Why Keep Honey Bees Naturally ? There Are So Many Reasons . . .
Bees and other pollinating insects and birds have been evolving for millions of years, when the flowering plants, Angiosperms developed, they needed to be pollinated, insects, including bees, were attracted to the pollen and nectar, this being the exact food they needed to survive - everything had a purpose and reason to co-exist - until man mucked it up afew hundred years ago !
Bees and humans lived together fairly harmoniously until greed set in... more money from large bee operations, not just the hive or two in the back garden, but thousands of hives spread out for miles, trucked all over the countryside, made to work single crops (mono-cropping),plus having all their honey stores taken in autumn and fed sugar water to be kept alive. Dismal, don`t you think ?
Below are my reasons for caring for my bees as naturally as possible:
Bees and humans lived together fairly harmoniously until greed set in... more money from large bee operations, not just the hive or two in the back garden, but thousands of hives spread out for miles, trucked all over the countryside, made to work single crops (mono-cropping),plus having all their honey stores taken in autumn and fed sugar water to be kept alive. Dismal, don`t you think ?
Below are my reasons for caring for my bees as naturally as possible:
- Healthy Bees - to work as hard as each bee does over its very short life, it has to eat a healthy diet, just as we do. A variety of flowering plants and trees provide excellent sources of pollen and nectar over all the seasons. A healthy bee will beable to fight off disease alot better then a weak, hungry bee will do.
- Chemical Free Bees - this is an emotive issue right now. Here in Aotearoa (NZ) we like to think of ourselves as `green` but I`m afraid we are far from that ideal. Being an agricultural country, dependent on our over seas exports of milk, wool, meat, fruit and many other items including honey and bees, to be successful our products must be perfectly free of any pest and disease, hence the huge over-use of many sprays, pesticides, matricides and insecticides - all extremely dangerous to both humans and any other living creature that happens to get in the way. I firmly believe that no chemicals of any kind should be used in your hive and home garden, there are many other ways, including organic methods, planting that attracts the bugs you don`t want and so hopefully will leave most of your garden alone and simply spending time just watching what is happening - you might be surprised at what you see ! Encourage birds also, they eat lots of pests.
- Happy Bees - honey bees that are left to their own devices are normally fairly docile, concentrating on what they need to do. Unless threatened, then they will maybe fly around abit then get on with what they were doing. Bees that have a warm,dry and safe hive will live out their lives as they have done for millions of years. Like any other animal, that is intensively `farmed` there is only so far they can be pushed before the cracks start to show. . . sickness, lethargy and death - do we want this for the most important insect on earth ?
- Pollinating Bees - one of my main reasons for natural beekeeping is to raise bees that can do what they are designed for, and that in my eyes, is pollination. This means I supply them with a healthy diet of nectar and pollen by planting the flowers and trees i know they like, even if it means a garden full of blue, purple and white flowers - just as well I do love those colours ! We have many native NZ flora that bees will seek out including Cabbage Trees, Harakeke (Flax), Manuka, Kanuka, Hebes and alots more. I believe a responsible bee keeper makes sure her bees are well catered for in the way of a diversity of food plants, a water source and a chemical free home.
- Bees Wax - keeping our bees naturally means allowing them to make new comb with the cell size that they need, not using wax foundation sheets that may contain chemical residues. Building comb is a vital part of a bees life cycle, as normal as collecting nectar and swarming.