So the weather was very warm here last week. I decided to take a look at the hives I have along my driveway to the North of my house. I was already a little apprehensive as I had discovered that my three "mother" hives had died off in late 2016.
Much to my disappointment all of my hives except one were dead outs. What a shock. I had spent all kinds of time and faced a lot of adversity in 2016 to make sure the bees were strong.
Analysis of the hives indicated that in some cases they had eaten themselves into the upper corner of the hive and could not break the cluster to move to new honey.
Other hives never recovered from the honey harvest in August. The frames were not filled and the foundation was not built up.
Even the hives with new queens inserted into them were dead. What a disaster. I have to start all over again.
I sat back and reflected on my predicament. Do I throw in the towel and quit or do I try to find a better way? I had always been striving to work with no treatments and no supplemental sugar feeding. I wanted strong, healthy bees. It was/is starting to look harder than ever to make a go of it without succumbing to the modern methods. They do work. After all look around. Successful apiaries are dutifully following the Provincial guides for spring, summer and fall treatments. They are harvesting honey and in some cases, making a profit.
I always have my feet in two camps. My heart wants to believe permaculture/organic or whatever label you want to give it is better. I hear the results. I listen to the reports about damage to our environment. I see the effects our modern system is having on the bodies of people around me. But another more logical part of me always says, yeah but why does the modern way exist at all if the gentler, more natural ways are effective?
I believe that rampant capitalism is at the bottom of most of the issues. People are in a desperate race to be the cheapest, make the most money, push the boundaries of production, look for the quickest way to get ahead. They have bought into the systems that constantly require more inputs to get increased outputs. We are essentially
"Eating Oil" (Title of a book in 1978 - this is not a new concept).
Up to half of the inputs into potatoes and winter wheat in the UK are fertilizers and pesticides. Not only are we slaves to the easy way out of spraying, we are also employing energy slaves in the home. We live like Kings of old - lights, food, heat all at the wave of a hand. On a planet that is finite in size, this is a problem. We cannot allow everyone to profit and still keep a livable earth.
This is usually the point where my thinking takes me to where I think that's stupid. Capitalism won the battle over Socialism and that is that. We cannot share our way to prosperity when you have to share that which others have earned. We have the best system - don't we?
The Amish, or Mennonite cultures have recently settled in our area. I see them working as they have for hundreds of years and wonder why anyone would ever put themselves through that kind of deprivation. I do apologize here as I am paraphrasing. I am reminded of a story about why the Amish (and this is where I forget which culture I heard about) use steel wheels in their vehicles. If you have ever ridden in a wagon or a vehicle with steel wheels - let me reassure you - it is not comfortable. So the story goes that they use steel wheels because it forces them to go slower, going slower is easier on the vehicle and forces you to look and drive carefully. Driving carefully makes you see more things. The more things you see, the more you know about the quality of your fields. The more you know about your fields, the better decisions you make. Better decisions mean more benefit you. Going slower is better.
The bees were dead. Quit? Nope I love the job and want to work toward a ne co-existence with them.
Continue with the systems that are recommended by the Provincial Apiarist? Hard to do as it runs counter to my strong belief that nature works best when it works the way it wants to work. So I reflected and remembered that I had purchased a book by a Russian Gentleman named Fedor Lazutin. His book (translated into English by Leo Sharashkin)
Keeping Bees with a Smile was very revealing.
He advocates for modelling a moveable frame top bar hive that closely mimics a tree hollow. I will be posting more about my adventures as I go. I will be building swarm traps first, then four or so hives and finally purchasing some nucs so that I make sure that I have bees to work with next summer.
Cheers! and Bee Stoic.
