“What do we look at to get our answers from? As much of a history of science has, the bees themselves have a much much longer timeline to teach us from. How have the bees survived the way that they have?

One important lesson we can learn from our bees is the significance of swarming. Swarming is a natural process for bees to propagate and find new homes. It’s a sign of a healthy, strong colony.

One thing that we that we forget about is the bees swarm,  and how important that is for the health of the colony. And the biggest thing that does rate up front is to give that colony a big aggressive brood break. Bees swarm a lot and that goes a long way I think to helping them stay healthy.  

Another essential aspect of natural beekeeping is providing bees with access to natural nutrition. Bees thrive on a diverse diet of nectar and pollen from a variety of flowers. It’s vital to maintain a habitat that supports their nutritional needs.

They seek out nature’s nutrition. I wanted to use the term nature’s nutrition there because every few years there’s there’s a new kind of supplement or substitute on the market.

It’s been years since I’ve fed pollen patties and I rely on the bees to be bees. When managing beehives, timing is crucial, especially when it comes to splitting colonies. The decision to split should be based on the colony’s strength and readiness. A colony with a strong population and ample resources is more likely to succeed.

You can’t be doing early season splits and expecting those colonies to raise those queens and having strong vigorous queens raise out of weak splits it’s so important to let the bees tell you when to do things
If you just take your colony split everything in half re-clean them let them go and then put them back together when your main flow starts you’re gonna have a brood break you’re gonna have a brand new fresh queen and they’re gonna be chomping at the bit to bring in honey.

When we allow our bees to guide us, we create a harmonious balance between human intervention and nature’s wisdom. Natural beekeeping is about being in tune with your bees, respecting their instincts, and providing them with a nurturing environment.

There’s always a certain amount of how much meddling I want to do and it’s a balancing act.

If you can sit in that space of we are dumb the bees are smart then you’re always looking for the answer in the bees’ first.”