods. But on these I shall not elaborate here.
With best wishes
HH
PS I have posted some pictures of the sun hive if anyone is interested

 

[mbc]

Having perused some of the posts published here I am astonished at the tone and language used; to the moderators I would recommend to undertake a little study of the yahoo Warre forum, for example, in which the kind of mean-spiritedness, bigotry and narrow-mindedness manifested by many of your contributors would not be tolerated, if it ever occurred.

A remarkable response to some unsolicited feedback on an open forum*which is largely successfully self moderated (no offence Admin and HM, keep up the good work).
I always try to view anonymous feedback, either positive or negative, as a useful heads up as to how others perceive oneself, a dash of self awareness cannot be a bad thing.

*The forum is the largest beekeeping forum in the country( in terms of membership), is by far the busiest, and it caters to the broadest church.

 

[Chris B]

Thanks to the detailed and sustained observation techniques employed by natural beekeepers this was identified before the colony started dwindling.

Heidi, can you elaborate? Do you mean you identified queen failure by external observation alone? I know how I do this but it only takes a few seconds and a good ear.

 

[sunhivebee]

A remarkable response to some unsolicited feedback on an open forum*which is largely successfully self moderated (no offence Admin and HM, keep up the good work).
I always try to view anonymous feedback, either positive or negative, as a useful heads up as to how others perceive oneself, a dash of self awareness cannot be a bad thing.

*The forum is the largest beekeeping forum in the country( in terms of membership), is by far the busiest, and it caters to the broadest church.

Wonderful! I find the contributions on the other threads very informative and intelligent, thank you - the response to which you refer applies to a specific thread which appears to have attracted some fairly "low-life" sentiments. I took the liberty to express my views on that and concluded with good wishes.

I have no intention to comment on this issue further and feel that my summary response to about sixty different entries is quite sufficient.

 

[mbc]

I found the wish for sterner censorship the remarkable point.

 

[sunhivebee]

Thanks to the detailed and sustained observation techniques employed by natural beekeepers this was identified before the colony started dwindling.

Heidi, can you elaborate? Do you mean you identified queen failure by external observation alone? I know how I do this but it only takes a few seconds and a good ear.

External observation followed by inspection - would be interested in your method

 

[sunhivebee]

I found the wish for sterner censorship the remarkable point.

Censorship? Why put words in my mouth?

 

[Chris B]

External observation followed by inspection - would be interested in your method

A rap on the side of the hive. A colony with a queen problem (and possibly other problems) sounds flatter when they respond. It's easier to hear the difference if you have a healthy colony next to the unhealthy.

 

[sunhivebee]

A rap on the side of the hive. A colony with a queen problem (and possibly other problems) sounds flatter when they respond. It's easier to hear the difference if you have a healthy colony next to the unhealthy.

Thanks, I agree that's the first measure before one decides to go inside; not quite so easy against straw walls, though. I gather that this year has not been great for successful matings ... have encountered it for the first time this year, and then twice!
HH

 

[oliver90owner]

OOPs, I typed 'honey' insteasd of 'sugar' in my post. I've only managed to view it through once - it keeps stopping and says 'please try later'.
Still mystified about bees being sick (for what, a hundred years?) due to feeding them sugar. My bees, if I fed them sugar, would have no knowledge of it the following spring, let alone any longer - after all they would all be dead, replaced by healthy bees for the summer season. Some 'natural' (claimed) beekeeper claiming a load of nonsense.

The only 'natural' beekeeper is one that doesn't. Perhaps they advocate natural farming where the only milk taken from a cow is not via unnatural milking machines? or eggs should only be taken from chickens when they have laid too many for a clutch? etc etc.

The point I am making is they are basically hypocrites jumping on a 'natural' bandwagon, whereas they are really on a par with any old hedgehog or donkey reserve. My beekeeping, without needing to feed sugar in the autumn, is likely every bit as good as their methods. I'm not saying mine is anything special, just that their's is no more 'natural' than any other. Just not as productive.

 

[Brosville]

I'm careful to refer to "more" natural beekeeping - it is not unreasonable to claim that not feeding sugar, not culling drones, not clipping or confining the queens, not trying to interfere with their natural desire to swarm, allowing them to build whatever comb they like is nearer what they would experience "in the wild", hence it is more natural than much conventional beekeeping - you can argue all you like about using sugar or other management techniques, but you really can't claim it as "natural"

There's nothing in the least hypocritical about trying to find more natural ways of keeping bees - it is a refreshing experiment by the open-minded - usually designed to be "apicentric" (putting the bees first), and I have always been somewhat taken aback by the venom directed at (more) natural beekeeping - often from a position of total ignorance of what it's actually about, with many inaccurate assumptions about disease.

 

[drstitson]

Heidi - nice pictures of the sun hive and it does appear to have the advantage of emulating natural situation well - if that's what you want.

my only slight concern is that obviously, as you spoke about at the Sussex conference 2 years ago, any inspection is bad for the hive. In the case of the sun hive it seems that all the comb and bees get exposed at once rather than just being lifted out of the box briefly.

any comments?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Been a bad season with many having to feed just to keep the bees alive, plus collected swarms of course, is the natural way to let them starve if they have used up all the reserves, or have nothing in the case of swarms?

 

[Black Comb]

Heidi
I haven't commented on any of the threads so far.
I am intrigued as to why you allowed Julia so close to your hive without at least head protection?
Do you wish to comment?

 

[PBee]

I think the practice the term 'natural beekeeping' has come to describe is something akin to honey hunting or foraging. From the natural beekeeping website the reference to all other practices as conventional does not allow for the variety of management techniques involved. From my point of view all forms of beekeeping are beneficial to the environment in particular if no persistent chemicals are used in or around the hives. To try and create divisions is a bit counterproductive.

 

[sunhivebee]

Heidi - nice pictures of the sun hive and it does appear to have the advantage of emulating natural situation well - if that's what you want.

my only slight concern is that obviously, as you spoke about at the Sussex conference 2 years ago, any inspection is bad for the hive. In the case of the sun hive it seems that all the comb and bees get exposed at once rather than just being lifted out of the box briefly.

any comments?

Inspections cannot be avoided for obvious reasons. Rather than say that the're bad one would keep in mind that any disturbance in the "warmth household" of the colony is bound to be detrimental (Tautz et al. heater bees) in eliciting warmth restoring activities - energies that might be more usefully employed for other activities. Also, I take it from various recent research that varroa prefer cooler temperatures.

As for the exposing of the entire broodnest when opening the sunhive - a very good point, thank you.
I hope to get round it with extra cover cloths or some kind of cloak arrangement. I am confident that the occasions of exposing the fantastic natural broodnest inside a sun hive will be relatively rare and when they do happen, there will most likely be a helpful audience, ready to provide cover in some way or other in return for being awe-struck by seeing the bees as they really are - a bee colony not actually a square being consisting of eight corners and twelve edges etc. but something of quite a different form.
They will be wearing veils, like the beautiful girls on my video "Revealing the Sun Hive". I do have such things.

I am enthusiastic about the sun hive but have no wish to convince anyone; it is not for sale and is a hive that requires a certain amount of commitment in shall I say unaccustomed ways.

As for me, I consider the nest site preference of the honeybee a very important factor and am delighted to be able to meet them.

HH

 

[Chris B]

Long term you have to either feed or breed selectively, or both to have a realistic chance of surplus honey. Perversely though many (most?) conventional beekeepers are breeding selectively AGAINST honey production by the way they make increase from their most swarmy colonies, negating any productivity benefit of a conventional hive. They would probably be better off with a TBH.
I didn't realise until last year that Warre was a commercial beekeeper by any definition. He did apply selection pressure to his bees to maintain productivity, and wasn't afraid to feed if necessary. I suspect most modern day "natural" beekeepers will also feed to keep bees alive - the right thing to do - but won't compensate for their tampering with nature by removing that queen from the gene pool.
I tried Warre hives myself. I had 4 but my brother in law took 2 and he got a good harvest off them this year (17kg off one). All very interesting.

 

[sunhivebee]

Heidi
I haven't commented on any of the threads so far.
I am intrigued as to why you allowed Julia so close to your hive without at least head protection?
Do you wish to comment?

Headlessness, I'm afraid. Thankfully, it hasn't put her off. Great lady!! Still loves the bees, and "more natural" beekeepers. Lots to be grateful for.
For your interest - I am passing all further tv inquiries to others, had not solicited this last one either. Prefer not to be represented in soundbites.
HH