> You’ll go out and take care of the bees, have some bread and wine and cheese, and take a nap
I visited an apiary in Slovenia a few years back, and they were testing out "bee therapy". There was a room with a bed next to the beehive wall, and visitors could pay to take a 90 min nap surrounded by buzzing bees. It was thought to provide relief for depression. Wish I had tried it, the buzzing echoed really nicely when you were inside.
I have a visceral fear of that buzzing sound due to some unwanted encounters with wasps as a very young child. I suspect such an experience would induce incredible amounts of anxiety for me at least lol
I can tell the difference. Thing is, I've been attacked by both as a kid and have a fear of both. Too bad cause I think beekeeping is one of the coolest things.
Vespa vs Harley Dabeeson? nah... I can't see any wannabee pun here
Luring children with those drawings just where you want they to be, and then grab the popcorn and enjoy the cries and sweet drama?... Smart move Slovenians. This is a Dr. Weevil-level move
I'm was in a similar situation and bees actually helped me get over it for the most part. I never did "bee therapy" specifically, but just by hanging out with people who keep bees got me used to the sound of a hive in the background.
The sound of a single wasp around me still triggers that fear, but I can mostly tell the difference from the sound of a bee now. Unlike wasps, who I still believe are just evil bastards, Slovenian bees are very friendly and will even let you pick them up and pet them.
About twenty years ago I hosted a group of business visitors from
Slovenia in the U.K. and was surprised to receive a beehive panel as a ‘thank you’ at the end of the meeting. It was a lovely gift and I still have the panel.
> Langstroth hive frames can weigh as much as 40 to 90 pounds and must be lifted up out of the hive.
For anyone surprised or unfamiliar, that’s the weight of an entire box with 8-10 frames, not the weight of a single frame—while that’d be delightful in terms of honey production, it’d be miserable when doing hive checks, etc.
Ljubljana is a truly beautiful city, and I recently enjoyed touring its many interesting streets, noting the stark contrast between the older historical buildings, the soviet era, and the modern structures being placed, with quite some care it seems, for the aesthetics of the city. Almost everywhere you look, there is a whimsical beauty that seems so well placed.
During this particular trip I noticed early on, the constant presence of bees .. whether it was a small swarm moving en masse across the sunny sky, or a small lane of bees flying above our heads as we walked through their flight corridors.
It wasn't until later in the visit that I discovered that Ljubljana has a special relationship with bees, and in fact as a city has integrated beekeeping throughout the cities parks and public places.
It truly felt like the bees were just normal denizens of the city going about their day - with things to do, places to be, just like the rest of us (although I was in tourist mode) .. and the cities many gardens and flower fields made a lot of sense as I learned that Slovenians have a lot of respect for these wonderful, delicate, super important creatures.
If you get the chance to visit Llubljana, its an unsung gem of this part of Europe in my opinion. Be sure to learn about the Bee Path!
“If you overcrowd any space with honey bees, there is a competition for natural resources, and since bees have the largest numbers, they push out other pollinators, which actually harms biodiversity,” he said, after a recent visit to the B&B bees. “I would say that the best thing you could do for honey bees right now is not take up beekeeping.”
Honeybees disrupt the structure and functionality of plant-pollinator networks
... results show that beekeeping reduces the diversity of wild pollinators and interaction links in the pollination networks ... High-density beekeeping in natural areas appears to have lasting, more serious negative impacts on biodiversity than was previously assumed.
The Diversity Decline in Wild and Managed Honey Bee Populations Urges for an Integrated Conservation Approach
Using honey bees as an example, we argue that several management practices in beekeeping threaten genetic diversity in both wild and managed populations, and drive population decline.
Why bees are critical for achieving sustainable development
Bees comprise ~ 20 000 described species across seven recognised families ... Fifty bee species are managed by people, of which around 12 are managed for crop pollination ... Wild bees contribute an average of USD$3 251 ha−1 to the production of insect-pollinated crops, similar to that provided by managed honey bees
Not challenging your overall point, but your nwf link specifically calls out the introduction of extra non-native pollinators as a problem, and explains that honeybees were brought over from Europe and thereforr aren't native to North America. The original article is describing honeybeekeepers specifically in Slovenia.
Honeybees aren't native to Europe or the Americas, they originated in Asia. In any habitat at all, keeping honeybees is actually adding some strain to local ecosystems. Honeybees are voracious nectar drinkers, once they're hit a habitat it can support fewer native bees, moths, butterflies, beetles, etc.
Yes, Humans have been keeping domesticate bees for a long time and spread them around the globe. The wild animal that was domesticate originally lived in Southeast Asia.
>How does that compare to intensive agriculture and pesticides?
In general pesticides and habitat loss have more serious impacts, but when you've got a stressed ecosystem adding honeybees that deplete resources from native pollinators is adding to the harm. The bees are pollinating even when they're taking nectar as well, so they're not all bad. But at the same time endangered native bees are put further at risk by honeybees.
Right. But then would you say that the way it is done in Slovenia is a problem? It doesn't really strike me as "intensive beekeeping".
However there are places where there is intensive beekeeping (like for almond production in California, I remember having seen a documentary) and that seems to be a completely different level.
And then there are places in China where they pollinate manually because all the insects die due to the pesticides, and that would be another extreme.
Not trying to make a point, just trying to understand if there is a point where "artisanal beekeeping" is fine or if it is always bad.
I was pointing out as a fact that honeybees deplete nectar from the habitats they're introduced and they're voracious. The honey they fill their hives with is collected nectar from flowers, nectar other wildlife don't have access to. You really don't see other pollinators hoarding nectar this way, and higher honey production has been bred into them. I brought this up since it's not well known among non-biologists, and even beekeepers often don't connect the dots there. Sometimes beekeepers run too many hives, fully deplete their local area and wind up with an impoverished local ecosystem of their on making and weak bees to boot.
Does this effect matter in comparison to other things? Maybe, it depends on the ecosystem and local context. I haven't made any normative statements, just pointed out a fact. If I were to offer a normative opinion, it's that beekeepers should be aware of the effects of their beekeeping and try to be responsible, not keeping hives in areas where they would have an undesirable effect on the pollinators of an ecosystems that's vulnerable.
Sure. Again I'm not asking to debate, I just find it very interesting and was wondering if you had more to say about it.
In my country, I have heard beekeepers saying that we don't want too many hives because they compete with each other and with other pollinators. It is controlled to some extent, so there is the intention, but I don't know if it's based on something scientific or just intuition.
If there were studies about the impact of honeybees, I would be interested, that's all. Because it is true that I have always considered that the main problem is habitat loss and pesticides.
Sorry, been busy, still am busy, really. Besides habitat loss and pesticides, there's the impacts of domesticated animals and other human-originated animals. Those overlap with habitat loss to some degree, but feral cats, rats, dogs, grazing goats, sheep, cattle, starlings (in the US), and other non-native animals like fire ants (in the US), et al have have an impact past lost habitat and lots of species loss is driven by starlings, dogs, cats, and fire ants. Honeybees fit in there as another domesticated animal adding some environmental impact. I don't have a study handy, but those aren't too hard to find. Their impact includes spreading some diseases solitary bees are susceptible as well as reducing the resources for other pollinators.
The effect could be dampened by cultivating bee-friendly crops. Yes, it is a somewhat artificial system and will divert resources away from the natural system but perhaps it would create a boundary between the honeybees and native pollinators
I visited an apiary in Slovenia a few years back, and they were testing out "bee therapy". There was a room with a bed next to the beehive wall, and visitors could pay to take a 90 min nap surrounded by buzzing bees. It was thought to provide relief for depression. Wish I had tried it, the buzzing echoed really nicely when you were inside.