Ne'then !

[Norfolk]

But is natural .?
Ants farm both aphids and algae !
VM

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well yes I see what you are saying.
However last time I saw an ant it didn't have any equipment

 

[pargyle]

Well ... the Daily Snail never really lets facts get in the way of a good story.

I thnk the term 'Natural Beekeeping' attracts far too much emotion. I also think that there can be very few 'conventional beekeepers' who would not agree with the statement in the article that the majority of the bees problems are directly the result of mans interference in their natural exiatence.

There are also a lot of beekeepers of all flavours and persuasions who are practising styles of beekeeping that are based on low interference and using less and less chemical treatments. My father, in the post war years, would have been called a 'natural beekeeper' by those who seek to put labels on alternative styles of beekeeping ... he had bees which weren't treated, they were gentle, able to be handled with minimum PPE, he didn't feed them, preferring to leave them plenty of their own stores to overwinter and when they swarmed ... he collected the swarms and put them in a hive, he only went into the hives when he perceived there was a need. A return to this type of beekeeping would be nothing to hate in my estimation.

Whilst it was long before the onset of Varroa I see nothing wrong in practicing beekeeping in this way ... as long as it is done consciously and with some knowledge. The constant association with 'natural beekeeping' and those who neglect their bees has little basis in reality ... most of the people who take an alternative approach have just the same care for their bees as those who follow the conventions of what has become the 'norm' of British Beekeeping.

I am not on a crusade ... my view is do what YOU feel is right for YOUR bees .... whatever that may be.

 

[victor meldrew]

I didn't use treatments until 1998 when varroa arrived up North!
Until then, the bees were fed if necessary and forgotten until Spring !
It isn't Beekeepers unnatural methods causing honey bee decline ,it's the industrialisation of the crop producing land .
I won't call it farming and certainly not husbandry !
Vm



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[VEG]

It also has to do with the increase in population.

 

[MuswellMetro]

hmmmm, not more than 40lbs without killing my bees

well as i got at least three hives with over 80lbs each, then 40lbs of that was just a figment of my imagination,

so i can tell the HMRC that 3x 40lb @ £6.50 per lb (£780) is just a figment of my imagination and i dont need to pay TAx on it,

and by the way Mr Tax man the bees that just stung you are dead ,a man in the Daily Mail told me so

 

[VEG]

Yep as we kill our bees every year they have to be replaced and we have to buy in tons of corn syrup.

 

[madasafish]

You have to be in tune with this to keep bees:

‘How do I attain an understanding of the message of the Bien?’ has been exercising me a lot lately, that is consciously, and most of my life unconsciously. I believe that the future of the bees will largely depend on the degree of seriousness with which we collectively embark on pondering questions such as this. The Bien has much to tell us. Will we heed its counsel? I hope to engage in conversation with many of you who are drawn to bees for whatever outward reasons. By working together in a spirit of enquiry and an attitude of humility towards the bees, I believe we have hope of addressing the many problems affecting our relationship with Nature as a whole, and the bees in particular.



(from Gareth John http://naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/trustees/gareth)

I don't understand what he writes, let alone the "message of the Bien"

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Now then Victor - you know what happened last time someone mentioned lady things on here!

Thread of the year haapened. Though the second time I think it was. First indeed ended in tears.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Natural Beekeeping Trust says don't eat honey

My sister in law sent me a copy of a letter from last Tuesday's Daily Mail. It was from the Natural Beekeeping Trust. It says:

Why the honey diet is bad news for our bees

Women are urged to ‘drop-a-dress-size’ for the party season by having a spoonful of honey before bedtime (Mail) – but I would say ‘don’t’.
Bees are struggling. Honey yields have dropped from more than 100lb per hive in the 1800s to about 25lb in the past 5 years according to the British Beekeeping Association annual surveys. In the Seventies, when I was ten, you could still get 80lb of honey on average per hive. I’d be surprised if you could now get a maximum of 40 lb without killing the bees.
There’s already precious little honey for the bees themselves. When bees starve, they kill the males and pupae first. Any bee can ask another bee to share food, which they always do – and the last bee to die is the queen.
Bees are in serious decline due to pesticides, diseases, chemical treatments for mites, mono crops and exploitation for honey. All bees’ problems can be traced back to humans Bees stripped of honey by beekeepers are often fed sugars or corn syrups which weaken their natural defences.
By far the worst drop in honey yields been over the past 20 years. The queen bees, who used to mate reliably when I kept bees as a child, are no longer able to do so. Before you buy honey, ask how it was made. Was the bees’ own honey removed and replaced with sugar? Were the bees treated with chemicals and acid washes to remove mites?
There are bee-friendly beekeepers who treat their bees with respect and care but their numbers are very small. Treat honey as something as precious as it is to the bees – don’t consume it simply to drop a dress size.
Jonathan Powell,
Natural Beekeeping Trust, Frome, Somerset.

I'm a relatively new beekeeper but from what I've read, the problems referred to in this letter are due to changed agricultural methods, climate change and localised weather patterns. I was not aware that the issues result from nasty beekeepers feeding their bees with sugar syrup and corn syrup - whatever that is!
Discouraging people from buying honey seems to me to be a strange way to protect the bees.

CVB

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Four things:
1) Don't read the Daily Mail (AKA the middle classes' Sunday Sport - but where all the t*ts are on the letters page)
2) Don't believe anything you read in the Daily Mail
3) Ignore the lunatic rantings of this cuckoo from the natural bee trust
4) Don't read the Daily Mail

 

[REDWOOD]

Anything you read in a newspaper can be taken with a pinch of salt
I think most on here will not agree with the letter

 

[Jim Lavie]

Hmm, press articles in my humble opinion rarely provide a complete and accurate review. If an article sparks your interest, then explore the points with further reading and formulate your opinion using a variety of sources. You could of course treat articles in the Daily Mail as the whole truith though, if you want.

 

[madasafish]

If you read the CV of the Head of the Beekeeping Trust- posted on their site, you might decide they are run by people living in an alternate reality- on the planet Zog.

 

[Davelin]

These people would make a fantastic focus for an episode of 'Midsomer Murders'.
You can almost visualise the plot developing as the first body is discovered amongst the Sun Hives..........

 

[Russel]

These people would make a fantastic focus for an episode of 'Midsomer Murders'.
You can almost visualise the plot developing as the first body is discovered amongst the Sun Hives..........

Oh no the sh!t will hit the fan now!

 

[Stiffy]

Get a lot more than 40lb a hive and would be seriously worried if they produced less, I never consciously kill my bees either!
S

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[Chris B]

I would hazard a guess that Jonathan Powell is not an official spokesperson for the Natural Beekeeping Trust.

 

[Finman]

.
When bees starve, they kill the males and pupae first

That text revieles that an author does not know much about bees .


- If bees have lack of protein, they eate larvae, They seldom eate pupae.
- bees kill males (drones) when late summer nights become cold. Hive may have honey 100 kg inside, and it kills the drones.

All bees’ problems can be traced back to humans Bees stripped of honey by beekeepers are often fed sugars or corn syrups which weaken their natural defences.

How can Jonathan explain that sugar feeded give get 200 kg surplus honey?

The most valuable nutrients are in pollen. It is almost same if you feed hive with sugar or with honey.



.

 

[thorn]

Some papers are always prepared to give column inches to a crank with a drum to beat.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I would hazard a guess that Jonathan Powell is not an official spokesperson for the Natural Beekeeping Trust.

well he has an entry on thier web site

Jonathan comes from a long beekeeping lineage. His grandfather, Douglas, kept bees from the 1930's until 1986, and passed on his knowledge to Jonathan and his brother as young boys. Jonathan returned to beekeeping after a long gap and found himself appalled by the heartless practices of beekeeping and draconian chemical and mechanical responses to new threats such as the varroa mite. Inspired by natural beekeepers such as David Heaf, he adopted a more compassionate approach, respecting the nature of the bee. Jonathan acts as advisor and mentor to a group of people striving for a deeper understanding of the Bee.

"I believe a balance of deep knowledge and the often missing equal measure of compassion are the keys to supporting bees. I don't always get it right, sometimes I feel like a complete beginner. The bee has been exploited and manipulated in so many heartless ways, and yet they are amazing creatures who can teach us so much if we stop to listen, feel and imagine., ."