ACL Letter #11 - Raising Bees

A picture of my hive in 2016; about a month after the bees were placed inside. 

Raising Bees Unconventionally

 For better or worse, I rarely do things conventionally. So when I found the book The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon, I immediately began to read it. What was inside was more practical than any of the agricultural textbooks I had ever read. Reading the book felt like sitting with my grand father while he told stories about farming. Gene uses storytelling, experience, and logic to push back against a lot of what is now "conventional" agriculture. 

It was in this book, The Contrary Farmer, where Gene told me the story of how he raised his bees. (He also wrote about it on his blog as well). I owe most of my agricultural ethic to Gene Logsdon. The reasons are simple. His tales teach me a lot. And most importantly, his way of doing things works. 
A great example is how he raised his bees. He did not manipulate the bee environment to produce the maximum amount of honey. Instead, He supported an environment that promoted and protected their natural behavior and took honey sparingly.  The beauty of this is he cultured healthy bees, did minimal work, and got enough honey from one hive to provide for his family for a whole year.  

Now before I continue, you should know that beekeepers lost 45% of all hives from April 2020- April 2021 according to this article published by Auburn University. Beekeepers all around bemoan the fact that keeping bees alive is getting harder and harder. With that said, my hive is going on 7 years making it a statistical anomaly. And one I can't take much credit for. I simply avoid bothering the bees as much as possible. 

We brought bees to the farm in 2016. I had not been introduced to Gene's method of raising bees at this point. Starting out, I had intentions of following the conventional way of raising bees. I would inspect at least monthly. I would watch closely for any pests - moths, beetles, ants, roaches, mites. I would also locate the queen multiple times throughout the year and make sure there were no signs of the hive raising up another queen. If I noticed these signs, I would immediately squelch this plan by crushing the queen "cell" and prevent the possibility of any swarming taking place.  If I wanted honey, I had to stay on top of the hive and be constantly aware of what was happening inside the hive. 

The problem was I didn't have the time. It was 2016. I was running a farm, had a 1 year old and was expecting another. The plan was never to be a honey farm, only to supplement our other crops. So when I read Gene's method, I immediately set out to raise bees in this new way. 

The way Gene raises his bees, and the way I have raised mine since 2017 is as follows. I use two large boxes as the base of my hive. In theory, the bottom box is the brood chamber and the one on top is the honey "super". On top of the honey super I have a queen excluder. This keeps the queen from going above it and into the other boxes that are placed on top. These components never change and never move. I also never open up these supers or look around inside. Each spring, I take the lid off the hive and put a third, large super on top of the bottom two. The queen excluder stays in between this new super and the bottom two. Six months later, in late fall, I take this very top super off and collect the honey inside it.  Each time out, I check the health of the queen by watching the bees as they enter the hive. If they are carrying pollen in, that means there is brood. If there is brood, there is an active queen. I peak around at the bees when I am adding and taking away the top box. Some years the bee population is higher than others. Some years I have noticed beetles and the occasional mite. There are always a few roaches hanging out under the lid as well.
And that's about it. I don't spray. I don't treat. I don't open up and check the queen. I don't prevent bees from swarming and leaving the hive. And because I am not at the farm during much of the growing season, my hive is often barely visible due to grass and brush. It's had water up to its 2nd box and experiences sub-freezing temperatures annually without protection.
And in spite of all of this, I have had great success! Each year I average about 1.5 gallons of honey. The hive is six and a half years old and still going strong. 

The reason for this success, in mine and Gene's opinion, is because bees are created with an innate desire to survive. When left alone, that's exactly what they will do. If we attempt to manipulate bee behavior and force their systems to support our needs primarily and not their own, then we should expect trouble. Take for example the natural act of bees swarming. To a beekeeper that is looking to maximize honey production with no regard for natural bee behavior, swarming is not desirable. When bees swarm, the queen leaves and takes half the hive with her. This means less bees for building comb, foraging, and ultimately honey production. But what is a bee swarm and why do they do it? A swarm is a beehive's natural way of reproducing. When the hive gets too congested or over populated to the point the queen's pheromone's can't control the new hive, the workers begin building cells for new queens. (This is where conventional beekeeping wisdom says we should destroy these cells). Meanwhile, the queen stops laying eggs, gathers half the worker bees together and leads them off to a nearby branch where she will direct them to cluster around her while scout bees go look for another location for a new hive. Back at the hive, a new queen will emerge. When she does, she will leave the hive and go look for drones outside the hive to mate with. Then she will come back to the hive and begin the process of building back up the hive's population and honey reservoirs. In effect, this brings new, diverse genetics into the hive along with a young, vibrant queen. This is critical in maintaining the health of a hive. Diseases and pests are constantly adapting and changing. To survive, much less thrive, bees must adjust and adapt as well. Swarming helps bees accomplish this.

This past October, I went prepared to document gathering honey. Unfortunately, I was unable to gather any honey. I know... ironic considering you just spent the last few minutes reading my espousal of how my and Gene's beekeeping way is superior. But let me explain.  The hive was off kilter and exposed in many areas. I am not sure what caused this. It isn't easy to separate the boxes because the bees glue it all together. I will be keeping a closer eye on the hive in the next few months to see if I can figure out how the hive was disturbed. Below are the pictures I took from this last visit. 

The kids wanted to join in on the fun so I let them come along. 

I kept the kids a decent distance away. Apparently 30' or so is what bees consider their territory.

This is what I walked up on. And really, this picture was after I knocked some of the brush down and away from the hive. I am still not sure how the hive got so off-centered. The boxes are glued together by the bees. The only way to push them apart without pushing the whole hive over is to apply opposite pressure to the other side... Something an animal wouldn't do. 

Looking from the top down. An opening like this allows water in and unwanted air circulation. Not ideal. If you look closely, you can see where the bees began closing up the space. They still had a ways to go. 

Another good shot that shows how off-kilter the second box was. The yellow screen is a queen excluder. It allows worker bees to pass through, but not the queen. She is too big. The reason beekeepers use queen excluders is to prevent the queen from laying eggs on frames that you want to extract honey from. For my hive, I let the queen have full reign in the bottom two boxes. The top box, that I put on top each April and pull off each October, is only for honey. So, I keep her out of it. 

In this picture, Can you spot the bee flying right at me?

Bees from the top box that I took off. Overall, my bees are pretty docile. I still use a smoker though. Which really helps with keeping the bees "calm". Not a fan of being around ticked off bees!

In this picture, you are looking from the top of the hive down the front towards the bottom where the opening is. There are two bees in this picture. There is one that is just about to enter. And one not too far behind it, just crossing the threshold of the platform. Each bee has pollen it has collected attached to its left leg. It's color is a lighter shade of yellow than it's body. I specifically look for this each time I visit the bees. If bees are carrying pollen inside the hive, that means there is active brood. And active brood means active queen! And that's what I want! This is how I check the health and presence of the queen without opening her chambers. 

This is a picture of propolis. Bees make propolis from plant resin. They use it to glue their structures together, seal up cracks and holes, and also use to make their own structures within a hive. It's extremely sticky when it isn't cured and extremely hard when it is. 

Here is the hive as I left it. I broke apart the boxes and straightened them up. The gap between the boxes is from built up propolis. This is the back of the hive. These two boxes make up the brood chamber and space for the bees to store honey for themselves. 

New Podcast Coming Soon!

Next one will be on labels like Organic, sustainable, permaculture, etc. What they mean and what they don't mean! Should drop in the next few days!