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  • From: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
  • To: Geneva <gggreen AT mindspring.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Fwd: cng practices
  • Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:00:28 -0500

Geneva,
 
Thanks for this insight into how you feel and sharing the other info from the conference. One we all need to save to file for sure!
 
As one of the now obvious members of the OCBA who wish to see a more "natural" way of beekeeping be promoted I to feel it worthy to share my experiences. I love being w/ the OCBA and hearing all the great stories, but i have to say that at NO time did I ever feel that having the "chemical fee" conversation promoted was really an option there. In fact on more than one occasion I heard direct dialogue talking it down and at one field day event even laughing at it. So as someone (a member) who felt not totally included there are a few of us there who may not share your same "inclusion" vision of how the OCBA currently operates. I do not know your preferences on hive treatment so this is in no way a poke at you...just how there is not that "openness" you seem to think is there.
 
As to the new group having a "separate" list serve...I do not see this as an issue either. Todd signed right up and is able to keep tabs and I and others have expressed our desire to report to the OCBA regularly....on our own w/o any request. So again, I do not see any form of NON-inclusion here. Anyone wanting to learn what a fellow beekeeper is doing in "Natural" ways w/o using man made chemicals is able to....
1) come to the monthly OCBA meetings and ask Q's (i'm assuming we'd now have a monthly update platform to present info to the club).
2) can inquire on the OCBA list serve to ask us questions
3) JOIN the group and stay up to date w/ the dialogue along w/ us.
 
So w/ these three very open forms of engagement I do not see how you, our VP could feel this will split us. If anything it will finally make those of us in the group feel free to voice our true ideas, opinions and ask questions w/o fear of feeling at odds w/ the obvious majority!
 
As one of our most educated & experienced leaders I thought you would in turn see the value in that. I do...I see us ALL being allowed to express how we feel and operate our hives openly....that spurs more ideas and debate which leads us all down the same path of intention...to have happy bees!
 
Marty Hanks
just bee


 
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 5:46 PM, Geneva <gggreen AT mindspring.com> wrote:
sorry sent this to the swarm patrol by mistake.  I think Todd has already addressed my concerns but here is my addition to this discussion:


Begin forwarded message:

Date: February 27, 2012 3:20:08 PM EST
Subject: cng practices

In the fall of 2010, Lewis and I attended EAS.  Following this I wrote an editorial for the OCBA Newsletter on organic practices in beekeeping.  This came out of my frustration with what felt like a very divisive approach to this topic taken at EAS, which in all other ways was an amazing and enlightening conference.  I am a little concerned that this plan to create a "natural beekeeping" apiary and a separate listserve for those interested in these methods, may be equally divisive for OCBA.  While I think an apiary to study and pursue these ideas is great, I do not want to see the club divided across natural vs.unnatural beekeeping.  All beekeeping is unnatural as well as the presence of bees in North America.  Beekeeping, like gardening, is a practice made by man.  It can bring us closer to the natural world and can educate us but it is artificial by its very nature. For the last twelve years, my work in gardening has been all about educating gardeners and homeowners about sustainable practices but I have learned during that time that there is always more to learn and many people to learn from.  I would very much like to create a dialogue between individuals practicing traditional beekeeping and those keeping bees through CNG practices or "naturally".  We all at heart want our bees to be healthy and productive.  Without the early miticides we may not have had any bees around to discuss now.  And while I believe we should be extremely cautious in our use of any pesticide, miticide, fungicide etc..., I want to see the members of OCBA come together and learn from each other whatever our current perspective.  Below is my editorial about CNG and a summary of CNG practices.  Thank you for letting me express my concerns.
Geneva


It would be impossible or at least extremely lengthy to summarize the information shared at the 2010 Eastern Apicultural Society’s weeklong meeting.  So instead of attempting this, I want to share some of my reflections.  


My starting point was a “debate” that happened late in the event about the viability of “organic” honey.  It was obvious almost immediately that both of the speakers were in agreement that “organic” honey as defined by the Canadian regulations and the yet to be approved US recommendations is an impossibility.  The lack of forage area that does not contain chemically treated plants or GMO’s, around 5 square miles,  alone eliminates it from the realm of possibility.  The inconsistent worldwide monitoring of honey production and the possibility for corruption in the system means that there is no verifiable “organic” honey anywhere.  


This talk was flavored by the frustration that inspectors feel towards anyone who brings up the issue.  They are certain that if you are talking of organics or sustainability that you are obviously mush headed, full of flights of fancy and willing in your ignorance to kill you bees through your unwillingness to properly treat them.  I can understand this sentiment.  Many new beekeepers come to this work with a vague idea about saving the planet and little understanding of the biology of the honey bee or the nature of the pests and diseases affecting it.  


But I would say that many who come looking for alternatives to our current plan of treating prophylactically on a a set schedule, are looking to understand the bees and their problems in a deeper, more complex way. They desire to tailor their IPM (integrative pest management) to something that minimizes the use of chemicals, reducing resistance, creating healthier bees, and creating less destructive pests.

So instead of their question, I think we should consider a different set of questions. Let’s explore not the viability of “organic” honey, but all of our options in caring for our bees and the reasons and outcomes behind them.

What is organic?

The term organic comes from a wide range of  work including Rudolf Steiner’s work on Biodynamics, a method of farming that emphasized the inter-relationships  between plants, animals and soils in creating a self sustaining ecosystem.  Later in the 1960’s, many people including Rodale began investigating a return to earlier farming practices and finding new practices that do not rely on heavy chemical pesticides to treat diseases or synthetic fertilizers to feed plants. Now the term “organic” refers to sets of practices defined and regulated by the USDA. 

With awareness and concerns over pesticides like DDT, as presented in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, consumers began to look for organic produce and for more healthy food.  Now with more concerns about limiting shipping of food, “local” is a term that has increasing weight with consumers.  As concerns with the practicality of some designated “organic” practices and some issues with the implementation of the restrictions, many small farmers are moving to Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) www.naturallygrown.org..  Recently NC and VA have been working towards a CNG program for beekeepers, offering both the opportunity for beekeepers to explore alternative practices for beekeeping and some labeling incentive to allow consumers to choose honey and other hive products that are created without miticides and antibiotics. 


Some issues to consider when thinking about Organic verses Conventional Agriculture are chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and monoculture.  Chemical pesticides took on a bigger role in American Agriculture after WWII when many companies needed to shift over from production of chemical weapons to post war products.  Much of the research from this time produced new synthetic fertilizers and new chemical treatments for pests.  As small family farms began to be bought up by larger corporations, rotating a wide variety of crops was replaced by planting large areas with a single crop.  A single crop creates a dearth in forage for a large variety of insects and a concentration in pests and diseases affecting that solitary crop. Since many plants are heavy feeders in one area there is often a shortage of one mineral or another.  Fertilizers become more and more necessary.  It is not sustainable over time.


Why is the general idea of “organic”, “sustainable” or ”permaculture” in agriculture important to the future of Beekeeping?


Honey bees are not native to North America and have been in cultivation for thousands of years.  They are living in artificial conditions in higher density and  under greater stresses than any wild bee.  On top of that they are continuously being assailed by a stream of new pests and diseases, many of which are imported form other parts of the world.  With growing acreage in cultivation and bee population decline, our bees will continue to be under greater and greater stress.  Our job as beekeepers is to find the best long term ways to raise our bees.  Treatments against pests and diseases are good short term fixes, but with ever-growing resistance to antibiotics and miticides, we need to find better ways to support our honey bee population. 


In our current agricultural system with large monoculture crops, the attack against native pollinators and honey bees is twofold. One is a lack of forage, except during bloom time, and even then an incomplete diet from one nectar source. Two is that monocultural crops are more likely to need a heavier use of pesticides, since their proximity allows for a profusion of their own pests and diseases.  A volunteer nonprofit called Partners for Sustainable Pollination (PFSP) is working toward labeling farmer’s produce that is raised with bee friendly practices.  To learn more about this work, please visit their website at http://www.pfsb.org  .


As beekeepers, what are our goals/ desires for our honey bees?

This is easy: many healthy bees.   We want the bees in our hives to be healthy to produce honey for us, to create more bees and queens, and to pollinate our plants. This is not as easy as it has been in the past.  In my grandfather’s time you did not need to order bees; you simply needed to beeline to locate a bee tree and then bring home and hive those bees. To quote Keith Delaplane, “ The global stock of domesticated honey bees is growing slower than agricultural demand for pollination.”  Most of this decline in managed bees is taking place in the United States and the USSR.  While the number of managed bee hives is on the rise worldwide, it cannot keep up with increasing demands for pollination.  Delaplane has headed up a research project titled “Managed Pollinator Coordinated Agriculture Project” whose professed goal is “to restore large and diverse population of managed bee pollinators  across the United States to sustain natural and agricultural plant communities.” They have an excellent web site to help improve overall health of honey bees:  http://www.extension.org/pages/Bee_Health_Community_Page


As beekeepers, we have the opportunity to work towards a solution by learning as much as possible, to raise our bees to the best of our ability, and to support the research surrounding honey bees.  This means using the best methods possible, including conventional methods, but also exploring all avenues, to improve the survivability of the bees. 


What do our consumers want from our honey?

There are many different consumers of honey, but if you are a small honey producer, then marketing toward those who are concerned with healthy, local, and chemical free products will give you a unique advantage.  There has been a history of concern by consumers about the purity of honey.  At one point honey in the comb was popular because they believed that this was proof that it was unadulterated.  

Currently there are no regulations in the United States at large controlling the content of honey or its place of origin. However, the NCSBA is working on some new NC Honey Regulations following on the heels on new regulations in Florida.  They will require that labels of all of the true ingredients in the honey and that the address of where the honey is made is shown.  With this development, North Carolina will be able to assure their consumers of the purity of their honey.  This is also an opportunity to educate our consumers about the wonderful flavors of varietal honeys and the health benefits of local honey.

In recent testing of honey for pesticides at the USDA, honey came back very clean. It does not tend to absorb anything, including most pesticides.  Unlike honey, products of the hive such as pollen, beeswax, and propolis are non-hygroscopic; they do absorb the lipophilic chemicals from the area around them.  Beeswax has come back in tests containing many pesticides and remnants of miticides and antibiotics used in the hive.  While honey does not seem to absorb these things, it is important to consider that what you put into your hives and what is used on forage around your hives could easily end up in many byproducts of the hive as well as having long term effects on the bees living in the hive.

What is  Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) ?


To move towards sustainable  practices does not mean a hands off approach to beekeeping.  It implies and necessitates a deeper understanding on the part of the beekeeper as to the relationships between bee and predator and/or diseases, and greater levels of work and manipulation encourage healthy bees.  It requires a reasonable amount of loss to weed out weak bees, and possibly larger spacing and better forage.


We must begin to consider how our crops are grown in relation to pollinators in general.  We need to fully understand the life cycles of pests and diseases that affect honey bees.  We need a holistic approach to our care for pollinators. This is not soft or fuzzy thinking; this is a desire to understand honey bees as they exist in a greater ecosystem and to manage them for long term growth to the best of our abilities  



This is a short summary of the required practices of Certified Naturally Grown. To see the complete list go to: http://www.naturallygrown.org/programs/apiary-standards

Within each subheading in the standards the criteria for certification are clearly established 
as either Required, Recommended, Permitted, or Prohibited practices. In addition, we have 
noted practices that are allowed, but discouraged.
1.Apiary Location. Honey bees typically forage within a radius of 3 miles from the 
hive, though they’ll travel farther if they have to, and less if they don’t.  There is no 
way to control their flight patterns.  
Required – The land on which the hives are located must meet all CNG guidelines 
for produce. Both crops and land must be free of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, 
herbicides and fungicides, as well as genetically engineered crops. Apiaries are to 
contain only as many bee hives as can be supported by the nectar and pollen 
supply in the local environment
2. Hive Position.  
Required - Hives must be on stands at least 6” off the ground and exposed to at 
least four hours of direct sunlight per day.
3. Hive Construction. This section pertains to the bottom board, brood chambers, 
honey supers, inner cover, top feeder, and top, all of which are sometimes 
designated woodenware.  
Required – Hives must have removable frames, and adequate year-round 
ventilation (such as ventilation blocks or screened inner cover). Langstroth hives 
must have separate chambers for brood and honey.  All woodenware purchased 
as used equipment must be thoroughly scraped and/or scorched, or irradiated or 
ethylene oxide-fumigated to ensure it is clean and free of disease. At least 20% 
of all the hives for every year of participation in the CNG program must have a 
screened bottom board (20% first year, 40% second year, etc.), so that after five 
years all hives will have screened bottom boards. Any new hives added to 
already-certified apiaries must have screened bottom boards from the outset.
4. Frames, Foundation, and Comb Removal in Brood Chambers. Most chemical 
residues are lipid soluble, and therefore accumulate in beeswax more than honey 
(which is water soluble). The commercially available beeswax used in foundation, 
whether plain wax sheets or wax-coated plastic, typically contains pesticide residues 
from the original source – both pesticides that have been used in bee hives and 
those used on crops that the source honey bees foraged on. Over time, pesticide 
residues accumulate, and have harmful effects on developing bee brood that is also 
reared in the wax cells. Also, each pupa that develops in a cell leaves behind a very 
thin pupal skin (its cocoon) and as these continue to build, the cells get smaller and 
may become more susceptible to some brood diseases. Thus, regular removal of 
comb from brood chamber frames is required by CNG to minimize this chemical 
exposure.  
Required – At least 20% of brood frame comb must be removed from service per 
year (2 of every 8 or 10 frames per brood chamber) on a scheduled basis, such 
that there is never brood comb present that is more than 5 years old. All brood 
frames must be marked to ensure this.  Any brood comb that has been exposed 
to any CNG Beekeeping Prohibited Substances [Appendix II] must be replaced 
according to the Hive Transition Schedule [A. 15. and Appendix V].
5. Frames and Foundation in Honey Supers. [See A. 4.] 
Recommended - Wooden frames. Wax free plastic foundation with no coating or 
subsequently coated by the beekeeper solely with their own pure cappings wax 
[A.9.] using local wax processing [Appendix I], CNG beeswax, or wire-reinforced 
no-foundation frames.
6. Queen and Bee Sources. Queens may be introduced to established colonies 
(requeening) or bees may be purchased as packages or nucleus colonies (nucs). CNG 
beekeepers actively support the breeding and selection of bees for natural tolerance 
of or resistance to diseases and pests by selecting for their own survivor colonies and 
also by incorporating feral survivor colonies into their operation.
  
7. Supplemental Feeding. Honey bee colonies may require supplemental feeding 
during a prolonged nectar and/or pollen dearth, particularly during the fall in order to 
ensure appropriate stores for over-winter survival.  
Required – If used, pollen patties must be stored frozen (deep freezer preferred) 
and thawed just before feeding. 
8. Honey Removal, Processing, and Labeling. CNG Honey may be sold in five 
forms: extracted (both screen filtered and unfiltered or raw), chunk, comb, or 
creamed [Appendix I]. Any temporary flavor additives to extracted honey (such as 
herbs that are subsequently removed) must also be CNG certified or certified USDA 
Organic. Any permanent additives to creamed honey (such as freeze dried fruit or 
spices) must also be CNG certified or certified USDA Organic.  
Required –The honey processing and packaging operation (honey house) must be 
local and available for inspection. Surfaces in contact with honey must be 
stainless steel, glass, wood, polyurethane, or food grade plastic. Honey labeled as 
pure must have had no additives at any time during processing. Honey labeled 
with a particular variety (i.e. ‘Clover,’ ‘Buckwheat,’ etc.) must have been derived 
of at least 51% from the labeled nectar source; otherwise it is to be labeled 
‘Wildflower’ or carry no variety designation. Beekeeping operations using the CNG 
label must meet all Basic Honey Bee Management Standards [A.], must be 
certified by the appropriate application to CNG, and must pass inspection by a 
qualified inspector. Only honey that is certified by CNG may be labeled as such.
9. Wax Processing.CNG aims to decrease the contamination of 
beeswax used in CNG apiaries to the lowest possible levels without placing unduly 
high barriers to participation in the CNG program. Typically most of the bottom of 
wax honey comb cell bases are drawn up from the wax already present on 
foundation, be it wax-coated plastic or wire-reinforced wax foundation. The upper 
portion of the cells is manufactured from wax produced by the bees themselves 
(Mangum). Also, honey supers are only present on the hive during a short portion of 
the season, and honey-laden cells are recapped by bees with fresh wax during the 
curing of each honey crop. Thus the strategy behind CNG wax processing is to limit 
the source of reusable beeswax to solely that from the honey super cell cappings. 
These cappings are at the upper 10% of the cell, are removed during each honey 
extraction process, and have been shown to contain extremely low levels of 
pesticides. 
Required - Wax to be re-used in a CNG hive must be obtained solely from honey 
super cappings from a CNG hive. Impurities must be removed by a suitable 
rendering process, in which only non-fragile lipid-inert materials are used 
(stainless steel, glass, wood, and synthetic substances that will not break down 
and leave residues in the wax).
10. Other Products of the Hive. Since pollen is needed for healthy bee nutrition and 
brood development by the colony, and propolis possesses natural antibiotic 
properties that are very beneficial to honey bee colonies the removal of either of 
these products from bee hives must be done in moderation, with great care to 
prevent harm to the hive. 
Required – Any pollen removed must be purified by removing bee parts, etc. and 
processed according to CNG Certification Standards even if it is to be used for 
supplemental feeding later in the season 
11. Hive and Frame Storage and Transfer between Colonies.  
Required – Removal of all equipment (brood chambers and frames) housing any 
dead colonies or ‘dead outs’ from the apiary in a timely manner. Suspicions of 
serious disease such as AFB [A. 14. (c)] warrant immediate attention by 
appropriate state or federal bee inspectors or other experts.
13. Colonies Engaged in Pollination Services. In order to utilize bees for pollination 
services, the land and produce must adhere to CNG standards for the entire time the 
bee hives are present on that land and for at least three months prior to the arrival 
of the bees.  
Required – A contract between the beekeeper and crop producer specifying that 
for the entire time the land is occupied by the bee colonies, and the three months 
prior to their arrival, all crops on the land managed by the producer will meet all 
CNG guidelines for produce, and no prohibited substances will be used on the 
land, crops, or bee colonies. A clean source of water for the bees must be 
provided within ½ mile of the hives.


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--
Marty Hanks
Just Bee, Apiaries
 
 Home of the Orange County Honey Project.
"Created by Artisans....Bottled by Humans"




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