Che Guebee Apiary: All 8 colonies survived treatment-free

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

All 8 colonies survived treatment-free

Today was the 1st official forage day of the new 2016 :) So great to see bees fly again and collect pollen.
I had 8 colonies go into the winter and all 8 are still alive and kicking strong :) As you might know I do not treat my bees with anything. I just keep letting the weak bees and varroa die and keep propagating the survivor bees/varroa in the next season. So far this seems to work well for me and my bees (and for the surviving Varroa, the one that does not kill its host) for a few years now.

I could see all 8 colonies bringing in pollen today which is a good indicator that they all have a laying Queen.

collecting pollen from early flowers

We have several Alder trees around our property and bees are busy collecting pollen from it at this time

1 comment:

Julie DMarch 15, 2016 at 1:38 PM
Congratulations on all of your hives surviving winter!
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

What is Natural Beekeeping?

"Natural Beekeeping" is a concept, an idea which springs from a human mind and as such will differ from one person to another, from one culture to another, depending on our limited and conditioned perception about what it IS being a Honeybee. Since natural beekeeping is an idea and not the actuality it is not to be taken rigidly. Instead it is to be directly inspired by the Actuality. But let's avoid going too philosophical about it and let me simply describe how I see "natural beekeeping" benefiting honeybees (these are only guidelines not a dogma);

- free wax comb construction resulting in clean wax and various cell size

- bees overwinter on their own honey stores (feeding sugar syrup ONLY if absolutely necessary)

- lots of peace (low interference from the beekeepers part)

- treatment free (The only way to have a sustainable system of beekeeping is to stop treating, instead making splits from survivor colonies seems the most natural way to me)

- bees are allowed to raise as many Drones as needed (no drone culling)

- natural Queen selection resulting in the strongest Queen (no queen cell culling and only working with local Queens or my own)

- pesticide free bee zone and supporting organic farming (this is a global issue and must be dealt with locally first through environmental organisations and by buying and growing organic food/clothing, etc ...)

- expanding my apiary every year by making splits using Queen Cells from my own strong survivor colonies or catching local swarms. This is the best way to counteract winter losses.

- planting for the bees flowering trees, bushes and plants covering all seasons. Biodiversity is the best healer for the bees and all other creatures.

Natural Beekeeping

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

All 8 colonies survived treatment-free

1 comment:

Catching my very first Prime Swarm