June 2024

Nature-based beekeeping is an approach to beekeeping that aims to provide managed honey bee colonies with living conditions that are as close as possible to those of free-living honey bee colonies.   The goal is to harmonize our beekeeping methods with the natural history of Apis mellifera, and thus allow the bees to make full use of the toolkit of adaptations that they have evolved over the last 30 million years.  I will review ways in which the living conditions of honey bees differ between free-living and managed colonies.  I will also show how we can pursue beekeeping in a way that is centered less on treating a bee colony as a honey factory and more on nurturing the lives of the bees.  The fundamental question is "What can I give to the bees?" rather than "What can I take from the bees?