How We Do It
The “how” of things is profoundly important to Honeybeeteacher LLC. From the very beginning of my 34 years of beekeeping and gardening, I have taken an organic approach to both. In my experience, there really is no difference between being a beekeeper and being a gardener/small scale farmer. When beekeeping, I am interacting with the land and with plants, and when gardening or farming, I am also interacting with the bees and other pollinators. The relationship between pollinators and flowering plants is sacred and profound. The one cannot exist without the other: they are interwoven into the sacred tapestry that makes life possible here on Planet Earth.
What is best for the health and well-being of the honeybees? That question is our primary moral, ethical, and spiritual compass in an increasingly confused, corrupt, and degraded world. The bees are amazingly intelligent and resilient creatures, but they are not bullet proof. We have a responsibility to help take care of them.
The Organic; Treatment-Free; Holistic; Biodynamic; and Restorative approach to beekeeping is based upon a certain set of moral, ethical, ecological, and spiritual values and practices. The Western honeybee is the “Fourth Sacred Sister,” and she has come to the Americas to join her three Indigenous half-Sisters: maize, squash, and beans. The honeybees have the same Mother as the other Three Sisters, but the Three Sisters and their European and Africanized Sisters all have different Fathers. One “Queen” Mother; three different “Drone” Fathers.
Organic/holistic/biodynamic beekeepers do their best to understand who the honeybees really are, and to respect their character. We attempt to work with the bees instead of against them. Therefore, I do not use standard industrial commercial beekeeping practices like plastic foundation, miticides, or fungicides. Why not? Because we have a responsibility to respect the bees.
