The Barefoot Beekeeper

Today's podcast is a recording I made of a talk by Adebisi Adekunle during the BBKA Spring Convention at Stoneleigh in April 2011.

Adebisi Adekunle - Bisi is an Amateur beekeeper with 10 years experience in the UK (Temperate climate with Apis Mellifera Mellifera & hybrids) and in Nigeria (Tropical climate with Apis Mellifera Adansonni).  She is a member of Romsey (Hants), Gillingham & Shaftesbury (Dorset), Twickenham & Thames Valley Beekeeping Associations. Bisi is the Honey Show Manager for the Hampshire Honey Show and a member of Slow Food International and the British Beekeepers Assoc. (BBKA).

The sound quality is reasonable, although there is some background hum from a piece of equipment in the kitchen.

This is a recording of the Q&A session following my talk at the BBKA Spring Convention in Stoneleigh on April 15 2011.

The title of this talk - What Is Wrong With Modern Beekeeping? - begs a question: is there something wrong with modern beekeeping?

My contention is that there is indeed much that is wrong with it, and that the root of the problem lies in the anthropocentric, pre-Darwinian belief that we are in charge: that humankind has a God-given right to dominion over all other forms of life, and that animals – including bees – were created purely to serve us.

'Modern' beekeeping can be said to have begun in the year 1852 – the year that Langstroth patented his hive. He did so, it should be noted, with the express purpose of making the commercial exploitation of bees a practical possibility.

1852 was also the year that Langstroth published his book, The Hive and the Honeybee, in which we find the following passage:

“The Creator intended the bee for the comfort of man, as truly as he did the horse or the cow.

The honey bee was... created not merely with the ability to store up its delicious nectar for its own use, but with certain properties which fitted it to be domesticated, and to labor for man, and without which, he would no more have been able to subject it to his control, than to make a useful beast of burden of a lion or a tiger.”i

Which is to say that, according to this creed, not only were bees created in order to provide us with something sweet, but that they were allocated 'certain properties' that enable us to domesticate them. In those days, most people shared Langstroth's belief that 'The Creator intended the bee for the comfort of man' and that its purpose was to 'labor for man'.

And yet, unbeknown to the Reverend Langstroth, some twenty years earlier, a little ship had set sail from Plymouth harbour on a five-year voyage that was to change our understanding of the world forever. That ship was The Beagle, and just seven years after Langstroth completed his book, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species.

That was over 150 years ago. And yet, even today, despite Darwin's insights having been tested over and over by science; despite overwhelming evidence that all life is interdependent; despite irrefutable proof of the consequences of worldwide destruction of habitat and the poisoning of our life-giving soil by profit-driven corporations; despite all that, we see people still behaving as if they had God-given dominion over life on earth.

And what of so-called 'modern beekeeping'? Has it fully embraced the post-Darwinian world? Or does it still operate from that old testament, fundamentalist paradigm? Are we – as appears to be the case - still teaching people how to 'manage' and 'control' bees, when we should be teaching them how to observe, listen to and work with the bees?

The Guardian, 10th April 2011

Since my last podcast, I recorded a couple of webinars about natural beekeeping in top bar hives, and if you were not able to catch them at the time, you can find them by going to biobees.com/webinar

I have just come back from a weekend at Embercombe - a centre in South Devon that teaches aspects of sustainability to people of all ages and backgrounds. There was a group of - I think - 15 beekeepers who wanted to learn about natural beekeeping in top bar hives, and it was great fun to work with them and with Tim and Jess and the other peope at Embercombe. The weather was warm and sunny and we were able to go through some of the hives, which had all come through a very cold winter.

If you are in the UK and have done a year or more of beekeeping, and now you want to learn more about top bar hives, there is another opportunity to do an Intermediate course in North Devon later this year. The course will be over the weekend of the 8th 9th and 10th of July at Welcombe, near Barnstaple. Anyone interested should visit the Yarner Trust web site, which is yarnertrust.org

I will also be doing beginners events at Embercombe and Welcombe during the summer - take a look at biobees.com/training for details.

If anyone wants me to run a class in their local area, just drop me an email - [email protected] - and we can discuss it.

I'm going to play you the snippet of my chat with Dave Williams in a moment, followed by part of a recording of a song written for me by a delightful young singer/songwriter named Lara Conley, who I met one day in my home town when she was busking in the market square. We get a lot of buskers here, but very few who I would want to listen to for long. Lara has a lovely voice and I think you will enjoy the song she I am going to play you. This is actually part of the draft first version of the song - she will be recording the final version soon, so think of this as an exclusive preview.

Propolis is often regarded as something of a nuisance by conventional beekeepers, and most beekeeping courses spend more time telling you how to get rid of it or avoid it that what can usefully be done with it.

My interview subject today, James Fearnley, has been studying this remarkable substance since the 1970s, and after listening to what he has to say, I hope you will look at propolis with a more open mind.

James Fearnley initiated the first international standard for propolis and was one of the first people in the UK to commission serious scientific studies into propolis (at the Universities of Oxford and Manchester). He is recognised worldwide as an authority in the field and is the author of Bee Propolis - Natural Healing from the Hive, Souvenir Press 2001. This pioneering book is probably the most comprehensive overview of research into propolis in the English language. It explains how to use propolis as part of everyday care, with advice on preparations and dosages, as well as describing the usage of propolis throughout history and across large areas of the world.

James' web site is http://www.beevitalpropolis.com

Tom Theobald was largely responsible for exposing the fact that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had licensed Bayer's systemic insecticide Clothianidin, against evidence that it was highly toxic to bees, and that the research used to back the application for licensing was poorly designed and executed.

FInd out more here - http://www.bouldercountybeekeepers.org

It turns out that Tom and I actually have a couple of things in common, and our discussion covers not only pesticides and bees, but also the corporate mind and the democratic process.

A reminder that you can be a part of this podcast by leaving a message on my voicemail, if you have a question for me, or something you would just like to say on air.

If you are in the UK the number is  0203 239 1643, if you are anywhere else add your outgoing international number, then country code 44 and strip the first zero - 44 203 239 1643  You can also use my Skype account to leave me a message, which is 'beesontoast'. That's bees - not beans.

If you prefer to email me, by all means do so - send your message to [email protected], but please bear in mind that I get a LOT of emails and it may take me a while to get to yours.

If you have a general beekeeping question, please remember the natural beekeeping forum at naturalbeekeeping.org, where you will find over 4,000 beekeepers, some of whom may even be in your area.

Today I am going to be talking with Dr Henk Tennekes, who has published a book that is very relevant to our understanding of how systemic insecticides pose a real danger to bees and other insects, as well as to birds and other wild creatures. And ultimately, of course, to us, because we too are part of this picture.

Those of you who listen regularly to this podcast and who read my articles will know that my obsession with bees extends deep into the wider natural environment. The lives and habits of bees are entwined with those of flowering plants, with the flora and fauna of the soil that supports them and the birds and other creatures that depend on plants and insects for food.

As beekeepers, we must remind ourselves that it is neither possible nor even desirable to separate one species out from others and to claim to understand it in isolation: everything in nature is interdependent and if we interfere with one part of this intricate structure without looking at the big picture, we risk upsetting delicate and finely-tuned ecosystems that may underpin the very existence of some of the key species on earth.

This is the reason that I have for many years campaigned against the genetic manipulation of crop plants such as maize, oilseed rape and rice. They are examples of plants that are being treated as it they are not a part of the wider environment, in attempts to exploit certain characteristics for profit, without proper consideration being given to the effects such interference is likely to have on other species of plants and animals that will inevitably come into contact with them - and that, of course, includes bees.

This caution must also apply to the use of synthetic chemicals, especially on our food crops. The most controversial family of chemicals that has recently been introduced into agriculture, which many scientists are now blaming for causing mass die-offs of honeybees, is the neonicotinoids. You can tell from their name that they have a similar molecular structure to nicotine - the ingredient in tobacco that makes cigarettes so deadly. And these synthetic chemical forms are very toxic indeed, even in microscopic quantities - in concentrations that even the most powerful analytical equipment available to scientists struggles to detect.

To illustrate just how poisonous the neonicotinoids can be, imagine - if you will - an Olympic-size swimming pool, 50 metres by 25 metres, containing two and a half million litres of water - that's 2,500 metric tonnes - or over half a million UK gallons - or about two thirds of a million US gallons. With that picture in mind, imagine taking just one tablespoon of a neonicotinoid insecticide - just one tablespoon - and adding it to that Olympic-size swimming
pool.

Once that tiny amount of chemical has dispersed into the water - and despite the almost unimaginably small quantity of active ingredient in any single drop, that entire swimming pool is now toxic to bees.

That's all it takes - just a few parts per billion of one of these synthetic neonicotinoids - to have measurable effects on bees' ability to navigate. It may not kill them outright, but if they can't find their way home, it may as well have been instantly fatal.

My subject today is Dr Henk Tennekes, who was born in The Netherlands, and after graduating from  the Agricultural University of Wageningen in 1974, he performed his Ph.D. work at Shell Research Ltd in the UK. He later worked  for 5 years at the Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, Germany.

The culmination of Dr Tennekes' research was his recent discovery that the way the neonicotinoid insecticides work has much in common with that of chemical carcinogens - cancer-causing agents.

When he realized the dire consequences of environmental pollution with these insecticides, he decided to write a book to warn the general public about an impending environmental catastrophe.

The title of Dr Tennekes book is: The Systemic Insecticides - a Disaster in the Making.

You can read more about his book at http://www.disasterinthemaking.com