Hive Inspection
As a beekeeper, we would call the people who didn’t check, treat, and manipulate their hives on a regular basis as bee havers.
Enjoy,
David Proctor
Urban Soil Farmer/Rancher
Regenerative Beekeeping
by David Proctor
March 13, 2025
Urban Farm Lifestyle Magazine Published Weekly
I have read several articles about the bees going through another colony collapse and or a large bee die-off in commercial apiaries.
I am not denying that we may have seen a reduction in bee populations but what I would like to look at is what I think the reasons may be.
Whenever I tell people that I keep bees, the first question is do you get honey from your bees?
Honey Bees Building Comb in Warre Hive
That is the main reason people think you would have bees.
Why else would you go to all the trouble and expense that it takes to have bees?
Yes, pollination of our plants is a good reason but the honey bee is not very effective as a pollinator compared to other bees and pollinators.
Honey Bees
The Mason bee and Leafcutter bee are much better pollinators except they do not produce honey.
Mason Bees Emerging
Let’s focus then on the honey and the honey bees and compare the problems that we are having with bees to other agricultural entities such as chickens, hogs, cattle, etc.
The United States has been having problems with diseases in our livestock, especially our large commercial operations using confined feedlot operations known as CAFO or “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation”.
CAFO
To be able to make a high profit on a commodity product, it will take a big or large-scale operation due to the slim margins that are available.
The way to achieve that scale is with large numbers placed in close proximity to each other.
The livestock is fed from bulk formulated rations with most getting some form of preventive treatment in the feed or by shot.
Most of the time this bulk feed is produced from GMO corn that has been sprayed and chemically fertilized by the grower.
Spraying
The sanitary conditions can be marginal with keeping so many together with what space has been allocated for them.
The livestock does not have a diversity of genetics due to traits that have been selected for, such as gain per day and or product produced such as eggs per day.
It is my opinion that the problems that we see in livestock is what we are seeing in the bee population which is management.
We the beekeepers are not letting the bees be bees.
We inspect, manipulate, move around, pack hives next to each other, fog and treat with all types of preventive medications, select the queens, remove the natural honey and feed high fructose corn syrup, and the list goes on.
Beekeeping organizations love speakers with PhDs, it gives the credibility and the peace of mind that science is here now and we can remove anything natural.
I remember I went to a state meeting one time and one of the PhD speakers was doing a talk and slide show on how to artificially inseminate queen bees!
Who in the world would want to do that?
I believe that the answer to the bee die-off is pretty straightforward; let bees be bees and become bee havers.
Bee Pollinating
This is what has been happening in the regenerative agriculture movement, is letting the flock or herds be in a natural environment.
The soil is the starting point.
Healthy soil, which is not tilled and the plants are not sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and insecticides, will produce a diverse plant ecosystem that will allow all pollinators to thrive, especially bees.
The bee hives should be inspected maybe once a year.
Stop and think, a feral colony of bees is not inspected, they do not build hives next to other hives, the colony swarms, a queen is selected, they store honey they make for the winter, no splits are done or box rotations with queen excluders.
The bees know how to take care of themselves.
If a colony dies, then it was weak and that is nature’s way of selecting strong survivors.
Feral bees are not treated for mites, are not fumigated, and if they encounter smoke, it is from a fire, not a beekeeper.
Most bees come out of Georgia.
3lb Bee Package With Queen
The commercial beekeepers have to constantly buy new bees to try and keep up with the ones that die off.
That is where I always got my bees from, until now.
I am trying to capture a feral colony to start a hive.
Swarm Trap
I have already put up a Bee House to place Mason bees in this next week.
I ordered Mason bees and Leafcutter bees for the pollination of gardens.
I tried capturing a bee swarm last year with swarm traps but was unsuccessful.
I am in an area where thousands of acres are commercially farmed for corn and soybeans.
Every summer I have seen spray trucks in the fields along with aerial spraying.
I am not sure if any feral bee colonies can be found where I am at but I plan on placing swarm traps this week and try again.
In conclusion, so many problems in agriculture tend to be manmade.
Hopefully, with regenerative agriculture gaining momentum, nature will have a chance to sort out our mess.
Check It Out!
Bee Swarm Trap
Quick Tip
100% WINTER BEE SURVIVAL – “Secrets” to Success
Horizontal Hive Natural Beekeeping
by Leo Sharashkin (apiary in Cabool, MO)
We had 100% COLONY SURVIVAL THIS WINTER… again! I take little credit for that – but there’s a feeling of satisfaction in seeing natural beekeeping of “Keeping Bees with a Smile” work so well. Here are our “secret” ingredients to success:
1) LOCAL BEES ONLY – I never bought a single bee, only catching local wild swarms. We live in a remote place with almost no beekeepers to bring in package bees from elsewhere – keeping the genetics of the local bee population intact.
2) PESTICIDE-FREE ENVIRONMENT – we only locate our bee yards at thriving organic farms (please support them!) and at our own private bee reserve, so bees are not poisoned by insecticides and other agrochemicals. “Better living through NO chemistry” is our motto!
3) TREATMENT-FREE BEEKEEPING – we never treat our hives against Varroa mites or any parasite or disease. If a colony dies, we just multiply those that thrive to take the place of those who fail. So we constantly select for healthy and productive colonies that stay healthy without medication.
4) NUTRITION – our bees are never fed sugar – only their own honey and beebread. And I keep an unholy pile of unextracted frames full of honey and pollen to give back to the bees if they are ever low on stores. I also plant wildflowers to complement the wild nectar they forage on.
5) GOOD HIVES – Layens hives’ frame shape helps bees create an uninterrupted brood nest ideal for wintering and spring build-up. We use both insulated hives (the best) and non-insulated solid wood hives (which I insulate with wool pillows for the winter).
Bibliography:
Received by Leo Sharashkin, 100% WINTER BEE SURVIVAL – “Secrets” to Success, 28 Feb. 2025.
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