By Jeremy Myers

Introduction:

I have been asked several times already in my short span of beekeeping to explain how we are keeping our bees and what we do to manage against the various maladies that affect the Honey Bee. There are a few books on the subject. One in particular, goes by the title “Natural Beekeeping” by Ross Conrad and does a good job covering many issues of the Natural beekeeping business but I will attempt to cover our methods as best as possible without going into the Political or Social implications.

 So long as everyone understands, our beekeeping experience began in 2007 when we bought two Nucleuses (nucs- 4-5 frame starter hives with accepted queen) and began to attempt to keep bees.  In that first season we learned some hard lessons about placement of the hives and as a result, we lost both of our hives in that first winter and subsequent spring. We then purchased two more Nucs and placed the hives in a better location (more sunlight) and have since weathered two winters, made hive splits and captured Bee-tree Bees to make hives.

While the current methods are sure to change later as we gain more experience, I thought it good to share what we are currently doing with our bees and how we see the ideal management style being in this early stage of development.

The style of management we use begins first with a philosophy of Natural Order. I must first clarify I am not a hippie, but I hold nothing against people who have that persuasion; they have the right to their beliefs also. The Natural Order I refer to is one that I believe is put into motion by our Creator, God.

This order is evident in seasons, sunrise, and sunsets it also includes a survival of the fittest of sorts. Many people (of conservative background) point to the Survival of the Fittest as being an Evolutionary process and thus it must be incorrect. But the problem begins with definition. Survival of the fittest exists and is called MICRO-evolution- that is change within a species. An example of micro-evolution would be one human taller than another human. The type of evolution I do not agree with is MACRO-evolution- that is one species producing, throughout time, another species. An example of macro-evolution would be a chimp producing a human. This cannot happen for several reasons namely the Law that all matter is in a perpetual state of decay and thus you cannot evolve into a higher complexity organism-namely a Chimp into a Human through your progeny.

How you view the above processes will shape your management style. You will either see life as a fragile gift that God gave to us to be stewards and that he gave all the mechanisms for the species to survive attacks from outside, or you will view Life as a something you must take control over and make it do or subject it to whatever you choose. Either way, both will work but only one will work long term or Self-Sustainably.

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