Common Sense Natural Beekeeping

Sustainable, Bee-Friendly Techniques to Help Your Hives Survive and Thrive

Kim Flottum, Stephanie Bruneau

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781631599552
• eBook ISBN: 9781631599569
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Technology & Engineering

With Common Sense Natural Beekeeping, learn to keep bees sustainably with limited chemical or human intervention.

Today’s bees face unprecedented challenges. Chemical treatments for pests like the ubiquitous and deadly varroa mite have become standard even as resistance to such treatments grows and evidence suggests the chemical treatments themselves are contributing to the widely discussed Colony Collapse Disorder.

Common Sense Natural Beekeeping offers beekeepers a different choice. Based on expert advice from Kim Flottom, editor emeritus of Bee Culture magazine and best-selling author of The Backyard Beekeeper, this book teaches holistic, sensible alternatives to conventional apiary practices, and includes:

• Lessons from the way bees live in the wild
• Management strategies that respect the natural intelligence of the bee
• Hive design elements that promote colony health and resilience 
• Case studies highlighting successful natural beekeepers from around the world

Beekeepers today have myriad choices to make that affect their bees’ health and productivity. From housing to nutrition, including pests and diseases, Common Sense Natural Beekeeping introduces sustainable alternatives for natural hive management.

SECTION I

Home Sweet Home

Bees turn all sorts of places into home sweet home, from your neighbor’s rafters to the big old oak tree in my backyard. But beekeepers have worked for centuries to design hives that cater to human needs and desires, which often conflict with the wisdom of the Bee. Which of the several available designs do you choose and how do you set it up to maximize the colony’s happiness and survival?

In this section, we look at how the common sense natural beekeeper makes decisions about hive design that align with the Bee’s natural preferences.

• Chapter 1 examines where bees choose to live when the choice is theirs. We’ll discuss the preferences of wild honey bees and the properties of their chosen nest sites.
• Chapter 2 reviews several of the models available for beekeepers to use as managed hives. We’ll consider each from the perspective of the Bee.
• Chapter 3 delves into hive design elements beyond hive type, including hive placement.

Unlike other, more prescriptive beekeeping books that provide specific “dos” and “don’ts,” this book aims to guide your own decision-making, taking your own unique circumstances and considerations into account. A common sense natural beekeeper with a large apiary and an interest in selling honey will make different decisions from the backyard gardener who wants one hive for the simple enjoyment of partnering with the bees. This section provides ideas and guidance for all beekeepers who wish to provide more suitable homes for the beautiful and intelligent creatures that we admire and respect.

CHAPTER

Where Do Bees Choose to Live?

Unlike many of the animals that humans use in agriculture, the honey bee is not truly domesticated and remains genetically adapted for living on its own in the wild. While we can entice them to dwell in our artificial hives, innumerable colonies live happy, healthy lives on their own. These honey bees have much to teach us about the best life for the Bee that can inform the choices we make for our managed hives.

HONEY BEE HOUSING PREFERENCES

Dr. Seeley’s research into the lives and preferences of wild honey bees, laid out in his recent book, The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild, offers insight into the properties of the nest sites bees choose for themselves. This is invaluable information for common sense natural beekeeping. According to Dr. Seeley, wild honey bees prefer the following features.

SMALL ENTRANCE SIZE

A smaller doorway is easier to defend and reduces draftiness, keeping the colony warmer through winter.

SOUTH-FACING ENTRANCE

A south-facing entrance gets sun for more of the day and is likely to be warmer. Snow blocking the hive is more likely to melt, allowing bees to exit for winter cleansing flights on warmer days.

HIGH OFF THE GROUND

Wild bees choose nest sites that are higher than ground level. This protects the colony from ground predators (such as bears) and destructive pests (such as mice).

SMALL AND SNUG INTERIOR CAVITIES

Wild honey bees choose smaller homes than many beekeepers typically provide, preferring a cavity volume greater than 2.6 gallons (10 liters) but less than 26 gallons (100 liters). For comparison, one deep 10-frame Langstroth hive box is approximately 11 gallons (43 liters) and one medium 10-frame Langstroth hive box is 8 gallons (30 liters). While colonies in large hives have more space for honey stores, they also swarm less frequently because they are not space limited. This may sound great for a beekeeper (more honey!) but, as swarming is how honey bees reproduce and is an important part of their pest management strategy (see here), small homes are preferable to the Bee.

PROPOLIS-LINED WALLS

Wild honey bees coat the interior of the hive cavity with a thin layer of propolis, which is highly antimicrobial and part of the hive’s defense against disease. They also use it like caulk to seal cracks in the hive. In managed colonies, beekeepers can “rough up” any smooth wood surfaces on the interior of the hive with sandpaper to encourage the bees to coat the walls with propolis as they would in nature.

THICK WALLS AND ROOF

The wood that forms the walls of a tree-dwelling wild honey bee colony are much thicker than the conventional ½-inch (1.2 cm) pine board of a standard bee box. Seeley found that the tree walls ranged from an average of 6 inches (15 cm) to as thick as 29 inches (74 cm)! Thick wooden walls provide good insulation, regulating temperatures in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. Also consider the roof of a tree cavity—there’s the rest of the tree up on top of the nest! Good top insulation in the winter can prevent condensation that might drip down onto the wintering bees.

LONG FRAMES OF CONTINUOUS COMB

Because they communicate in part with vibrations sent through the comb, wild honey bees construct long continuous combs inside of their nest cavity. Many artificial hives include frames for this purpose, but the frame size limits the length of the comb. Shorter, noncontinuous frames may disrupt vibration c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Section I Home Sweet Home
• Section II Staying Healthy
• Section III Common Sense Natural Beekeeping in Practice
• Final Recommendations: Bee Like a Bee Would Bee
• Common Sense Natural Beekeeping Background Reading and Research
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Photography Credits
• Index
• Dedication
• Copyright