Reflecting on Oliver's "Rules" for Successful Beekeeping

This month's American Bee Journal (July 2011) contained an important article, "Rules" for Successful Beekeeping, by Randy Oliver. I have always liked reading Mr. Oliver's works whether in a bee publication or on his website. Oliver approaches beekeeping as an empiricist, subjecting beekeeping "wisdom" to experimental verification. Over the few short years I've been beekeeping, I know that his writings have influenced my practice and have always forced me to ask, "Why am I doing this?"

Besides containing general suggestions for our beekeeping regimen, this month's article includes an assessment and critique of the field of beekeeping. In this world of the internet, new beekeepers are faced with a barrage of misinformation,  "slanted" and more "faith-based" than empirical. Oliver lays some of the blame for this on 2nd or 3rd year beekeeping bloggers (ooops, that's me!) who portray themselves as experts but lack the knowledge that comes from years of beekeeping. According to Oliver, these individuals spread misconceptions which are picked up on by newer beekeepers just starting out.

I think there's a great deal  of truth to this critique and I am probably as guilty as anyone of doing this. I started blogging about bees before I had them! I have expressed strong opinions on things occasionally, though generally, I have attempted simply to describe what is going on in my apiary. I have attempted to bring the insights of sociology (the discipline I am trained in!) into the discussion of beekeeping and have always been (at least in my own mind) tentative in anything I've written. I always try to be critical of what I've written and willing to revise my ideas as evidence comes in. I apologize to anyone who might have been led astray by things I've said. I try not to confuse my models of reality with the reality of my models.

I think my boldness in stating my opinions strongly in this blog comes from living and working  in the field of academics where the young hot shot  with new ideas often has more capital than the old-timer. The new academic can make a name for him/herself by shooting down holders of the old paradigm. Experience, in itself, is not given very much authority in this world.

Having said this, I wonder if the field of beekeeping is a little more complex than either Oliver or I see it. My experience as a newbie to beekeeping has been rather different than Oliver describes. When I entered beekeeping I was often faced with deciding which old-timer should I believe. One of these experienced,  well-known beekeepers demanded total, unquestioned allegiance, ridiculing those who asked honest questions about her practice. I steered away from that and found healthier places (e.g. biobees.com) to learn where I could still question, and, yes, sometimes disagree. The humility, challenge and support of  Phil Chandler's website has kept me in beekeeping, even though, Chandler and his colleagues may have fewer years of experience than other "experts".

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I agree with Oliver's discussion of the misuse of the  term "natural" in connection to beekeeping. I would add one other point however. 

I do not think it's possible for me to manage bees "naturally" since the world in which my bees forage is not natural. My bees collect pollen, nectar and resin in a world of "pesticided and herbicided" golf courses, weed free lawns, open garbage pails at local convenience stores, and a city where there is a "noxious" weed ordinance. These realities mean I may need to remove comb from frames every three years, feed pollen supplements at certain times of the year,  or control mites periodically. None of these are "natural" apicultural activities.

I have always preferred to describe my practice as long term sustainable beekeeping rather than "natural".

So what are your thoughts on Oliver's article? What can we all learn from him and each other?

Article: Learn the Art and Craft of Beekeeping Online

This online workshop will be hosted By June Stoyer and conducted by Philip Chandler, bee expert and host of The Barefoot Beekeeper.

"Beekeeping Pure and Simple" Available Online

One of the biggest influences on my approach to beekeeping is Phil Chandler, author of the book The Barefoot Beekeeper. Chandler's approach is holistic, recognizing that honeybee sustainability is not simply a question of what I do as a beekeeper, but what we all do as global citizens socially and environmentally. Chandler has recently published a short pamphlet called, Beekeeping, Pure and Simple where his holistic approach is laid out in a very accessible manner. I recommend you all download yourselves a copy.

Building ATop Bar Hive- Video

Are you thinking you might want to manage bees? Are you a "do-it-yourself" type of person? Would you like to see your bees build comb without the use of foundation? Would you like to build a hive from recyclable materials? Are you afraid of the heavy lifting that accompanies the more traditional, Langstroth box hive? Then, you might consider building your own top bar hive, an alternative approach to housing your bees.


Top Bar hives have a long history, dating back to the ancient Greeks. Today, they are used in development projects in Africa where these hives are made from almost any materials at hand. They are gaining popularity in the developed world, perceived as a more sustainable method of apiculture.

Monta has built two hives for us and they are much more pleasurable to work than our Langstroths. The honeybees build out horizontally instead of vertically, meaning there are no heavy, honey filled boxes to move around during late summer. The bees, themselves, seem less defensive since opening up a top bar hive is less intrusive to the bee colony. The bees are allowed to build cells to their own specification, rather than working from a "pattern" provided by the wax or plastic foundation placed in a langstroth frame. Recognize, there are some disadvantages as well. The bees do produce less honey in a top bar, and it cannot be extracted using a honey extractor.


Below is a video that will discuss building these type of hives. For learning how to manage bees in these hives, visit Phil Candler's website and purchase his instruction manual The Barefoot Beekeeper. Enjoy!

Bees In An Iron Cage? Part-V- Movements Against Rationalization

Weber suggested that the rationalization of Western society would not necessarily go unanswered nor without criticism:

No one knows who will live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or, if neither, mechanized petrification, embellished with a sort of convulsive self-importance. (Weber 1930:182)

In the present day beekeeping world, there are also voices who have questioned the trends of rationalized apiculture and have either resusitated old ideas and ideals, or attempted to re-rationalize beekeeping with honey bee health (over economic profit) as the bottom line.

Barefoot Beekeeping

British beekeeper, Phil Chandler, has become a leading activist questioning the ongoing rationalization of apicultural. Through his Sustainable Beekeeping website, his own top bar hive beekeeping manual, and protest activities against agricultural pesticide use, Chandler has developed a holistic approach in honey bee management. As far as rationalized beekeeping, Chandler has suggested:

1. ...that honey bee survival depends on apicultural becoming a cottage industry again where each individual beekeeper maintains a few hives that simply provide for his/her own needs and those of the local community. Large factory beekeeping, and migratory outfits are unsustainable.
2. ... that beekeeping techniques become less invasive and disruptive to the honey bees. Chandler is a big supporter of top bar hives which allow honey bees to build comb according to their own needs, as well as providing less disruptive inspections and honey harvesting by the beekeeper.
3. ... that beekeepers put the survival of bees ahead of their own economic interests. For example, Chandler suggests that beekeepers make their primary honey harvest in the spring from the honey that is left over in the hive after winter. Honey is produced by bees as a winter food, and to harvest it in the fall may leave the bees without enough to survive. Chandler sees feeding bees sugar syrup, fondant or high fructose corn syrup in the fall, to make up for the beekeeper's harvest, as exploitative and not sustainable.

Warre Hives

Other beekeepers, like those who keep Warre hives, take an even less interventionist approach. To the non-beekeeping eye, Warre hives look just like the typical Langstroth hive popular in the U.S. However, they are constructed and managed very differently:

1. The boxes do not contain movable frames, just bars across the top. The bees are allowed to build comb as straight or as wobbly as they so choose. Comb construction is left to the bees. (Note: the lack of movable frames makes this hive technically illegal everywhere in the United States.)
2. The beekeeper never inspects inside the Warre hive. The only manipulation done is to add boxes to the bottom of the hive when necessary. The beekeeper monitors the health of the hive by watching bee behavior at the entrance. Warre advocates argue that in-hive inspections stress bees by disrupting their ability to maintain proper hive temperature.
   

__________

Chandler, Phil. 2007. The Barefoot Beekeeper, 1^st Edition.

Weber, Max (1930) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. London: Unwin.

Knowledge Acknowledged

Except for computer problems which made our powerpoint presentation useless, I would have to say that our beekeeping presentation for my univerity's Knowledge Acknowledged series was a success. We had a very diverse and engaged audience, along with tasty refreshments supplied by the library.

I left with a deep appreciation for my beekeeping colleagues at the university, even though we all came to apiculture from different directions and for different purposes. Gary found his way through the face-to-face influence of another local beekeeper who mentored him in the craft. He has a very non-interference approach that I much admire. Chris's approach is shaped by his involvement in the Univerity of Minnesota's extension courses and Marla Spivak's work. The joy he takes in beekeeping and all of nature was quite evident in his talk. My own approach finds its home mostly at Phil Chandler's biobees.com. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to work together with Gary and Chris on this project.

Top Bar Hives and Sustainable Beekeeping

Last night, I began preparing for my 10 minute presentation for the Knowledge Acknowledged series. I will be speaking about top bar hives and sustainable beekeeping. The following are my notes for this talk. Even though no references are provided with these notes, I recognize that very little of what I will say is of my own creation. Much of what I will say comes from the ideas of Phil Chandler and all the great people who participate at biobees.com, as well as the information I've read at Michael Bush's website. Thanks all.

One of my chief concerns when I took up "bee having" last year was how to do it sustainably. When I speak of sustainability, I'm not speaking only about my own bees but all bees. Bees and humanity are currently involved in an enduring conflict. Bees produce products and do services we want. Yet many of the bee management techniques we use in the name of efficiency and productivity stress the bees. How do we gain these benefits without placing honeybees on a "production treadmill" that hurts them in the long-term?

One sustainable approach I've been exploring is the use of top bar hives. Top bar hives have their origins in ancient Greece and are now primarily associated with development projects found mostly in Africa.

The chief differences between top bar hives and the box hives most people associate with managed beekeeping are:

* Bees build comb on bars rather in frames surrounding beeswax foundation.
* The beekeeper guides the bees in expanding their colony horizontally rather than vertically as in box hives


A top bar hive looks simply like a long trough with 35 mm bars suspended across the top of it. (Kenyan beekeepers have nicknamed the hive: Honey Cow) The bees draw comb down the middle of each bar using either a wax starter strip or a beeswax covered popsicle stick as a guide on where to start. As the bees fill the bars, the beekeeper expands the colony area by moving movable walls (called follower boards) out and adding more empty bars. You harvest capped honey by simply pulling out the bars when ready.

Top bar hives offer some advantages over the regular box hives:

1. They are significantly cheaper and easier to manufacture than the entire set-up needed to start a box hive colony. When you add up all that's needed for a box hive, you could spend as much as $300. Material-wise, our first top bar hive cost us $80. This might've been significantly less had Monta and I done what others have done, built the hive using found, and recycled materials. You can make a fine hive from an old bureau draw, pieces of an old pallet, or even a large clay pot. One individual I know has weaved together old stalks from last year's sunflower plants, allowing the bees to fill in any gaps with propolis. Another person has made hives from papercrete. As long as each comb in the colony can be removed individually, these hives are completely legal in the U.S.
2. Except for the width of the top bar which must be 35mm wide, there are no other crucial measurements to follow.
3. Bees are easier to work with in a top bar hive. They behave less defensively, primarily because you only disrupt the brood nest one bar at a time. With boxes, you not only examine the bees frame by frame but also separate boxes, stressing the whole colony in the process.Many beekeepers I know work their top bar hives without protective clothing or a smoker
4. Bees build cells to whatever size suits their needs, not according to the dimensions demanded by the foundation the beekeeper uses. This may also eliminate another possible stressor.

The beekeeper considering top bar hives should recognize that there are some distinct disadvantages as well.

1. Because top bars are often built from found, recycled objects, there is no uniformity in bar length or comb depth from top bar hive to top bar hive. This means that bars may not be interchangable between these hives.
2. A comb filled with capped honey in a top bar is fragile and cannot be extracted in an extractor. The beekeeper is left with either cutting honeycomb into squares, or using a crush or strain system which may not be efficient for larger honey producers.
3. Because the frameless comb is fragile, the transporting of top bar hives is very difficult and dangerous for the colony. Migratory beekeeping would not be very easy with top bar hives.
4. Hives tend to produce more beeswax and less honey, which is not really a problem if you are an encaustic painter.
5. Winter preparation of the hive is a bit more involved for a top bar hive compared with a box hive.
6. I have personally found feeding a top bar hive during dearth a little more difficult than a box hive.
7. There is little face-to-face mentoring available for the beginner. I have depended on websites and internet forums for support and help.

Social Apiculture: An Example

Is the BBKA too close to Bayer? from Gord Campbell on Vimeo


A few weeks ago I wrote an entry about what I've called, Social Apiculture. I said, "beekeeping can no longer be an activity strictly focused on hive management techniques and our bees' immediate foraging environment but demands we also stay alert to the larger global environment and the impacts of the political economy." After reading this entry a week later, it seemed a bit arrogant, as if I was proposing something new and original when there are countless beekeepers around the globe who are already practicing this. For this reason, I am sharing this video from a beekeeper, Phil Chandler, who has had a great influence on the way I am seeing the world of apiculture.

Sociologists of Minnesota Conference

I sent this email today to the conference coordinator of the Sociologists of Minnesota.


I am interested in participating in the October conference but am a bit at a loss on how I might fit in.

I am a sociologist who teaches at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. Over the last two years I've taken an interest, professionally, personally and politically, in the environmental issues surrounding the "disappearance" of honey bees. I think, as social ecologists might argue, this environmental issue has its roots in deep seated social problems, rather than simply just being a technical/scientific issue with a technical/scientific solution. The application of "Tayloristic" management practices to apiculture, the "grow or die" economic model of global capitalism, agribusiness practices like monoculture of crops, and aspects of global trade are all factors that interact and impact the survival of the honey bee.

These concerns have affected my sociological practice in two ways. In my interdisciplinary global issues course, the sociological story of the honey bees plight is used to illustrated the larger global forces that impact my students' daily lives in their own local environment. On the activist side, I have become involved in a global movement of sustainable beekeepers who not only "handle" their bees in a "greener" way but actively protest against those social forces and practices threatening the bees survival. (see http://biobees.com/ ) To be honest, I've only started this whole project but I'd like feedback and wonder if this might fit into the conference somewhere?

Clarifying Issues IV: Social Ecology, Eco-Anarchism and Beekeeping

My previous reflections on organic/natural beekeeping have lead me to the work of Murray Bookchin and his philosophy of social ecology. I admit that what I know of his work (at this point, very little) fits well with my vocation as a critical sociologist and my avocation as a sustainable beekeeper. Bookchhin states:

"What literally defines social ecology as "social" is its recognition of the often overlooked fact that nearly all our present ecological problems arise from deep-seated social problems." (1)

The implications of such a philosophy to my apicultural management are tremendous. For example, while the banning of many pesticides is both necessary and commendable, I must remain vigilant even after a banning occurs, since the economic structures that make the use of pesticides necessary for agribusiness still exist. How might the next agribusiness "silver bullet" effect bees and beekeeping?

A great deal of the success I am having beekeeping this summer is due, at least partially, to living in a moderate-to-poor economic neighborhood where the middle-class status symbol of a perfect weed-free lawn does not exist to any great extent. Any type of upward change in real estate (not likely in our present economy) may totally change the nature of how I have to manage bees locally.

A live-or-let die natural beekeeping approach, in an attempt to selectively breed bees suited to my town environment, may be a tremendous idea, if we assume that the social/economic environment of Winona Minnesota remains unchanged. But under the "grow-or-die" economic imperative of global capitalism, a stagnant social environment is completely unlikely, even in Winona. Can the bees make the necessary genetic adaptations in an environment of rapid social/economic change in order survive in the long term? How might I manage bees to give them some "breathing room" in order to adapt? What does sustainable beekeeping mean in this type of environment?

The whole question, raised by Phil Chandler, of whether beekeeping is better suited as a cottage industry rather than an agribusiness brings to mind a whole host of questions about the way we structure our society and how this underlies many of our environmental problems including those facing bees. Can anyone taking on the label of sustainable beekeeper be anything less than a radical social activist?

Does all this mean a return to the primitivism espoused by many in the eco-anarchist movement? I don't think so. If I might paraphrase Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael: The question is not whether civilization itself is incompatable with the laws governing the community of life but how do we create a civilization that is subject to these ecological laws?

Week 6: Tale of Two Hives

It's been 8 days since I inspected inside either hive. This past week's weather has been stormy. rainy and windy, not very conducive to foraging the white clover that I've caught a few bees exploring.  Yesterday, we had storms all afternoon until early evening. Finally, today, it was partially cloudy and in the high 70s; a nice day to open the hives.

I always go into each hive anticipating certain things, extrapolating from what the state of the hives were the week before. I expected the inspection of  Bee Glad... to be pretty straightforward with few surprises; Metpropolis would be another story, I imagined, with a continuing battle with cross-comb. Both hives surprised me.

Bee Glad..., the langstroth hive, was opened first. The upper box had bees working on three frames. One is halfway drawn, the other two are in their beginning stages. I removed the top box to discover a bottom box brimming with bees which was a little intimidating at first. What had been a box that was easily inspected last week became a box filled with sticky frames, burr comb, and some interconnected frames. Taking frames out was a job. It was as if the bees forgot how to draw straight comb. I did not want to cause comb failure, nor kill or roll bees in the process of removing and returning frames. I was very slow and focused in my actions, scraping burr comb here and there, and trimming comb off  a few frames. 

The health of the hive is great. Plenty of eggs, larvae and capped brood. I decided to "pyramid" two frames up to the top box in effort to get the bees to draw some straighter comb and to get the queen to begin laying in both boxes. I closed up and went on to Metpropolis. I was a bit discouraged with the work I had to put into Bee Glad..., almost regretting using foundationless frames. What kept it all in perspective was that fact that my friend, and  colleague who is also starting to beekeep this year, has been having the same difficulties and he is using foundation.

Metpropolis was a real joy to work. I am so glad Gerry Gomez Pearlberg at Global Swarming convinced me to try out a top bar hive as a beginner. Most all the comb is straight, bars come out easy, and, with care, I have yet to have a comb break while examining it. I did a bit of comb trimming, using my handy cradle. (Gerry, I promise, I will upload a photo of it soon!) The cross-comb problem I reported the last few weeks is slowly, with judicious trimming and new bar placement, working itself out. The best thing is that the bees seem to tolerate my work in Metpropolis more than in Bee Glad... Thank you, Gerry, Phil Chandler and Michael Bush for introducing me to this approach to beekeeping.

Metpropolis looks healthy as well. Plenty of brood in all stages, pollen stores seem fine, and honey is coming in.

Overall, the honey bees are doing much better then I anticipated, especially given the poor foraging weather we've had.

(Sorry about the lack of photos in today's blog. Monta was at work during the inspection.)

Beelandia's Borders Secured

With the snow and rain ending, Monta, Eli (our youngest), and I were able to finish 90% of the fence around our apiary-garden (affectionately named "Beelandia"). The photo above, facing southward, gives you a nice view of the apiary-garden's geography. Almost in the middle of the photo, you can see the finished "Metpropolis", our Kenyan top bar hive that Monta built using the plans provided by Phil Chandler. To the right and slightly behind it, there are some cinder blocks which will serve as the substructure for a Langstroth hive which we have named "Bee Glad... For the Hum Has No Ending." A "mad mixture" of "bee plants" will be located in the area in the foreground.



The second photo shows the fence from the street, facing northeast. The fence is high enough that the bees should not bother anyone walking passed the house, while hiding the hives from curious eyes.

In the next week, I will be tilling the soil a bit (still too early to plant much) and then we will all put the finishing touches on the "border" fence. It still looks like a week or two before I can install the bees. I hope to remain patient.

For further information about the fence, go and read Monta's blog.

Bee Activism

Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about. Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of society that you wanted. How would you live, you personally, in that society? Start living that way now!-- Paul Goodman, sociologist.

I've been monitoring various beekeeping lists and forums over the last few months as CCD continues to ravage bees all over the country. Recently, on one of these lists, some individuals called for "bee activists" to rise up out of the midst of the beekeeping community and lobby and fight for more public awareness, government funding and scientific research to find answers to the current "bee" crisis. It might seem presumptuous for a person like me to weigh in on this issue. I've read much about bees, spoken with beekeepers, monitored all these internet forums but, as of yet, have not practiced beekeeping myself. But I am also a student of social/political movements and the sociology of science and these areas are as much involved in the question of how to approach "bee activism" as the actual husbandry of bees is.

Recently on Bee-l, a poster mocked the users of small cell foundation for ignoring current scientific research that finds small cells as having no significant effect on controlling varroa mites and/or the resulting virus that weakens and kills bees. The poster compared small cell supporters to followers of a "religious cult" who continue to hold on to their beliefs even in the face of scientific evidence. I won't go into the difficulty methodologically of using one or two experiments for drawing definite conclusions or the whole question of how scientific change actually occurs. (I'll leave the reader to read the works of Geiryn, Kuhn, or Feierabend.) My issue here is with the total inconsistency of such a poster, for "small cell" beekeepers are not the only people in the beekeeping world who tend to ignore scientific research. Large-scale commercial beekeepers do this all the time but in the name of short-term profit, labor saving efficiencies, and the "realities of the market". When a commercial firm says, "I know my use of chemicals is creating a stronger, resistant mite, but I won't survive unless I use chemicals", they are also ignoring, in a very pragmatic fashion, scientific research as well. And if I was a commercial beekeeper, who must support a family and pay debts, I suppose I would argue the very same thing!

It seems to me that Phil Chandler is correct. Given the above "reality" for commercial beekeepers, the survival of honey bees as a species cannot simply depend on commercial beekeepers, and government funding for scientific research focused on keeping "factory" beekeeping afloat. Bee survival may also depend on getting more and more individuals to approach beekeeping as a "cottage industry" where labor-intensive, "inefficient", sustainable husbandry is possible. It is modeling and "evangelizing" this idea that might sustain the honey bee.

A "bee" social movement approached this way doesn't need the resources of the full-time professional lobbyist but of sideline and hobby beekeepers maintaining colonies, and having their activities visible enough so that other potential backyard beekeepers might join this "crusade" to save the bee. You do not need (or want) everyone in a community to beekeep, just a small critical mass of individuals who provide bees with an environment where these insects have a better chance of surviving and adapting. Perhaps these local beekeepers could even form a "Queen Rearing Cooperative" to lessen the ill effects of any inbreeding as well.

A colleague and friend of mine recently attended Dr. Marla Spivak's beekeeping extension course at the University of Minnesota. Spivak has 30 or so hives right there on the St. Paul campus where they are legal, but across the river in Minneapolis, these hives would be in violation of city ordinances. According to my friend, the illegality of beekeeping in Minneapolis didn't keep Spivak from urging that city's residents to keep hives there as well. It seems to Spivak that the keeping of even a few hives is a small but important step toward honey bee survival, and if this means violating the law, so be it. This type of apicultural, civil disobedience intrigues and inspires me.

All But The Cover

Metpropolis is just about built and I thought I'd share some photos of the building process thus far.

1. In this first, Monta is planing the boards that will end up as the top bars. They were slightly wider than necessary. We've had this planer for a few years but this is the first project we've used it on.



2. Monta is here pictured creating the follower boards.



3. Here they are finished.



4. In the next series of photos Monta builds the hive body.









5. Monta staples the hardware cloth on the bottom of the hive.



6. The removable bottom board is fitted. Monta's addition to Chandler's design is to add ceiling screws as a way of attaching the bottom and allowing semi-easy removable.



7. The hive with a few top bars on it.



8. In this last photo, Monta saws the legs of the hive.



All that needs to be created is the cover, add some holes...and then, of course, the bees in the spring. Our daughter, Emerald, will be painting an interesting cityscape on the sides.

Materials for "Metpropolis"

Yesterday, Monta and I bought the materials for building a top bar hive. The hive, affectionately christened Metpropolis, will follow Phil Chandler's top bar design with some minor modifications and additions. Minus tax, the materials cost us a total of $90. See below for details:

Hive Materials
Legs
2 - 2"x4"x8' premium grade @ 1.83 each for 3.66

Sides, bottom, lid arches
2 - 2'x4' 1/2" plywood, good one side @ 7.04 each for 14.08

Top bars, lid frame
12 - 1"x2"x6' clear aspen @ 2.30 each for 27.60

Lid cover
1 2'x4' 1/4" plywood @ 5.98

Ends, following boards
2 - 1"x12"x4' standard grade pine @ 2.54 each with 25% off for 3.81

Lid roof
1 4'x8' sheet of semi-rigid 1/8" thick plastic* @ 24.45
* enough for at least 3 hives

Miscellaneous
1 qt Linseed oil @5.98
3/5"x2-1/2" carriage bolts, washers & nuts @ 2.96
3/4" bend screws (for attaching removable bottom) @ 1.48

Subtotal 90.00
Tax 5.85
Total 95.85

I'm afraid I will serve mostly as a "go-fer" throughout the construction process with Monta doing all the skilled labor. I shouldn't have avoided those "shop classes" in high school.

Top Bar Hive Beginnings

Yesterday, my partner and I went to the local Menard's to begin pricing materials for the construction of a 48'' top bar hive. We'll be using Phil Chandler's basic design (I love the addition of following boards), along with adaptations my partner has added. We really don't know when we'll start this project though as more important family concerns will just naturally take precedence. I will include full photos of the construction process.

The Parable of "Tusky"

About 17 years ago my oldest son and I acquired an ornate box turtle who we named "Tusky". It was a generally healthy specimen with some "crusty eye" problems which the former owner assured us were pretty endemic to the species when kept in captivity. As usual, I went into an "obsessive" research frenzy, reading all I could about the husbandry of this species.

As I began to research, I started to become a bit dismayed since every book and pamphlet I read seemed to tell me that this species of box turtle did not do very well in captivity. One author, for example, discussed the difficulties of getting them through their hibernation period. The species had a tendency to dehydrate when hibenated in a dry, woodchipped lined box in his basement. Instead of questioning the hibernation techniques he used, he blamed the "physical character" of the turtle itself. Afterall, he'd had success hiberating other species of turtles and tortoises with this method.

I'm not one to give up, even when the experts with years of experience are telling me otherwise. So, instead of reading more "turtle" books, I went back to some geology and meteorology books to discover just what the habitat of this box turtle was like in the "wild". First, I found that its habitat rarely stayed below freezing the whole winter. There were always periods of thawing and mild weather in its range. Secondly, during these thaws, the water around the hibernating turtle would melt, thus allowing the species to absorb moisture during certain periods. No, they weren't waterlogged but the turtle did find themselves occasionally in a muddy, winter environment.

With this in mind, I took a different approach to hibernating Tusky. First, we kept him in a cool room upstairs with us, so he never had to experience the freezing basement temperatures of a Minnesota winter. Secondly, we actually bathed him periodically in lukewarm water during those winter months watching him drink a surprising large amount of liquid. Seventeen years later, the "clear eyed Tusky" is an active, healthy ornate box turtle.

As I read, Chandler's The Barefoot Beekeeper, this story kept coming to mind because, to a great extent, it illustrates a point Chandler is constantly making about bees: "Let the bees tell you what they need." My approach to caring for Tusky involved finding out what he needed by examining his "natural" environment, instead, of forcing him to live according to my requirements and then wondering what went wrong when problems occurred. When I start beekeeping in the spring, I will be following this approach as well. Yes, I will seriously examine the recommendations of all the books I read on apiculture but, in the end, I must carefully listen to the bees and, I might add, their particular environment as well.

And the Winner Is...

After some research (which included an assessment of my finances and other resources)I've decided to set up top bar hives next spring. Phil Chandler's book,The Barefoot Beekeeper, convinced me that it is possible to start out with such a hive and with a little more information gathered from the good people on his top bar hive forum I'm on my way. After my partner's art show opening next week, she and I will begin building two top bar hives. I already have my eye on an unused flower pot that will make an excellent nuc as well.

On the sabbatical front, the first draft of my proposal has received good reviews from some trusted colleagues. I even have one offer to help out.

Game Plan Revisited

One of the reasons I created this blog was to brainstorm on how I might begin beekeeping in a way consistent with a sustainable lifestyle. As I research and dialogue with other beekeepers on the internet and in my real life, I have to be willing to change my direction or plans. A good plan is always flexible, adapted to new knowledge about your environment and yourself. For this reason, I am thinking about changing my earlier "game plan".

Gerry at "Global Swarming" suggested a day or so ago that I consider starting out with a Top Bar Hive. I had been reluctant to do this since I had assumed that TBHs were a difficult way to begin beekeeping . But I considered what Gerry told me and about her experiences and am seriously reconsidering the direction I'm going.

I read Phil Chandler's The Barefoot Beekeeper last night and it makes a strong argument for beginning with TBHs for someone in my situation. Firstly, I can't lift alot of weight anymore (Doctor's orders) and that would not be as necessary with a top bar hive. Secondly, a beekeeper using a top bar hive interferes in the life of the colony much less and allows the bees much more leeway to create comb to their own specification and needs. I see this as a key to sustainability. I believe that the bees know best. Lastly, I am fortunate to have a life partner who has also worked as a carpenter who can easily make a hive from Chandler's plans, so my initial costs will be much less. One problem with TBHs, though, is that I really will have no support locally.

So where do I go from here?

Beekeeping in Sichuan

I read an interesting blog post today concerning beekeeping in the Sichuan mountain region of southwest China. According to the author, Richard Spencer, many residents of this region have received grants to start beekeeping after logging was banned. Over logging and the consequent flooding all but destroyed an area that was once the natural habitat of the panda. Spencer ends his post wondering "if it (beekeeping) can ever meet (the) farmers' dreams."

I wonder whether Sichuan is just heading for another ecological disaster. If Phil Chandler is correct (and I think he is) that ecologically sound, sustainable beekeeping is only possible when done on a small scale, then these farmers' dependence on commerical, apiculture as a means of economic survival is a short term solution in which the bees may pay an ecological cost.