Natural Beekeeping with a Passionate Amateur
Beekeeping is the alchemy of the gardening/homesteading world: A transformation of flowers into gold, through a mysterious process that is natural, scientific, and almost certainly magical.
Whether you've been keeping bees for some time, or are totally new to the concept, join me, a passionate amateur, as we explore what it means to keep bees naturally, and why we might want to.
Although categorized as livestock and bred for domestication, honeybees live with us by choice, according to their own whims. And so modern commercial and hobby beekeeping employs all manner of techniques to change their natural rhythms and habitats to suit the demands of honey production and crop pollination (including importing them from their natural home in Europe to climates all over the world that are not well suited to them, and that contain pests and diseases that this relatively delicate organism is ill equipped for).
Ultimately these efforts are detrimental to the honeybee as an organism and, dare I say, as a magical little being.
But there's another way.
While still common in Europe, natural beekeeping is still very much a fringe culture in the US, and so it can be challenging to find information and community around this endeavor. I've been on this quest for the last 3 years, and while I have still racked up more failure than success, I have learned a lot. Certainly enough to help you understand the basic mechanics of natural beekeeping, and compelling reasons why you might want to try it.
In this mini workshop you will learn:
The basics of what bees want in order to live their lives the way they evolved to
Shifts in mindset, technique and equipment needed to keep bees naturally
How to convert a modern Langstroth hive into a more bee-friendly design
Which hives on the market are best suited to natural beekeeping
Why natural beekeeping is worth your time
I'll share the two experimental hives I'm working with, one of which houses a very active colony (NOTE: we will NOT be suiting up and opening the hives, so no need to bring equipment. You will not have to get any closer to an active beehive than you want to!).
I'm offering this class on a donation basis. If there's enough interest, we'll do a follow-up workshop next spring.