What is organic beekeeping?
The Bee Nature laboratory has always made it a point of honour to choose its raw materials. It is therefore quite naturally that the use of organic and fair trade honey has become the norm. Honey is the main ingredient of all Bee Nature products.
The Hive
The Bees
The Harvest
The Beekeeper
The hive
The hive is the only element brought by the beekeeper to make honey. The hive is the only element brought by the beekeeper to make honey. The hive must be mainly made of natural materials, most often wood.
The location of the hive is also a very important element. To preserve the quality of the honey, the foraging areas are very delimited. The hive must be placed within a radius of 3km around nectariferous plants from organic farming or growing spontaneously. It must also be at least 12km away from polluted areas or areas containing GMOs.
The Bees
The harvest
The harvest is essential for the quality of the honey. It takes place mainly in spring, the beekeeper collects the surplus of honey from the winter. He only harvests what is left over. When harvesting, the beekeeper takes care to take only the upper part of the hive, containing only honey. The hive body, containing in addition to honey, the larvae and the queen is left to sustain the colony. To proceed with the harvest, the use of chemical repellents, dangerous for the bee, is totally forbidden. The beekeeper preferably uses cold smoke sparingly to calm the bees. More modern means are also used, such as mechanical repellents that allow the bees to remain in the hive during the harvest.
The beekeeper
Man intervenes minimally in the life of the hive.
The beekeeper advocating organic beekeeping follows a certain philosophy:
- To respect the biology and the natural behaviors of the insect
- To feel responsible for the bees
- Respect the ethics of fair exchange: honey belongs to the bees and not to the beekeeper who only provides the hive.
- Preserve its environment by protecting biodiversity, forests, honey-bearing and nectariferous plants. This biodiversity is the main source of pollen and nectar reserves for bees.
Organic beekeeping is not a simple and odious animal exploitation. It is an association between humans and bees. It is extremely rare to find a beekeeper who does not love his bees, who does not invest himself to save them or who does not respect them.
The bees offer us their most precious treasure and in exchange, humans offer them shelter, care and protection in order to fight against their disappearance. Both sides of this association find advantages in this. Such an association is, in biology, called mutualism. This expression is much more appropriate than the word exploitation.
The hive and the bees bring us many miraculous products, it is important to respect them and to take care of them. Bee Nature knows this and does everything possible to preserve them.
