Nebraska Beekeepers Association: Chemical Free Beekeeping Conference

Southeast Community College, Lincoln Nebraska

Friday November 21, Noon-5:00 pm Saturday November 22, 2008 - 8:00 am-5:00 pm Sunday November 23, 2008 - 8:00 am - Noon

Cost: $95 Meals included

The details are still being worked out, but you may want to reserve the dates. The Nebraska Beekeepers Association is having a conference on chemical free beekeeping. Current speakers confirmed are:

• Dee Lusby
• Randy Quinn
• Dean Stiglitz & Laurie (Ramona) Herboldsheimer
• Corwin Bell & Kelley Simmons
• Michael Bush

Subjects:

• Small cell beekeeping
• Experiences in natural cell beekeeping
• Bee breeding
• Top bar hives
• Natural cell size and Varroa
• Small cell management
• Pathogens or beneficial microbes?

Next Organic Beekeeping Conference Oracle, AZ February 27-March 1, 2009 (Friday through Sunday)

About the Previous Organic Beekeeping Conference Oracle, Arizona February 15-17, 2008

by Dean Stiglitz
and Laurie (Ramona) Herboldsheimer

We are on our way home from Arizona after attending the first Organic Beekeeping Conference. I feel honored to have been asked to speak to this gathering of 78 beekeepers from all over the nation, (Alaska to Florida) that all keep, or want to keep bees without using chemicals. The conference was born out of the Organic Beekeeping Discussion List, which is a Yahoogroup with 1800+ members, and a history (and archive) going back to Dec 25,2000.

Breeding bees for sustainability was covered by 2 speakers… Kerstin Ebbersten, a beekeeper and the top advisor on beekeeping to the Swedish government, whose PhD thesis topic was "Bee Genetics and Breeding for Sustainable Beekeeping" and Randy Quinn, who did much of the field work and actual breeding for the Starlight and Midnight hybrid lines of bees….an accomplished queen breeder and beekeeper by any measure. Both spoke of the damage that has been done to the gene pool of honeybees by our breeding and requeening practices. Kirsten and Randy advocate keeping a lineage within a colony….let the new queen be a daughter of the current queen, and allow her to open mate within her own environment.

Randy spoke soberly of the effect that selecting for a few traits and requeening colonies en-mass with these hybrids from closely mated lines has had on the diversity of the gene pool (both from the selection on the breeding end, and in the introduction of homogenous hybrid stock into apiaries). He promoted an old (and almost never talked about) practice of requeening by making a split to ward off swarming (making sure eggs, honey and brood are present within the split). Simply wait two months, and recombine the two colonies. In most cases, you will end up with a new queen (and in those that you don’t, you are likely better off with the old one).

Kirsten reminded us of what we all know…that no matter where our queens come from, there is an unbroken lineage going back millions of years from queen mother to queen mother. There is no way to maintain genetic diversity if we rear (and introduce) thousands of queens from one mother, especially if they are not open mated. A queen can “father” many brood via it’s drones, but only mother a small number of queens at a time. This is protection against inbreeding as it allows successful genes to spread widely, but not too densely, as in open mating the queen will mate with up to 30 or more drones among whom there is bound to be a diversity of genes.

In his deceptively simple style, Michael Bush gave a complete overview of both queen rearing and splits (in 2 separate presentations). His talks are like his writing, with more content, detail, and depth than one would think possible with such few words…his website and PowerPoint presentations are the gold standard for diverse and common sense beekeeping practices.

Corwin Bell and Kelly Simmons showed beautifully crafted top bar hives, and spoke in detail on the management and benefits of keeping bees in a top bar system…many of us left the presentation with the desire to try this style of beekeeping, which is especially well suited for use in more populated and urban areas.

My talk focused on what organic beekeeping is (no treatments “organic” or otherwise, natural sized comb, unlimited broodnest, open mating with survivor and feral stock, and leaving plenty of stores for the bees so that feeding is not necessary), how organic approaches relate to the rest of the industry, why “organic” is not a good term for what we do, why we should keep our organization loose (without bylaws, leadership, regulations, or certification), what the benefits are (to beekeepers, farmers, conservation land, the consumer, and the planet), education, economics, the future, and a little bit of everything else.

Although the organized talks were important, the best (and most productive) part of the conference was the self organized discussion groups that manifested spontaneously from within the larger mass of beekeepers…this was truly inspirational. At least 30 states were represented, and included “wannabeekeepers”, hobbyists, vendors, equipment manufacturers, sideliners, professional queenbreeders, and even active members of multigenerational migratory beekeeping families. It was clear that people were there to learn and to share, as the groups never formed around people with similar experience or experiences. One of the topics that came up again and again was our need to master the art of overwintering nucs in order to effectively raise local bees without relying so much on the package industry.

About twelve of us ended up spending a few days with Dee Lusby at her home, touring outyards, making foundation, learning more about her approach and operation…and talking bees almost 24/7 (even before the first cup of coffee)!

We all know that beekeepers are an opinionated lot, and not everyone agrees on everything…but the presence of the Lusby’s thriving desert bees in their locations since 1920 without chemical treatments, and kept alive by the management practices of “now being a poor old beekeepers wife” speaks to us in a way that recommendations and research from people who do not make their living keeping bees alive and productive fail to.

On behalf of the Organic Beekeeping discussion group, I presented a hive tool to Dee engraved with the following:

"Presented to Dee Lusby to mark the occasion of the first Organic Beekeeping Conference and in recognition of the essential contributions she and Ed have made to the beekeeping community and to the bees." --The Organic Beekeeping List

Dee and her late husband, Ed Lusby, performed pioneering research, both independently and under contract to the government, on natural systems of beekeeping and especially the role of cell size in honeybees. Dee’s writings are a must read for anyone looking to get away from chemical (or “organic”) treatments to keep their bees alive.

The next two conferences are already in the works. In October, there will be a meeting in Nebraska (organized by Michael Bush), dates, speakers, and details TBD, and again in Oracle, AZ February 27-March 1, 2009 (Friday through Sunday). The cost for the Oracle conference will be the same as for this year ($80 including food and lodging for all 3 days). Updated information on these events will be available on the Organic Beekeeping discussion group, on many of the websites listed below, as well as in Bee Culture and The American Bee Journal.

Recordings of the formal talks can be found at our website:
http://www.BeeUntoOthers.com/

Dee Lusby’s writings:
http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/

Michael Bush’s website
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

Michaels PowerPoint presentations:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshas.htm

Corwin Bell’s website:
http://www.backyardhive.com/

The Organic Beekeeping discussion group can be found at:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Organicbeekeepers/

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Copyright 2006 by Michael Bush

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