Bee Natural

Just What is Natural Beekeeping Anyway?

What?

Precepts

Natural beekeeping is a new way to keep bees. It has only two basic precepts:

• The beekeeper  manages all things external.
• The bees are their own best managers of all things internal.

It’s just that simple.

Natural beekeeping resembles that done by Langstroth before he invented the modern hive. He lived in a time swept up with concepts of industrialization. At that time beekeepers applied those concepts to reap the benefits of industrialized beekeeping. It was a time when nature was something to be conquered. Some advantages were gained. But much was lost when a man-made approximations replaced the natural broodnest structure and functions  .

Natural beekeeping restores much that has been lost through industrializing beekeeping.

Why Natural?

This is not a personal theory of mine. I’ve kept commercial bees since 1968. Then, I was sold on the intensive, invasive, chemical treadmill most beekeepers find themselves on today. I followed the latest research and ran my bees in the most modern way possible. I simply didn’t know any better. I knew all about bee literature. But not much about the bees!

And I’ve run them the natural way since 1996. I got off hard pesticides in 1996. Tried small cell in 2000. Moved to natural comb in 2002. And never looked back. There’s simply no comparison between how I naturally keep healthy, productive, prolific, untreated bees today, and how I kept them before.

Natural beekeeping provides a flexible way to change concepts as beekeepers learn how to cooperate  with  their bees . It emphasizes our environmental responsibility. And provides a level of credibility and accountability to the honey consumer.

Beekeeping naturally is a humbling experience. I know, because I was a commercial beekeeper. All that intensive management made me feel real important. I thought, all those practices must be done or the bees couldn’t survive, let alone thrive. I was a bee god! Natural beekeepers have found that less management equals better bees.

Humble is good, at least for me. And I’m a better beekeeper as a result. It seems I learn faster when the bees teach me, than when I try to make them do what I want :>)

When?

Now’s the time. Natural beekeeping isn’t about equipment. It’s about keeping bees in a new way. And it requires a different mental focus. With this focus you can be a natural comb beekeeper today. Management and equipment may eventually change. But the big change is in bee health. And the resulting minimal management that occurs when a beekeeper works with the bees and not against them.

This focus isn’t arbitrary. Most beekeepers end up thinking natural when they see how much better the bees do with minimal interference.