Honey without Harm

De: Joe Bleasdale

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Many who are concerned about ecology and the ethical treatment of animals argue that eating honey is harmful to bees and the environment. I believe there are valid reasons for their concerns in the way that most honey is produced. Here are some of the practices in worldwide use that I think exploit and harm bees:

• Feeding sugar or syrup to replace honey removed from the hive.
• Importing bees from distant locations or foreign countries.
• Keeping too many hives in an area that cannot sustain them and the local population of pollinating insects.
• Applying chemicals or medication in the hive.
• Moving hives long distances for pollination services to areas devoid of plant diversity because of herbicides and insecticides.

These and other beekeeping practices taught and followed in local and national beekeeping organisations are either inefficient or at worst harm the bees and the environment. In this book I examine them and explain why they are harmful and in many cases unnecessary. I believe most beekeepers don’t want to harm their bees, so I explain my alternative approach, which is to respect honeybees as wild creatures and be sympathetic to their instincts. If you follow the practices described in this book you will care for the bees and harvest their honey sustainably and without harm or exploitation.
This book incorporates my previous titles: “Keep Bees without Fuss or Chemicals” and the best seller, “Care of Bees in Warré and Top Bar Hives", available from Northern Bee Books and Amazon and includes my further experiences in beekeeping since their publication. It describes in detail the care of bees in all hive models: conventional frame hives, the Warré hive, the Horizontal Top Bar and Long hives.