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the Barefoot Beekeeper Podcast
The Barefoot Beekeeper Podcast
When trying to understand something new, we automatically look for parallels in our previous experience: we seek examples from the familiar in order to better understand the unfamiliar. Often, this can be helpful, as when we learn a new language and we draw on our knowledge of another language with a common root.
Unfortunately, this strategy can also take us down a path that leads not to greater understanding, but to the confusion of fact with conditioned thought and to a form of distorted vision.
This can readily be observed in the interpretation of animal behaviour by reference to human behaviour, which is one form of what we call anthropomorphism. Myths and fables and children's tales are so suffused with the granting of human values and character traits to animals that it is hard to think of a creature that has not, in our imaginations, been stereotyped and imprinted with characteristics ascribed to it by someone with a particular point to make, or axe to grind. Thus the fox is 'wily and cunning'; the dog is 'faithful and obedient'; the elephant is a 'gentle giant' and the snake is 'sneaky and deceitful'. Aesop probably started the trend, but I prefer to call it the 'Beatrix Potter Syndrome', in recognition of her influence on the developing minds of 20th-century children, of whom I was one.
Beatrix Potter was an accomplished illustrator and observer of nature, who, had she been born a century later, may well have had a distinguished career in science. Sadly, she is now only remembered for her children's books depicting animals in human clothing who walk on their hind legs. From her stories, a direct line can be drawn to the emotionally charged portrayals of animals in many Disney films, while the brutal reality of the lives of wild animals is hidden beneath a veil of sugary sentimentality.
Potter's assignation of human attributes and behaviour to animals is only one form of anthropomorphism. There are at least two other ways in which we routinely corrupt our understanding of the non-human world by our choice of language: the use of words to name or describe an animal and the description of animal behaviour in human terms.
We can draw examples from the world of bees to illustrate both of these phenomena.
When we label the egg-laying mother of the colony as 'queen' bee, we impose on her by implication all the meaning with which that English word is loaded. Thus we may expect to find her as a monarch in charge of the colony, issuing orders and, perhaps, punishments for infringements of 'colony law'. The term 'queen bee' has passed back into the English language as a description of a woman with a controlling and manipulate nature, who likes to have people around her to serve her needs and give her attention. This reinforces the popular but inappropriate picture of a real 'queen' bee, which should really be more accurately thought of as the egg-laying servant of the colony and certainly not its ruler. While the queen bee does indeed have a retinue of attendants to feed and groom her, it is they who lead her around and prepare places for her to lay. When she begins to show any signs of a decline in her ability to provide eggs, she will be superseded, ignored and left to starve.
Likewise the male bee, or drone, which has inherited the popular meaning of its name as a parasitic loafer, or one who lives off the labours of others. While the male bees do no obvious and visible work compared to their sometimes hyper-active sisters, we know remarkably little about their day-to-day activities due to the comparatively small amount of research that has been conducted on them. I suggest it is highly improbable that a colony would deliberately encumber itself with a 'useless' 10-15% of its population at a time when gathering food is its primary concern. Simply because we have so far failed to study them with due care does not entitle us to label them as 'surplus to requirements', which is how they are regarded by most conventional beekeepers. In fact, research by Juergen Tautz at Wurtzburg University has shown that drones may indeed have hitherto unsuspected duties within the hive and may well have functions in the outside world that have so far eluded detection. As long ago as 1852, Moses Quinby (Mysteries of Beekeeping Explained) suggested that drones would likely have functions beyond mating with a queen, perhaps including helping to keep the brood warm. R.O.B.Manley noted that his best honey-producing hives generally had "a large number of drones" (Honey Farming, 1947).
When we come to bee behaviour, so much of it is alien to us that we struggle to make sense of it, so it is not surprising that we resort to attempts to explain aspects of their world in human terms. We talk freely of bees foraging for food, scouting for a nest site, communicating by means of the 'waggle dance', defending their home, mating and carrying out their dead because these are all activities that we can easily relate to and make practical sense in terms of day-to-day survival in a colony.
What is perhaps more surprising - and infinitely less helpful - is when people concoct mystical 'explanations' derived entirely from their imaginations and pass them on as if they had some scientific validity or foundation in fact.
Myths and legends, populated by gods and heroes, are poetic allegories through which we have conveyed information - both oral and written - from generation to generation and thus gained some understanding of our cultural history. Many myths are anthropomorphic in their personification of natural phenomena, but as long as we understand their origins and true nature, we can learn from them without confusing their content with objective reality.
However, as our scientific understanding of the natural world grew rapidly throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was a parallel growth of popular interest in such things as clairvoyance, telekinesis, telepathy, reincarnation, ghosts, out-of-body experiences and suchlike para-psychological phenomena that appear not to be subject to the known laws of physics, chemistry or biology. Despite the lack of verifiable evidence for such phenomena, they appear to occupy a nether region that stubbornly persists in popular culture.
In the context of this article, the consideration of whether or not such phenomena really exist is less relevant than the fact that they have, since Victorian times at least, been routinely presented as if they were genuine by people with a considerably greater talent for showmanship than for scientific rigour. Demonstrations of 'manifestations from the spirit world' were fashionable in late nineteenth century society, while Ouija boards and 'table-tipping' have floated in and out of fashion almost to the present day, despite the efforts of rationalists such as James Randi and Derren Brown to expose the trickery behind them. Variations on the 'clairvoyance' theme have been around at least since the days of the Delphic Oracle - probably the first example of a tourist industry built around a mystical cult - and show no signs of losing popularity, despite various myth-busting public exposures of fraud and trickery.
Rudolf Steiner, in his lectures on bees, delivered in November and December of 1923 at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, sought to interpret the world of bees by means of 'Anthroposophy', a Christianized, version of the mystical 19th century eastern-derived 'religious philosophy' of Theosophy, whose best-known proponent, Helena Blavatsky, was also a performing clairvoyant. Both Steiner and Blavatsky claimed to derive their occult knowledge from outside the material world, by a process that would nowadays be called 'channeling'.
Steiner believed that mankind had existed on Earth - although not necessarily in material form - since its creation, and that bees (as well as other animals) were created for our benefit. This chronological reversal of the truth as revealed by fossil evidence - bees having certainly been around for more than 100 million years before Homo sapiens - sets the scene for further dubious assertions, such as when he talks of embryonic queens "giving off light" that somehow causes a colony to swarm from "fear that 'it no longer possesses the bee poison".
Anyone unfamiliar with Steiner's idiosyncratic cosmology and his other writings about the supposed history of the Earth may be surprised by passages such as:
"Our earth was once in a condition of which one could say that it was surrounded by clouds that had plant-life within them; from the periphery, other clouds approached and fertilised them; these clouds had an animal nature. From cosmic spaces came the animal nature; from the earth the essence of plant-being rose upwards." (Lecture VIII)
Back in the world of bees, Steiner makes much of the 21-day gestation period of a worker bee as being equivalent to "a single rotation of the sun on its axis" (Lecture II), apparently unaware that the equatorial regions of the sun perform a single rotation in 25.6 days, while polar regions rotate once in about 36 days (NASA).
He goes on to say that 'the drone is thus an earthly being' (because its completion takes longer than the sun's rotation - which in fact, as we now know, it does not).
He further elaborates on this thesis:
"The drones are the males; they can fertilize; this power of fertilization comes from the earth; the drones acquire it in the few days during which they continue their growth within the earth-evolution and before they reach maturity. So we can now say: in the bees it is clearly to be seen that fertilization (male fecundation) comes from the earthly forces, and the female capacity to develop the egg comes from the forces of the Sun. So you see, you can easily imagine how significant is the length of time during which a creature develops. This is very important for, naturally, something happens within a definite time which could not occur in either a shorter or a longer time, for then quite other things would happen."
As happens numerous times in the Lectures, Steiner makes a statement that is demonstrably erroneous, and then goes on to elaborate a sequence of specious arguments from it, which, being derived from false premises, must inevitably lead to false conclusions.
It would be tedious to cite every instance where Steiner is obfuscatory, unnecessarily mystical or just plain wrong. Suffice to say that, while not being totally devoid of interest, his Lectures are about as useful a source of insights into bees as a medieval book of medicinal herbs would be for conducting modern surgery. Indeed, Steiner even betrays his lack of basic understanding of the functions of the human body (Lecture VII) in saying that:
"...it is represented as though the heart were a kind of pump, and that this pumping of the heart sends the blood all over the body. This is nonsense, because it is in reality the blood which is brought into motion by the ego-organization, and moves throughout the body."
However, Steiner does make some non-mystical statements that must be considered, as they at least fall into alignment with observable reality. He warns against pushing bees for over-production, drawing a parallel with the dairy industry (Lecture V); he emphasizes that "... the bee-colony is a totality. It must be seen as a totality." (Lecture V); The one much-vaunted but often mis-quoted, 'prediction' made by Steiner, usually misrepresented as a 'prophesy' of the general demise of bees, amounts to a rather mild criticism of the then relatively new practice of artificial insemination: "...we must see how things will be in fifty to eighty years time...".
Right at the end of the final Lecture, we find clear evidence that Steiner's view of nature is actually highly anthropocentric:
'Thus we can say: When we observe things in the right way, we see how the processes of Nature are actually images and symbols of what happens in human life. These men of olden times watched the birds on the juniper trees with the same love with which we look at the little cakes and gifts on the Christmas tree. "...I have therefore spoken of the juniper tree which can truly be regarded as a kind of Christmas tree, and which is the same for the birds as the blossoms for the bees, the wood for the ants, and for the wood-bees and insects in general."
And so Steiner's personal mysticism, as well as his sentimentality, turns out to have a large component of anthropomorphism lurking within it.
Having reached this point in our analysis, we have to consider what is left to us: what would be a legitimate methodology for the study of bees, that would be free from the elephant traps of anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism, sentimentality and mysticism, yet can encompass the sense experienced by many who come into contact with bees that there is 'something else' present, beyond the purely material?
A rationalist would say, 'observe without interpretation: see what is there and describe it as accurately as possible, but without overlaying it with meaning. Be true to observable reality'.
And yet, many people report some kind of transcendental experience in the presence of bees en masse, so are their reports to be written off as mere whimsy?
Speaking from my own experience, I can say that while working with bees and maintaining a calm, unhurried demeanour, I have had moments of inner peace akin to that I have also experienced while meditating or engaging in certain martial arts practices that aim to 'still the mind'. Having one's unprotected hands in a hive containing 50,000 fully-armed bees has a way of focusing the mind very much in the moment, while any deviation from the 'now' is likely to be punished more rapidly and more severely than by a Zen master's staff.
Being present 'in the moment' is a rarer - and thus more precious - experience for the 21st-century Twitter-dweller than for our ancestors. For the opportunity to experience that sense of timelessness in the company of a wild creature so many millennia our senior is a privilege that beekeepers should celebrate and cherish.
Mysticism has had its day. We are grown-ups now: we have seen the atom bomb and the double helix and we need to come to terms with objective reality in all its wonderful forms without ascribing all phenomena just beyond our understanding to the work of gods, aliens, faeries or gnomes. We can appreciate nature without projecting our aspirations or values onto it. We can observe without always needing to know the 'hidden meaning' of what we see hear, smell and taste. We can be elevated by what is around us and enjoy all the sensations available in this remarkable, natural world. We can even compose poems and songs, myths and fables to entertain us and our children, but we no longer need to sit at the feet of all-too-mortal men who exert power over the ignorant by interposing themselves between us and authentic experience of the mysteries of life.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6814638
News just in provides compelling evidence that Bayer's neonicotinoid pesticides are a significant cause of bee deaths in Britain and elsewhere, supporting the case that we have been making for years.
The British Bee Keepers Association must now climb down from the fence and clearly state their opposition to the use of these deadly chemicals on agricultural land, or face even more derision and condemnation from beekeepers and other associations both in the UK and abroad.
A key study, published in a respected scientific journal, demonstrates that neonicotinoids are routinely found in lethal doses in samples of dead bees, in seed planter exhaust, in fields where seeds had been planted and in dandelion flowers growing nearby. This shows clear pathways by which bees are being poisoned and removes any last shred of an excuse for the BBKA to continue to toe the pesticide industry line that these substances are 'safe if used correctly'.
If you keep bees within flying distance of agricultural land where maize, oilseed-rape (Canola) or other crops are grown using clothianidin-coated seed, YOUR BEES ARE IN DANGER. Likewise, all other pollinating insects - including endangered bumblebees - that live on or near that land will be poisoned, as will the birds and reptiles that feed on them. There is also growing evidence of possible long-term effects on human health.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Read the paper here - http://tinyurl.com/776y97v
PLEASE write to the BBKA and ask them to put their weight behind efforts to ban these deadly toxins from our countryside, while we still have some bees left.
Send an email to bbka@britishbeekeepers.com asking the BBKA to STOP supporting the pesticide industry and to work to have neonicotinoids banned in the UK. (More BBKA email addresses below)
If you are a BBKA member, pass this email around your local association - the more people who understand what is going on, the better. Make sure this issue is discussed and a resolution is passed to BBKA HQ.
If you are a gardener, look out for neonicotinoids in household sprays and compost: the common ones are Imidacloprid, Clothianidin, Thiamethoxam and Fipronil (also found in pet flea treatments). Return all such sprays to the shop and tell the manager why you will not buy them. Make sure your local gardening club / allotment association are aware of the dangers.
Gardeners may also be interested to know that Glyphosate (Roundup) has recently been shown to be much more toxic that Monsanto would like you to believe. In this report, Don Huber, Emeritus Professor at Purdue University and senior scientist on USDA’s National Plant Disease Recovery System, links glyphosate to reduced nutrient availability in plants, increasing plant diseases, the emergence of a new pathogen, animal illness and possible effects on human health.
See http://www.i-sis.org.uk/USDA_scientist_reveals_all.php
EXTRACT FROM THE PURDUE PESTICIDE RESEARCH PAPER
"Our results demonstrate that bees are exposed to these compounds and several other agricultural pesticides in several ways throughout the foraging period. During spring, extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We also found neonicotinoids in the soil of each field we sampled, including unplanted fields. Plants visited by foraging bees (dandelions) growing near these fields were found to contain neonicotinoids as well. This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by the root system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during the spring sampling period were found to contain clothianidin as well, although whether exposure was oral (consuming pollen) or by contact (soil/planter dust) is unclear. We also detected the insecticide clothianidin in pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive."
"These findings clarify some of the mechanisms by which honey bees may be exposed to agricultural pesticides throughout the growing season. These results have implications for a wide range of large-scale annual cropping systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments."
BBKA EMAIL ADDRESSES
PRESIDENT - Martin Smith - martin.smith@bbka.org.uk
CHAIRMAN - Brian Ripley - brian.ripley@bbka.org.uk
VICE CHAIRMAN - Dr David Aston - david.aston@bbka.org.uk
TREASURER - Michael Sheasby - michael.sheasby@bbka.org.uk
BBKA News and Year Book Editor – Sharon Blake m-s.blake@overstratton.fsnet.co.uk
Examinations Board Secretary – Val Francis valfrancis@blueyonder.co.uk
Public Affairs Director – Tim Lovett tjl@dermapharm.co.uk
TRUSTEES
Dr David Bancalari - david.bancalari@bbka.org.uk
Doug Brown - doug.brown@bbka.org.uk
Chris Deaves - chris.deaves@bbka.org.uk
Brian Dennis - brian.dennis@bbka.org.uk
Dawn Girling - dawn.girling@bbka.org.uk
John Hendrie - john.hendrie@bbka.org.uk
Roger Patterson - roger.patterson@bbka.org.uk
Julian Routh - julian.routh@bbka.org.uk
Michael Young - michael.young@bbka.org.uk
Let's make 2012 the year that British bee keepers take positive action to clean up our countryside - for the sake of the bees.
Best wishes
Phil Chandler I was looking around the Salago shop in Totnes a couple of days ago and discovered that they were selling real bugs - including spiders, scorpions, beetles, butterflies and crabs - embedded in plastic as keyrings and other trinkets.
The only marking on the packaging was a web site - http://egcuk.com - which indicates that the bugs are farmed (and possibly also gathered from the wild) in China (although an address in Guatemala is also mentioned). This seems to me to be another sad example of the trivialization of life, which I feel must be confronted. Farming insects for food is one thing - not that you will catch me having a cicada sandwich - but keyrings?
If you see this kind of thing on sale anywhere, please talk to the manager and let's get it stopped. A polite approach is probably the best - put your point of view and allow them to respond. If a number of people do this over a few days, I think they will get the message!
Termites are not so different to bees in many ways: both are social insects that live in large colonies and have several castes. Both use grooming as a first-line defence against potentially damaging diseases.
Bayer sells a pestide called Premise that kills termites, which they market on the strength of its ability to interfere with the termites' grooming process. The active ingredient is Imidacloprid, and yet they claim never to have tested it on bees to see if it has a similar effect. Some would say that this a a significant oversight, while others might suggest that it is evidence of Bayer's usual habit of being 'economical with the truth'.
Whatever we think about this, there is no statutory requirement for Bayer to conduct such research.
You can read Bayer's Premise leaflet here http://www.elitepest.com.sg/brochure/Premise_200SC.pdf
See http://tinyurl.com/6a7wa9z for an article about this issue in the Independent newspaper.
Amanda Williams worked in the pharmaceutical industry for a number of years, and now campaigns on behalf of bees, giving talks in schools and running an informative web site www.buzzaboutbees.net
Also in this edition, we launch Bee-Friendly Zones - see www.beefriendlyzone.com
I came away from the conference with several hours of audio recordings and after many more hours of editing, the result is a sort of impressionistic sound picture, which I hope you find interesting.
Some of the background music was provided by Homebrewed - http://www.myspace.com/homebrood_the_band/music - with Dan on the fiddle. There are also excerpts from Lara Conley's Bee Song - hear more of her music at http://www.myspace.com/laraconleymusic - with the full version to conclude the recording.
David Heaf is well known as the translator - together with his wife, Patricia - of the Abbé Warré's book about 'The People's Hive' into English. He gave the keynote speech at the First UK Natural Beekeeping Conference, which was warmly received and which generated much friendly discussion.
David's new book, 'The Bee-Friendly Beekeeper' is available form Amazon and other outlets.
The music on this podcast is 'The Bee Song' by Lara Conley.
Italian beekeepers Renato Bologna and Marisa Valente have vowed to 'eat like bees' in protest against the use of neonicotinoids. They say that they now have scientific proof that pesticides are killing their bees, and they want the Italian govenment to take action to ban neonicotinoids on all crops. At present, their use is only banned on maize.
I spoke to Renato, whose English is a lot better than my Italian, and you can hear the result in today's podcast.
PLEASE SUPPORT Renato and Marisa by going to their web site and signing their petition - http://www.rfb.it/bastaveleni/adesioni.htm
The front page of their site is here - http://www.rfb.it/bastaveleni If you do not speak Italian, I suggest using Google Chrome to view it and click the 'translate' button at the top.
Lara Conley has written a song that I think you will enjoy - and you can hear it for the first time here on the Barefoot Beekeeper Podcast.
Lara has a web site on MySpace - - see www.myspace.com/laraconleymusic - and I hope you will listen to and buy some of her music. I think you will agree that with a song-writing talent and a voice like hers, she deserves a wider audience.
You can also see Lara on YouTube here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AvA1k4obO0
This podcast is based on a recording I made at Welcombe, North Devon earlier in July 2011 with a group of people on an 'Intermediate' level natural beekeeping course. We discussed the various ways to set up a top bar hive, including different entrance arrangements, top bar widths and the options for swarm management.
There has been a good deal of controversy over the plans by the Co-Op to import up to 600 colonies of bees from New Zealand. I have myself been critical of introducing 'foreign' bees in such numbers, but I wanted to get the facts on the story, so I arranged with the Co-Op to interview Murray McGregor, the man in charge of the import.
This podcast will give you an opportunity to listen to what Murray has to say and to make up your own mind as to the rights and wrongs of the issue.
A reminder that if you have a question for me, or a subject you would like me to talk about, please send an email to phil@biobees.com.
The voicemail number is no longer operational, as nobody was using it and it was costing me money. If you really want to be able to talk to me, please make contact on Skype, where my username is beesontoast.
I do get a lot of emails and I simply don't have time to answer detailed questions, so if you have a beekeeping question, please remember the natural beekeeping forum at naturalbeekeeping.org, where you will find over 5,000 people willing to help you, some of whom may be in your area.
Recorded at the Sheepdrove Farm Conference Centre, June 29th 2011.
This event was organized by Samantha Roddick, and you will hear her after Peter Kindersley's introduction. Sam's talk is followed by mine, and this session finishes with Peter Melchett of the Soil Association.
I will upload more audio from this event in later podcasts.
The first UK Natural Beekeeping Conference will be held near Worcester in August, and we have decided to offer reduced rate tickets for students ad some day tickets for the Saturday. Please download a newe booking form from www.naturalbeekeepingalliance.com for details.
I have been working on a distance learning course for natural beekeeping, which will be offered by MyGardenSchool starting later this month. Details here - http://www.my-garden-school.com/course/introduction-to-natural-beekeeping/
We had another successful weekend event at Embercombe (see www.embercombe.co.uk) recently and you can hear some feedback from students - including a mystery TV presenter!
This episode closes with a recording I made recently of bees at the entrance to one of my hives. I hope you enjoy the mix of bee sounds and birdsong.
If you wish to be a part of this podcast, you can leave me a voicemail on +44 (0)203 239 1643 or email me - phil@biobees.com This interview was recorded in December 2010. 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 - phil@biobees.com - 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 phil@biobees.com, 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
This episode will be of particular interest to British beekeepers - especially those who are - or have been - or may one day be members of the British Bee Keepers Association - the BBKA.
Wherever you are, I think you will find something of interest, though, as I will be interviewing a man who has looked very carefully at the whole issue of pesticides and their potential impact on bees, with particular reference to the BBKA's decade-long policy of taking money from the pesticide industry in return for the use of the BBKA logo on certain products, and the endorsement of such products as being somehow 'bee-friendly'.
Many people - when told that a bee keepers association endorses insecticides at all - are shocked and surprised, as was Dr Bernie Doeser, who has recently produced an independent report that is highly critical of the way the BBKA have managed - or failed to manage - their policy.
Bernie Doeser's report reveals barely believable levels of negligence and incompetence in this whole episode, starting with the fact that the BBKA actually endorsed some of the pesticides that - far from being bee-friendly - are actually among the top five most lethal pesticides in their class.
I had to record the interview with Bernie Doeser in the rather echo-y cafe of the Tate gallery in the seaside town of St Ives in Cornwall, and although we managed to arrange coats and hats to absorb much of the background noise, you can still tell that it is a cafe.
And for those of you outside the UK, Cornwall is in the bottom left hand corner of England, and England is part of that little island off the coast of Europe called Great Britain, the United Kingdom or just the UK.
Bernie Doeser's report can be downloaded from here - http://tinyurl.com/bbkapesticides
The BBKA's announcement is here - http://www.britishbee.org.uk/news/statements/bbka-strategic-review-the-plant-protection-industr.shtml
Why has the BBKA failed to support other European bee keeping organizations and oppose the use of neonicotinoids? Is it because they are the only ones in the pay of Bayer?
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/1736.html
You will hear very little from me today, and quite a lot from some people who have spent a great deal of time looking very carefully at the issue of genetically engineered farm crops.
I recorded these short interviews and a panel discussion at a conference I attended recently, where some well-informed speakers talked about their work and their conclusions about the potential dangers of growing GM crops in the UK and elsewhere.
Whether or not you have paid attention to the GM food and crops story since their introduction about 15 years ago, I urge you to find time to listen to these speakers - these are serious people and very far from being a bunch of wild-eyed hippies - which is how the press love to characterize people who speak out on this subject.
What does this have to do with beekeeping? Well, everything. GM pollen has been implicated in several studies of the 'colony collapse' phenomenon, and many GM plants have insecticides built into them, rendering them deliberately toxic to bees and all other insects.
First, you will hear from Michael Hart, a British farmer and carpenter, who has travelled to the USA recently to talk to American farmers who have been growing GM crops and who have found that they are not all that Monsanto promised them to be. He has made a film of his journey, which will be available soon and I will provide a link to it in due course.
Other speakers will introduce themselves. After that, you will hear part of the panel discussion that concluded the conference, followed by a short piece from Lawrence Woodward, which was taken from the panel discussion, as I did not get the chance to interview him personally.
If you are not up to speed with GM issues, I recommend you watch this short video featuring Vandana Shiva talking about the future of food - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi1FTCzDSck
If you value what I do and you can afford it, I would be very grateful if you would 'buy me a coffee' to help me provide you with more free stuff next year. There will be more podcasts, more videos and more DIY plans, for starters.
As a 'thank you' I will send you a free copy of 'The Barefoot Beekeeper's Guide to Swarming and Swarm Management' (usually US$4.99).
And just a reminder that you can call and leave a message on my voicemail, if you have a question or comment for me to use in this podcast. The number is 0203 239 1643 if you are in the UK, or - +44 203 239 1643 if you are outside the UK. You can also use my Skype name to leave me a message, which is 'beesontoast'. That's bees - not beans. You will have noticed that there is a lot of free stuff on my web site at www.biobees.com - including these podcasts.
I do this because I want to make information about natural beekeeping available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay. Some things - like my book - I do charge for, simply because I have to eat too, but I do send out some free copies to people who are unable to pay.
Very soon, I will need to upgrade my aging PC, do some urgent repairs on my elderly car and buy more timber for next year's trials of new (even simpler!) hives. As you probably know, I make no income directly from beekeeping - only from book sales, speaking and teaching.
So if - and only if - you value what I do and you can afford it, I would be very grateful if you would 'buy me a coffee' to help me provide you with more free stuff next year. There will be more podcasts, more videos and more DIY plans, for starters.
As a 'thank you' I will send you a free copy of 'The Barefoot Beekeeper's Guide to Swarming and Swarm Management' (usually US$4.99).
Thanks for your help - and thanks for listening!
NEXT This is another outside podcast, directly from one of my apiaries, to the accompaniment of bees, birds and nearby horses.
I talk about my recent visits to Neil and Carol Klein's North Devon, where I installed a top bar hive earlier this year, and to London, where I gave a talk and met some interesting people at The Hub, Kings Cross.
I have used grease patties containing tea tree oil for the first time, and I talk about the pros and cons of treating for Varroa mites. You can find the recipe for grease patties here - http://www.honeybeesuite.com/?p=1841
Robbing has been a problem recently, and it is especially galling when the robbers are coming from someone else's apiary. I discuss a couple of deterrent tactics.
Please leave me comments on iTunes and do post reviews with lots of stars if you like my efforts!
Questions and ideas for future podcasts - please use the voicemail number: 020 32 39 16 43 (UK) or +4420 3239 1643 elsewhere.
I get asked a lot about when, how and with what to feed bees, so here are some of the answers. It is a big subject, of course, and one that I may well have to deal with in more detail one day, but this is a start!
In this episode, I also apologize for messing up on the voicemails. I failed to record them onto my hard drive before Skype wiped the messages, so PLEASE try again!
Leave your messages/questions/comments on: 020 32 39 16 43 (UK) or +4420 3239 1643 elsewhere.
Christy Hemenway talks about how she started in beekeeping, how she met the White House beekeeper, and how an Irish penny caused her to cross the Atlantic.
Christy is a great ambassador for bees and top bar beekeeping. Look out for her beekeeping courses if you are anywhere near Maine and wherever you are, check out her web site at http://www.goldstarhoneybees.com
It is natural for beginners to ask questions - I encourage it and this is why we have a thriving Natural Beekeeping Forum with over 3,500 members around the world. Often, when I give a talk, I spend as much time answering questions as I do speaking, and that is how I like it - it's always more interesting to be responding to genuine interest in people than to be just talking at them. And when I don't know the answer, I say so.
As we accumulate experience, I think one of the most common things I hear is not so much that all our questions are answered, but that we find ourselves asking more and more of them - not necessarily of others, but of ourselves. Questions like, 'why do I do it this way?' and 'is there a better way to do this?' and, best of all, 'what would happen if I did this?'.
For me, it is vital that I go on questioning everything I do with bees, to make sure I don't get stuck in doing things only one way 'just because that's the way it's done'. Whenever I see someone doing something mechanically, I am likely to ask them why they do it, and if they can't come up with a better answer than 'because that is the way I have always done it', then I'm liable to ask a lot more questions! And that's what I like to do to myself.
And this is why I like the way we can discuss new ideas on the forum, and why we generally don't go in for 'laying down the law' of 'natural beekeeping'. We are a broad church, and we welcome people with no experience (even those who ask 'what does a honeybee look like?') as well as those who have been looking after bees for decades. By and large, we like to encourage the attitude of 'have you tried this' rather than 'you need to do it this way'.
Every month or so I receive an (un-asked for) email from a woman who claims some sort of hot-line to the mind of Rudolf Steiner, and on this basis makes largely unintelligible pronouncements about the way we should be keeping bees. She has convinced herself that 'there is only one way'.
As a lifelong dissenter from all things religious, I have an abiding dislike of dogma. I can see the damage that has been done in the world by the blind following of rules, and the last thing I want is to be making more rules. So I encourage everyone participating in the great experiment of 'natural beekeeping' to ask more questions, use your senses to seek answers from the bees themselves, and don't get bogged down in the pronouncements of people with axes to grind or 'gurus' to follow.
Think for yourself. Ask questions of yourself and other people. Take nothing for granted. Are honeybees native to Britain? And do they compete with other native bees? That's one of the questions I will be dealing with in this espsode, along with announcing a new voicelmail number for you to leave messages and questions on for the podcast - +44 203 239 1643
I also announce the new 'app' that will run alongside this podcast, making it easy for owners of iPhones, iPods and iPads to get episodes and some extra content not available elsewhere, in return for a small subscription that will go towards helping to make it possible for me to produce these podcasts on a regular basis. It can take up to a full day to record, edit and process one of these episodes, so I hope you will support me in doing this if you have the appropriate technology.
A large chunk of this episode consists of feedback from people who attended my last weekend event at Welcombe in North Devon, organized by the Yarner Trust. They talk about their experiences and what they learned, as well as giving some suggestions for further enhancing the experience.
Cross-combing is probably the most-reported issue with top bar hives, and it can be tricky to resolve. In this podcast, I talk about how you can most effectively prevent cross-combing, and what you can do about it if it happens despite your best endeavours. I also describe a method of dealing with really serious cross-combing, that is similar to my method for transferring bees from a framed hive to a top bar hive by making use of their natural tendency to build comb downwards.
You will also hear some feedback from participants in a recent Natural Beekeeping event at Embercombe.
One of the first problems encountered by beginners to top bar beekeeping is how to get some bees into those boxes. This podcast will help you with some ideas and techniques that can be applied to most of the circumstances you are likely to find yourself in.
A detailed article on this subject with the title 'The Barefoot Beekeeper's Guide to Starting a Top Bar Hive' will be available soon from www.offthebookshelf.com
Following the last podcast about swarming, a number of people asked me to write this subject up, so you will find a downloadable file that is now available called 'The Barefoot Beekeeper's Guide to Swarming and Swarm Management' on my web site at biobees.com.
This edition is rather different to anything you have heard before - mainly because I will not be doing much of the talking. Instead, I would like to introduce you to a remarkable woman who I met for the first time just a couple of days ago at a meeting of the Southern Counties Joint Consultative Council of the British Bee Keepers Association, where we had both been invited to speak about our use of top bar hives.
Those of you who know my history with the BBKA will understand that I went to this event expecting - how shall we say - a certain amount of resistance. There were no fewer that five BBKA ex-presidents in the room, together with a number of very experienced beekeepers who represented their membership right across the south of England, particularly the south west.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the willingness of the committee members to listen to what must have sounded to some of them to be rather radical ideas, and we had a very constructive and productive meeting.
Two - actually three - things of particular note came out of the meeting: first, it was confirmed that the BBKA does indeed plan to phase out its policy of endorsing pesticides as current contracts expire. I know many people will be pleased to hear that.
Secondly - and at least as exciting - two people present at that meeting, who between them pretty much control beekeeper education in the UK, agreed that it was time to include top bar hives in the BBKA training programme and have promised to do something about it - a major step in the right direction, I think you will agree.
The third good thing to come out of the meeting was that I had the opportunity to meet a remarkable woman called Adebisi Aderkunle, who gave an insightful and fascinating presentation about top bar beekeeping in Nigeria and about the Slow Food movement. Bisi reached beyond the points of disagreement there would inevitably have been around the table had I been the first to speak, and offered a thoughtful and disarming summary of her practices and her approach to natural beekeeping.
Bisi's presentation is the subject of this podcast, and I think you will enjoy it. Swarming is is an expansive, optimistic act, by which honeybees reproduce their colonies. When they feel prosperous, and the weather is set fair, and plentiful food is coming in, that is when the colony divides and half of it moves away to a new location. The laying queen, the mother of the colony - takes off with about half of the mature, flying bees, and they go off in search of a new home, usually a mile or two away from their current location, leaving behind them some special cells containing new queens, one of which will become the new mother of the old colony. Swarming is driven by the all-powerful urge to reproduce, present in all species. Swarming is the honeybees' most important survival strategy, and without it, I doubt they would have survived for the last 50 million years. It has enabled them to move quickly to avoid local disasters and climate change, and to cover promising, new territory quickly and efficiently. You can really feel the bees' excitement building up as swarming day approaches - and when they leave the hive, they stream out and whirl around in a cloud, like a bee tornado, and in a few minutes, settle on a nearby branch, gathered around their queen to protect her. Often, in an apiary with a number of hives, when one swarm emerges, another will come out from a nearby hive very soon after the first - as if the excitement has spread from one hive to the next. Swarming is far from being a spontaneous event, however. Preparations begin several weeks before it actually takes place, and there are several indicators to look out for that will tell you whether and approximately when your bees are going to swarm. One of the most important things we are doing on the forum is putting people in touch with others in their local area. We really want to develop a support network for beekeepers who want to work in a more natural and sustainable way with bees, and this depends on people being willing to get together in twos, threes or more to share experiences and to learn from each other. You don't need to have a formal membership structure and there doesn't need to be any money involved - just meet up and chat and show each other your bees and your hives and how you do things. If you get a lot of people involved, then you can start thinking about renting a meeting place and inviting speakers if you choose to, or split into special interest groups, and then all meet up together from time to time to compare notes.
Bees are in trouble, and it is mostly because of us. We have destroyed much of their natural habitat, we have poisoned their food and in the case of honeybees, we have used and abused them for our own purposes while not giving enough attention to their needs and welfare.
Honeybees have been evolving for a very long time – the fossil record goes back at least
100 million years – and they became remarkably successful due to their adaptability to
different climates, varied flora and their tolerance of many shapes and sizes of living
accommodation. They became attractive to humans because of their unique ability to
produce useful things, apparently out of thin air: honey, wax and propolis.
Until the nineteenth century, they were kept in pots, skeps, baskets and a variety of
wooden boxes intended more-or-less to imitate their natural habitat of choice, the
hollow tree. With the invention of the 'movable frame' hive, the second half of that
century saw an exponential growth in commercial-scale beekeeping, and by the time
motor vehicles became widely available, beekeeping on a widespread and industrial
scale became a practical possibility.
Since then, bees have been treated in rather the same way as battery hens: routinely
dosed with antibiotics and miticides in an effort to keep them producing, despite the
growing problems of diseases and parasites and insecticide-treated plants that have led
to the emergence of so-called 'Colony Collapse Disorder', especially in the massive bee-
farming operations in the USA.
It doesn't have to be like this. Some beekeepers have realized that, if bees are to
become healthy enough to develop resistance to disease and the ability to adapt to
pests, then they have to be treated differently – and not just by beekeepers.
Here are some things you can do to help the bees:
1. Stop using insecticides - especially for 'cosmetic' gardening.
There are better ways of dealing with pests - especially biological controls. Modern
pesticides are extremely powerful and many are long-lasting and very toxic to bees and
other insects. Removing all unnecessary pesticides from the environment is probably
the single most important thing we can do to help save the bees.
2. Avoid seeds coated with systemic insecticides.
Beware - many farm seeds are now coated with Clothianidin and related systemic
insecticides, which cause the entire plant to become toxic to bees and all other insects
that may feed on it. The same coatings may soon appear on garden seeds. Check your
seed packets carefully - and if in doubt, ask the manufacturer for full information.
3. Read the labels on garden compost - beware hidden killers!
Some garden and potting composts are on sale that contain Imidacloprid - a deadly
insecticide manufactured by Bayer. It is often disguised as 'vine weevil protection' or
similar, but it is highly toxic to all insects and all soil life, including beneficial earthworms. The insecticide is taken up by plants, and if you use this compost in
hanging baskets, bees seeking water from the moist compost may be killed.
4. Create natural habitat.
If you have space in your garden, let some of it go wild to create a safe haven for bees
and other insects and small mammals. Gardens that are too tidy are not so wildlife-
friendly.
5. Plant bee-friendly flowers.
You can buy wildflower seeds from many seed merchants, and they can be sown in any
spare patch of ground - even on waste ground that is not being cultivated. Some 'guerilla
gardeners' even plant them in public parks and waste ground.
6. Provide a site for beehives.
If you have some space to spare, you could offer a corner of your garden to a local
beekeeper as a place to keep a hive or two. They will need to have regular access, so
bear this in mind when considering a site.
7. Make a wild bee house.
Providing a simple box as a place for feral bees to set up home is one step short of
taking up beekeeping, but may appeal to those who want to have bees around but don't
want to get involved with looking after them. Ideas for such boxes will be available at
www.friendsofthebees.org
8. Support your local beekeepers.
Many people believe that local honey can help to reduce the effects of hayfever and
similar allergies, which is one good reason to buy honey from a local beekeeper rather
than from supermarkets, most of which source honey from thousands of miles away. If
you can, find a beekeeper who does not use any chemicals in their hives and ask for pure
comb honey for a real treat.
9. Learn about bees - and tell others.
Bees are fascinating creatures that relatively few people take the trouble to understand.
Read a good book about bees and beekeeping, and who knows - you might decide to -
10. Become a beekeeper.
It is easier than you might imagine to become a beekeeper - and you don't need any of
the expensive equipment in the glossy catalogues! Everything you need to keep bees
successfully can be made by anyone with a few simple tools: if you can put up a shelf,
you can probably build a beehive! For details, see http://www.biobees.com
A provocative podcast this time - looking at some of the ways that stupid, greedy and irresponsible beekeepers may be damaging our bees and risking importing exotic pests and diseases that will make things even more difficult for our indigenous bees.
If you are new to beekeeping and are about to buy a 'nuc' to get you started, you need to listen to this episode.
As winter fades, our bees must rely on whatever is left of their stores before the first nectar flow begins. If the winter has been long and hard, as this one has been in many places, we may need to top up their stores, but we don't necessarily want to stimulate the queen to start laying in earnest just yet. The answer is to feed fondant - a semi-solid mix of sugar and water - that can be fed at any time of year, but is particularly useful now, as the bees will use it but it will not start the queen laying in earnest.
Here is a quick and easy way to feed fondant in top bar hives, with minimal disturbance to the bees. Continuing the theme of 'natural beekeeping for beginners', this time I take a look at the various types of hive you can choose from, including the pros and cons of each. Also some thoughts about so-called 'stimulative feeding', and some words about women!
This podcast series is intended as an introduction to 'natural bee-keeping' for people who want to keep bees mainly for their own sake, rather than for maximum honey production.
If you have no idea who I am or what I am talking about, you will find more information on my web site at www.biobees.com and on the Natural Beekeeping Forum at www.naturalbeekeeping.org. You can download for free my Introduction to Natural Beekeeping in a number of different formats.
If you have questions that you would like me to address in future podcasts, please leave messages here (and please tell me what you thought of this one), or on my FaceBook page - search for BarefootBeekeeper - and follow me on Twitter, where I am BarefootBee.
Happy beekeeping!
Phil Chandler
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