This week I am joined by Michael Bush, a beekeeper, speaker, and author of "The Practical Beekeeper, Beekeeping Naturally". This is a 2 part podcast episode where we discuss bees, comb design, natural beekeeping, studies, the experience Michael has in beekeeping, and the knowledge around how we as beekeepers can and should get off the chemical treatment "train".

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From BushFarms.com

Beekeeping House of Cards

So beekeepers, with the advice and assistance of the USDA and the universities, have built this precarious system of beekeeping that relies on chemicals, antibiotics, and pesticides to keep it going. And beekeepers keep breeding the resistant pests that can survive the treatments, contaminating the entire wax supply with poisons (and we make our foundation out of that contaminated wax so it is a closed system) and breeding queens that can't survive without all of this treatment.

What can we do to have a sustainable beekeeping system?

Stop treating

The only way to have a sustainable system of beekeeping is to stop treating. Treating is a death spiral that is now collapsing. To leverage this, you need to raise your queens from local surviving bees. Only then can you get bees who genetically can survive and parasites that are in tune with their host. As long as we treat we get weaker bees who can only survive if we treat, and stronger parasites who can only survive if they breed fast enough to keep up with our treatments. No stable relationship can develop until we stop treating.

The other problem, of course, is that if we just stop now with the system of beekeeping we have, the genetically and environmentally weakened bees will usually die. Even if they are genetically capable of surviving in a clean (uncontaminated) environment, we have to get to an environment they can survive in or they will still die. So what is that environment?

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Show Notes:

Hyperthermia Treatment Study1

Hyperthermia Treatment Study2

Hive Type Study1

Hive Type Study2

Bush Farms

Michael Bush's Books