The Darwin cure for apiculture? Natural selection and managed honey bee health Peter Neumann (1) , Tjeerd Blacquière (2) (1) Institute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2) Bees@wur, Bio-interactions and Plant Health, Wageningen UR, Wageningen, The Netherlands E-mail: peter.neumann@vetsuisse.unibe.ch; tjeerd.blacquiere@wur.nl Running head: Natural selection and managed honey bee health Abstract Recent major losses of managed honey bee, Apis mellifera, colonies at a global scale have resulted in a multitude of research efforts to identify the underlying mechanisms. Numerous factors acting singly and/or in combination have been identifie, ranging from pathogens, over nutrition to pesticides. However, the role of apiculture in limiting natural selection has largely been ignored. This is unfortunate, because honey bees...
Lors de mes débuts en apiculture, je voulais une ruche Warré vraiment robuste, fabriquée en cèdre, avec des murs très épais et aussi fidèle que possible aux plans originaux (à l'exception de l'épaisseur des murs). Je ne souhaitais pas quelque chose de peint, ni collé, ni cloué mais assemblé par vissage. En résumé, je voulais un refuge intemporel, chaud et naturel pour mes abeilles! L'hiver, le climat ici est vraiment froid... J'estime qu'une ruche plus chaude avec un petit volume, combiné avec le comportement d'essaimage naturel, des rayons naturels et des ouvertures peu fréquentes, sont parmi les meilleurs atouts pour permettre aux abeilles de contrôler elles-mêmes la population de varroa au sein de la colonie. J'ai rapidement réalisé...
When I first started beekeeping, I wanted a Warré hive really heavy duty, made of cedar, real thick walled and as close as possible to the original plans (except wall thickness). I did not wanted something painted, neither glued, neither nailed, but screwed. In brief, I wanted an everlasting, warm and natural asylum for my bees! In winter, the climate here is really cold... I feel that a warmer hive with a small volume, combined with natural swarming behavior, natural combs and rare openings, are among the best assets to allow the bees to control themselves the varroa population inside the colony. Soon I realized that I would not find a hive like this in Canada. There was...
I am always fascinated how many false ideas and misconceptions about the Warré Hive are being said. Anybody who wants to speak about it should at least read the book from the one who invented it!Abbé Émile Warré (France, 1867-1951) developed the wonderful people’s hive, today commonly named the Warré hive. Is work is the result of researches on 350 hives from different systems combined with observation of the bees natural behavior. Free online PDF English translation versionhttp://www.users.callnetuk.com/~heaf/beekeeping_for_all.pdf - - - - Je suis toujours fasciné du nombre de fausses idées et de la méconnaissance générale au sujet de la ruche Warré. Quiconque désire en parler devrait au moins avoir lu le livre de celui qui l'a inventé! L’abbé Émile...
‘Natural Bee Husbandry’ will focus on a type of beekeeping which can be described in many ways: sustainable beekeeping, bee-centred beekeeping, apicentric beekeeping, sensitive beekeeping, bee-friendly beekeeping, etc. It will be of special interest to beekeepers who for have for many reasons moved away from keeping their colonies in conventional ways, or who prefer their bees to be kept in hives more suited to the bees’ needs rather than for the beekeeper's ease of management. Such beekeepers allow the bees to live their lives with minimal interference. The bees build comb freely and swarm and reproduce with queens raised naturally rather than being propagated by the beekeeper via emergency queens. These beekeepers also refrain from using chemicals for the control of pests and diseases and strive to create an environment in their apiaries and gardens which...
