Of Interest To Farmers & Beekeepers – Shared here is
what I came away with from many different New England beekeeping events of
2012.
Farmers and Beekeepers share a long history of Nature's
insistence that they cooperate toward a healthy abundant harvest; but
unlike Farmers, who are well acquainted with the need for natural
selection in producing a reliable, quality crop, beekeepers have been
learning a new way called, well... "beekeeping".
Beekeeping itself, of course, is not new. My own
ancestors, as long ago as 3,000 years B.C. on the island of Crete, kept
bees; but increasing their stock or replacing lost hives by sending off to
America's state of Georgia for new bees every spring was not an option. So
how did this island bound civilization as well as others do it and what
has changed since then?
We do know a few key facts: Anciently, bees were smaller
than the common honeybee of U.S. Apiaries, yet longer living, higher
yielding producers of that valuable golden anti-bacterial healing syrup:
Honey. This seemingly magical result from nectar that is processed inside
the bee's digestive system we now know is owed to the health of the microbes
entertained there. New studies also reveal that the increased size of
today's U.S. honeybees - willed through a misguided belief that bigger is
better and achieved through a century long practice of comb size
manipulation - has left our modern pollinator more vulnerable to parasites
that count on larger breeding spaces in that comb.
Honey bees also became managed for long distance
commercial pollination projects, especially in the U.S.A. We recognized
the need for honeybees in an effort to feed a growing, new nation
sprawling from sea to shining sea. You might suppose this would result in
the insect's pollinating ability winning out genetically over its talent
for quality honey production and normally you may be right. It is true
that 80% of the "honey" on grocery store shelves is a standardized
honey blend heated, for the purpose of maintaining a good look on the store shelves, and imported primarily from South America and Asia; but
the fight of our modern honeybee against invading diseases and parasites
has also been managed - with chemical treatments - treatments that kill or
alter those valuable nectar processing microbes.
The success of the species is no longer a war being waged
by survival stock ready to brave our complex modern ecology. Beekeeping
instead has become a way to perpetuate an inferior version of this
important insect. Buying new bees every spring is not just a Northern
beekeeper's lot due to winters both harsh and mild; it has become the
modern way to keep hives alive across the country, north, south, east, and
west for decades in the U.S.
A recent conference in Massachusetts revealed a new - old
way of beekeeping. Veteran beekeepers from around the country shared their stories
of struggle with modern methods and apiary loses over their 30 to 40 years
of commercial beekeeping experience. These individuals taught that
the common sense approach any modern school yard child might guess is the
answer: allow honeybee colonies to evolve through the process of natural
selection.
The problem is that it could be too late. Our earth is so
saturated with chemicals, both agricultural and industrial, that this may
be impossible for our girls to achieve at this point in their history. There
are many reasons. Among those that the average beekeeper can wrap their
minds around are these three:
First: Honeybee
genetics have broken down from generations of exposure to artificial hive
maintenance products. In the natural world bees draw their own comb. Today
sheets of purchased wax product made from recycled hive wax, containing
all the chemicals used in those hives from which the wax is acquired, is
the norm. Bee Schools across the country traditionally advocate use of
this "foundation" as essential to starting a new hive.
These chemical residues are influencing the many essential microbes
in the hive, and more dramatically the fertility of drones. Sterile drones
in they and the queen's once-in-a-life-time mating ritual results in
Queens with a limited life span. When the queen runs out of sperm she is
replaced by her colony. Queens just a decade ago commonly lived for five
or six years; today, by contrast, they are reportedly replaced as often as
six times a year.
Second: Poor
species selection practices by the beekeeping community have resulted in a
bee with no common sense. Much like domestic fowl - our dumb ducks for
example - bees are, well, bee-brained. Author Michael Bush calls them
"brood laying fools".
What is a smart bee? Well, actually, like any survival
species there are traits required to make survival possible. In a northern
climate a Queen would lay, as well as her colony behave, with
discrimination - depending on the nectar flows, temperatures, and seasonal
changes. Yes, there are species that do this. Are they the favorite
honeybee in the U.S. or even in Tamworth and Sandwich? No. That
brood-laying-fool, commonly known as the Italian Honeybee, is popular
because their seemingly endless supply has doomed them to being handled as expendable.
Third: New insects
introduced through modern trade practices promote desperate attempts by
farmers to save the current crops, trumping long term natural selection
methods of cultivation. Is this an issue for our community? Yes!
In addition to invading species, Genetically Modified (GMO) wind pollinated and
mono crops are consuming the U.S. farming community landscape. "GMO" seeds
are not those selected for their genetic superiority; these are seeds
manufactured with pesticides built in to their DNA. Bees are insects. They
also don't care if the corn doesn't need them. Pollen is pollen. As reported
in the September 2012 issue of Bee Culture magazine, in addition to
producing contaminated pollen, "GMO" seeds are coated with a powder to keep
them from sticking while dispensed into the ground by modern planting
machinery used by farmers large and small. You've seen those
picturesque scenes of large mid-west field tractors with powder billowing
from behind in their tracks? Crops genetically modified to include
pesticides in every part of the plant, depend on the wind for pollination,
which made them a logical choice; but that wind blows those insecticide
molecules throughout the landscape, creating a sad modern phenomenon that
wipes out whole communities of honey bees, not to mention coating the
nearby crops that depend on them.
These consequences were certainly anticipated as
acceptable by the powers that be. Coming up with ways to use wind
pollinated crops like corn to feed the world by its inclusion in virtually
every processed food we and our animals eat seems destined to become an
important, albeit pathetic, survival feeding methodology for the
perpetuation of our species; but can we indeed get all we need from our
food sources without the bees?
If there is hope it can begin with farmers and beekeepers.
Are we in this for the honey, the pollination, or the opportunity to
experience the joys of watching over our beloved insect community?
Whatever the reason we can start making better choices about how we keep
our bees and choose our crops. We can open discussions with our neighbor
farmers who often do not understand the complex world inside the hive the
way we are just beginning to. We can also keep talking to our friends and make
them aware of the value of chemical free hive products and how their own
local choices can influence and support the efforts of their neighborhood
farmers and beekeepers.
Recommended Books: The Practical Beekeeper by Michael Bush, 2011, Volumes
I, II, and III are now at the Cook Library. See also The Complete Idiot’s Guide
To Beekeeping by Massachusetts beekeepers Dean Stiglitz & Laurie Herboldsheimer.