Darwinian Beekeeping

I'll keep this short to describe how I came upon the title of this post. It begins with seeing the film, Leave No Trace - it's about a veteran father and young daughter living on public park land.  The film contains two beekeeping scenes and the credits list an organization called the Preservation Beekeeping Council.  This led me to their pamphlet - 10 practices for better beekeeping inspired by Thomas D. Seeley. Follow the link for more details and I'll reference number 4 in the list (..build from rough lumber) later in this post.

1. Work with bees adapted to your locale
2. Space your hives as widely as possible
3. House your bees in small hives
4. Roughen the inner walls of your hives or build from rough lumber
5. Use hives whose walls provide good insulation
6. Position hives high off the ground
7. Let 10-20% of your comb be drone comb
8. Minimize disturbance of nest structure
9. Minimize relocations of hives
10. Refrain from treating colonies for Varroa mites

How many authors have published books about honey bees living in the wild? - practically none.  Seeley the author of Honeybee Ecology, Honeybee Democracy and Following the Wild Bees speaks about a new idea, Darwinian Beekeeping -  letting bees live as they have evolved to live in trees without interference.   Darwinian Beekeeping turns on the idea that natural selection operates on the bees to maintain their resistance to disease. Regarding number 4 in the list (..build from rough lumber), Seeley describes on page 18 of Honeybee Ecology, bees moving forward and backward as "planing."  In the wild, bees scrub the rough wood landing area of a tree trunk hive. The same bee behavior on an already smooth man-made hive makes no sense.   See my seesaw cartoon - on the left, the predominant beekeeping practice is to manipulate large hives made of thin and smooth milled wood.  On the right, Darwinian beekeeping letting bees be bees.

maladaptive behavior - washboarding

I'm re-reading the public library copy of Honeybee Ecology.  This time around, I discovered an explanation of washboarding.  On page 18,  the author describes bees moving forward and backward as "planing."  In the wild, bees scrub the rough wood landing area of a tree trunk hive. The same bee behavior on an already smooth man-made hive makes no sense.

Compared to honeybees in nature, the author lists other maladaptive behaviors such as the over production of honey and a reduced tendency to swarm .  These insights hurt my feelings.  I'll get over it, but are my motives bee fitness or honey production?  On reflection, why wouldn't my existential pain include beekeeping?

I'm looking forward to finding other gems missed in earlier readings of Honeybee Ecology.

2008 at-a-glance

2008 was filled with many bee experiences--some unexpected. Thoughts like "what have I got myself into" entered my mind more than a few times. Here are my 2008 beekeeping calendar highlights:

• 20-March: Two nucleus hives from P.N. Williams sit next to deep 8-frame hive bodies
• 8-April: Add second deep hive body to each hive, "Buda" and "Pest"
• 2-May: Bees pour out of "Buda" like rushing water. Captured a very small swarm on the shaded ground and create a new third hive, Kent, using a deep hive body.
• 12-May: Bees pour out of "Buda" again. Captured a medium sized swarm while standing on the neighbors roof. I have run-out of wooden ware, so I combine the new swarm with "Kent" which requires a week of using the queen exlcuder as a queen includer.
• week of 9-June & 16-June: volunteer at Oakhurst Community Garden's Beekeeping Camp; Curtis Gentry helps me label the interesting summer bee behaviour as washboarding
• 3-August: "Pest" is lost to small hive beetle (SHB) and robbing
• 17-August: "Kent" is abandoned and covered with SHB slime
• 15-September: "Buda" is abandoned and covered in-part with SHB slime