Beekeeping Through the Eyes of a Biologist
I’ve visited beekeepers in many countries, and realize that there are as many ways to keep bees as there are beekeepers. The bees don’t care whether you are a commercial or hobby beekeeper, nor whether your personal preference is Langstroth, Warre, top-bar, small cell, foundationless, “natural” or conventional beekeeping–the same biology applies to all. My goal is to provide any and all beekeepers with a resource of readable and straightforward information on how to practice good bee husbandry, and to exercise environmental and community responsibility.
What I find exciting is that the ag community is starting to realize that the pollinators are an important component of the high-value portion of the agricultural landscape.
Practical application: pollinators encompass a small group of species upon which some of our most favored foods depend—this gives them an economic value, charmingly termed “ecosystem services.” It has not gone unnoticed by activists and fundraisers that this newly-recognized economic value allows us to use the plight of pollinators to gain traction to force the ag industry to start paying more attention to the health of pollinators and the biosphere in general.
Who Is The Real Enemy?
The short answer was well put by Pogo creator Walt Kelly: We have met the enemy and he is us (Fig. 4).
Stay tune for more articles with solutions to share to "bee happy".