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Permaculture Chemical Free Beekeeping

The addition of bees to a homestead system can provide many benefits beyond honey production, including pollination, education and outreach, and the creation of windbreaks and privacy screens. By using small cell bees, which are healthier in this system, and reducing the weight of hives by using five-frame mediums, even children can participate in working with the bees without protective gear.

Edible windbreaks, such as Nanking cherry and comfrey, provide food and medicinal resources for humans and animals, while also reducing flight paths for bees. Grazing animals like goats and sheep can help maintain grass and clover around the hives, reducing the risk of pests like ants and hive beetles. By stacking these functions, the bee yard becomes a multi-purpose space that supports the overall homestead system. Inspections can ensure the health of the hives, and natural treatments like solid acid made from comfrey leaves can…

Creating Bee-Friendly Habitats

The article discusses the importance of bees in gardens and allotments and how their populations have been negatively impacted by the loss of flower-rich grasslands in Britain. However, there are simple things gardeners can do to help bees, such as planting nectar and pollen-rich flowers and avoiding disturbing natural nest sites. It is also important to avoid using pesticides and to leave lawns or grass areas a little longer between cuts to allow bee-friendly plants like clover and knapweed to flower.

Bee hotels or bird boxes can also be put up to provide nesting sites for different bee species. Becoming a beekeeper is another option, and urban beekeeping is on the rise. By taking these simple steps, gardeners can help transform their patch into a bee haven and support the important role bees play in pollinating flowers and producing fruit.

Video Summary:

- Bees play an important…

Organic Beekeeping

Jakob Warner is a beekeeper and permaculture consultant based in Missoula, Montana. He grew up working with bees and started his own side business, Sapphire Apiaries, which focuses on organic, natural and traditional beekeeping practices. He also offers consulting services for permaculture design and earthworks.

Warner emphasizes the importance of using a smoker when working with bees, even if it may not always be necessary. He suggests using burlap as a smoker fuel since it is natural, easily accessible and easy to light. When working with bees, Warner advises standing to the side of the hive to avoid blocking their entrance and minimizing the time spent in front of the hive.

Warner discusses the issues related to harvesting honey from hives and stresses that beekeepers need to be careful not to take too much honey away from the hive, especially in the first year of a new hive's…

The Power of Pollinators

The United States alone has 2.8 million honeybee hives, which equals to more than 50 billion honeybees flying around farms and residential areas every summer. However, settlers from England brought the first honeybees to North America in 1622, even though the continent already had more than 4,000 species of wild bees. Many of these wild bees' species are solitary, meaning that they live and work alone.

Wild bees come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and are crucial to the pollination process, with more than 80% of all plant species relying on animals to move their pollen from flower to flower. Bees are the best pollinators, and even though honeybees are the most talked-about, wild bees can be just as effective. Unfortunately, bee populations around the world are dwindling due to human impact. In 2017, the rusty patched bumblebee became the first North American bee species…

This why bees are important!

Bees are not just cute little critters that can sting, they play a crucial role in pollination and the production of honey, beeswax, and other products. When bees land on flowers, they suck the nectar and collect pollen which helps plants reproduce. This pollination is crucial for the growth of fruits and vegetables, and even hay which is the favorite food for animals like cattle.

However, bees are under threat worldwide due to colony collapse disorder, which is caused by various factors such as pesticides, pollution, and mites. Australia is the only country in the world that doesn't have bee-killing bugs, but the country is fighting hard to keep it that way by setting up special empty hives and ports to catch foreign bees that may try to sneak into the country. To help protect bees, people can enjoy honey, plant and look after flowers,…

Why are bees important?

Bees are critical for pollinating plants that produce a significant range of food, including blueberries, almonds, and beans. The global value of insect pollination is estimated at €153 billion every year. Various creatures rely on bees for their own existence, including badgers, be eaters, and a whole host of other creatures that prey on or paralyze bees, as well as numerous wildflowers that depend on bees for pollination.

Bees have an excellent sense of smell, making them useful for detecting dangerous smells, such as explosives. Numerous bee species have extremely precise habitat requirements, and if that habitat undergoes a change, their populations will respond quickly, making them potentially good indicators of environmental disturbance, including climate change. Bees contribute to a whole load of ecosystem services, including providing us with food, maintaining biodiversity, fighting crime, acting as indicators of environmental change, and contributing to carbon sequestration and…

Inspecting a split

The video shows a beekeeper inspecting several hives to see if they have a queen and if they are ready to have a super added to them. The beekeeper checks a split hive, a five-frame nuke, and a testy hive. The split hive is a split from two colonies and the beekeeper is checking to see if it has a laying queen. The five-frame nuke is from another big yard and the beekeeper is checking to see if it is ready to be transferred to an eight-frame hive. The testy hive is being checked to see if it has a laying queen and if it is ready to be transferred to an eight-frame hive. The beekeeper observes that the split hive has a laying queen, the five-frame nuke has a couple of empty frames but will be okay, and the testy hive has larva in the cells…

Installing package

The video features a beekeeper named Skyler installing a package of bees with a queen. Skyler removes the queen cage and sugar water can from the package and places them in the hive.

The bees are then dumped into the hive and given time to settle. The beekeeper checks for hive beetles and ensures that the queen cage is properly placed. The video ends with the beekeeper planning to leave the bees alone for a day before checking on them again.

Video Summary:

- Skyler installs a package of bees with a queen

Swarm Traps or Bait Hives

The speaker discusses their use of a swarm trap, which they have hung across from the Congaree National Park in South Carolina. They explain that they have used this type of trap successfully in the past and have set it up in a way that is accessible from the ground. The speaker notes that they are getting older, so they have opted for an eight-frame deep trap with eyelids. They do not provide any further details about the design or construction of the trap, nor do they elaborate on their past successes or failures with this method.

Video Summary:

- The speaker discusses their use of a swarm trap near Congaree National Park in South Carolina

- They have used this type of trap successfully in the past