Why Active Beekeeping Matters
The question at the forefront of a lot of contemporary beekeeping is "should we just leave the bees alone?". It's a perfectly reasonable notion. Evolution happens through selection. Colonies that survive and thrive reproduce and pass on their traits; colonies that can't are lost. Because of this, some people believe we should just step aside and let the best, most robust genetic lines survive in our honey bee populations. As a beekeeper for 15 years now, I find myself somewhere in the middle. Nature has been a marvelous teacher. I also believe that thoughtful, observant beekeepers have a key role to play.I have developed, over the years, what I call an active hybrid approach, in which I use aspects of both natural and conventional beekeeping practices, keeping the well-being of the bees as my primary concern. I do not aim to manage every detail of a bee colony's life, I aim to understand it.There is a very distinct difference between leaving bees alone and managi...