Natural Beekeeping

[Finman]

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When I carry my hives to natural forest, and my bees forage from nature's flowers, my honey is not natural. My boy said that it is perhaps 30% natural.

You cannot produce natural honey in plastic hive, but you can sell the honey in plastic jars.


They are natural feelings, they.

 

[psafloyd]

Has anyone ever met a beekeeper who takes all the honey out of a hive? I've heard is said a few times but never witnessed anyone who does this.

Not in the brood frames, but every other frame, yes.

I have heard tell of a few who would harvest any frames of stores in their brood box. Perhaps they fear it will have rape of ivy in it and won't be easily accessed by the bees in the depth of winter.

 

[Finman]

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If you leave the yield into the hive, it is not natural. IT is "catch and release".
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IT is natural, that you harvest the crop and sell it.

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[Beefriendly]

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If you leave the yield into the hive, it is not natural. IT is "catch and release".
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IT is natural, that you harvest the crop and sell it.

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If you practice natural beekeeping you will have no crop to sell. Sounds like an unnatural way of keeping bees.

 

[domino]

Not in the brood frames, but every other frame, yes.

I take the supers, but only if there is honey in the brood frames. The OP article reads as if beekeepers squeeze every drop out of the hive.

 

[Finman]

I take the supers, but only if there is honey in the brood frames. The OP article reads as if beekeepers squeeze every drop out of the hive.

If you keep excluder over one brood box, you have nothing to extract in brood box because it is full of brood..

 

[fatshark]

I know recently people were very excited by Tom Sheely's study of survivor colonies in the Anot forest. However, if you read his work he makes the same point as you. Putting bees in a bee yard is an artificial construct and in the wild bees have a very low density.

Seeley's study is of bees that are Varroa-infested. I'm not aware of a similar study of mite-free bees in a natural environment. To be pedantic you could argue that the Arnott forest bees have adapted to Varroa by swarming frequently and by separating colonies at half a mile or so intervals. Support for this would be the observation that when he moved colonies together in an apiary they succumbed ... this would/should select for widely spaced colonies.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Simple question.

Who would keep bees if there was no honey to collect?

to a large extent. If they don't want honey, why don't they keep ants - they're much more interesting than bees.

CVB

 

[Finman]

Seeley's study is of bees that are Varroa-infested. I'm not aware of a similar study of mite-free bees in a natural environment. .

There is no mite free bee colonies in nature on mite areas.

US Russian bees were originally imported from Primorsky Siberia. Bee and mite has been there together 100 years
Seeley's bees have nothing special. They are just alive with mites, like numerours others around the world.

 

[Tom Bick]

Simple question.

Who would keep bees if there was no honey to collect?

Probably me for one.

Honey is great and nice to have loads of buckets stacked up and even nicer the revenue it generates but there are more interesting aspects to beekeeping than just focusing on honey.

 

[fatshark]

There is no mite free bee colonies in nature on mite areas.

US Russian bees were originally imported from Primorsky Siberia. Bee and mite has been there together 100 years
Seeley's bees have nothing special. They are just alive with mites, like numerours others around the world.

I know ... there's good evidence that feral colonies have pathogen loads as high or higher than unmanaged bees in hives.

But there are mite free bees in mite free areas which is the only way to do this study.

What is the spacing of wild colonies in Australia?

 

[Finman]

What is the spacing of wild colonies in Australia?

There are much mite free places, but it does not help those who has mites.

Half of Norway is mitefree. Our Archipelago Ahvenamaa is too. But what then.

Wild Colonies in Australia? They have much AFB.

 

[Finman]

What is the spacing of wild colonies in Australia?

There are much mite free places, but it does not help those who has mites.

Half of Norway is mitefree. Our Archipelago Ahvenamaa is too. But what then.

Wild Colonies in Australia? They have much AFB.


But I do not know, what you are going to do, and from where you get the money.

 

[bontbee]

Probably me for one.

Honey is great and nice to have loads of buckets stacked up and even nicer the revenue it generates but there are more interesting aspects to beekeeping than just focusing on honey.

I agree - it was years before I took honey off - I just loved watching the bees

Now I need some honey to pay for apibioxal...

 

[pargyle]

Probably me for one.

Honey is great and nice to have loads of buckets stacked up and even nicer the revenue it generates but there are more interesting aspects to beekeeping than just focusing on honey.

And me ....

 

[fatshark]

But I do not know, what you are going to do, and from where you get the money.

I'm not going to do anything. I was just pointing out that the Seeley experiment shows that mite-infested colonies are naturally widely spaced. Not that all wild colonies are widely spaced, whether mite free or not.

 

[domino]

I'm not going to do anything. I was just pointing out that the Seeley experiment shows that mite-infested colonies are naturally widely spaced. Not that all wild colonies are widely spaced, whether mite free or not.

Do you have any research that points to a difference between colonies with and without mites?

 

[fatshark]

Do you have any research that points to a difference between colonies with and without mites?

You could try Steve Martin's paper on Hawaii from 2012. But this is DWV only. I'm not aware of publications on the sort of things that Tom Seeley does ... which is why I commented on this thread in the first place.

 

[domino]

You could try Steve Martin's paper on Hawaii from 2012. But this is DWV only. I'm not aware of publications on the sort of things that Tom Seeley does ... which is why I commented on this thread in the first place.

So there is no reason to belive that Seeley's observation of colony density isn't dependant on mites.

 

[fatshark]

No reason at all. That's the point. If it's dependent on mites then we can't conclude what the natural spacing of colonies would be if mite free.