I have been reading and listening to podcasts about beekeeping now for several weeks. The podcast I have found most useful was
Craig's the Organically Managed Beekeeping Podcast and Forums. This post summarizes some of what I have learned, and explains why I am heading in the direction of natural beekeeping. Please bear in mind that I am a total novice with no beekeeping experience whatsoever. Take these thoughts from one just sticking his toe in the beekeeping water.
The Type of Hive
From my research, I have learned that there are several dramatically different styles of hives. Which style you choose determines the mechanics of taking care of the bees. Depending on your choice, many beekeeping skills and practices are dissimilar.
The Langstroth Hive is the the predominant type in the United States.
Commercial beekeeping practices in the past 100 years gravitated to Langstroff Hives. Those hives are designed to maximize honey production. With the use of mechanical extractors, the honey harvest can be streamlined and made more efficient. Langs use frames so that bees do not need to build their own comb. The theory is that the bees can go right to work inside the Lang frames and that will increase production.
One advantage of Langs is that you have standardization. Most beekeepers in America use Langs so the hive equipment is readily available. Also, you have more mentors about with experience. If you join a local beekeeping club, you will meet mostly people working Langstroth hives.
On the other hand, an older style of beekeeping is the more-natural style, top bar hives. This top bar beekeeping practice forces the bees to build their own comb. The bees build comb down from the top bars. With the top bar style, extractors are not generally used to harvest honey. The general consensus is that the honey harvest using top bar beekeeping is smaller.
One advantage of the top bar style of beekeeping is that the costs to build a hive are lower. Primarily, this is because you do not need the expense of frames (which last only two or three years). Also, mechanical extractors, which are expensive, are not used to harvest. Instead, top bar beekeepers use a technique called crush and strain.
There are several types of top bar beehives. The most common types are the Kenyan an
d Tanzanian top bar hives. Both of these type hives (which are shaped differently) are horizontal top bar hives. The bees create comb in half the top bar hive. As the hive grows, the beekeeper removes some wood to open up the other parts of the hive.
A disadvantage with horizontal top bar hives arises when the beekeeper is not diligent in checking on the bees. Remember the bees build their own comb. If the beekeeper is not diligent in directing the build, you can get something called crazy comb. This makes harvesting honey quite problematic.
Another top bar hive is the Warre' Hive. This is a vertical top bar hive. It was conceived by a French researcher named Abbe' Warre' who in 1948 wrote a 12th edition of
Beekeeping for All. In this book, which is full of research about bees in general, Warre' describes in detail how to build The People's Hive, which is what he called the vertical top bar hive.
The Warre' Hive has an advantage over other top bar hives in that there is less management needed from the beekeeper. Additionally, the building of comb vertically is more naturally akin to what bees would do in the wild. Thus, the top bar hive seeks to manipulate the bees to encourage horizontal development of comb. This manipulation is not unlike the Langstroth effort to force bees to build hives using the uniform, pre-made frames.
The Style of Beekeeping
A second consideration with regard to beekeeping is how the beekeeper intends to protect the bees from pests.
There are many critters that can attack a hive and cause it damage. These include mites, beetles, and mice. Many American beekeepers now use chemicals to combat these pests. They have been told by the chemical companies that these chemicals are effective and perfectly safe.
However, you have to make up your own mind about whether you believe the research, including research of government. I personally consider it mostly propaganda.
Therefore, my style gravitates to natural beekeeping. There are a minority of beekeepers who do not treat their hives with chemicals. They use genetics to breed bees strong enough to naturally defeat the preditors. Some use essential oils to help the bees. Some do not.
The selective breeding and use of natural selection has allowed some natural beekeepers to breed a smaller bee. This bee is called the "small cell" bee. In theory, a small cell bee is better able to defeat some of the mites.
The small cell bee is also the more historically natural bee. About 100 years ago, people began selectively breeding a larger bee. The small cell bee is a bee that is decreasing in size, rebounding to the size of its historical ancestror.
Conclusion
I am making Type 1 decisions here. They are consistent with sustainable practices. They are consistent with principles of permaculture.
