permaculture

[Kelly Simmons <kelly@bouldersustainability.org>]

I wrote an article on what I call "ecological beekeeping" in  
Permaculture Activist a few years ago (Summer 2008).  I've taught  
ecological beekeeping in many PDCs around Colorado, including at  
CRMPI.  I'd be happy to help, although I wouldn't call myself an  
authority on the subject.

You might want to get in touch with Dee Lusby of Organic Beekeepers in  
Arizona (its a yahoo group) and a national organization she started.   
They have an annual conference in February that I spoke at a few years  
ago.  She is a pioneer in "no inputs beekeeping" and has mentored a  
lot of folks.  Also Michael Bush of Bush Farms in Nebraska is quite  
knowledgeable and beekeeps organically.  He is an amazing wealth of  
information and has done quite a lot of original research into cell  
size and varroa mite populations.  You can find him via Google.   
Neither of these folks is a permaculturist, but both are master  
beekeepers that practice beekeeping commercially without using the  
high input, traditional methods and without extreme CCD losses.  Dee  
has always been considered a weirdo, maverick by the regular  
beekeeping folks nationally.

My guess is that it will not be easy to find peer reviewed articles.   
Unfortunately politics plays a big part in the research that gets  
done.  The National Bee Labs are funded in large part by fees that  
commercial beekeepers pay, and so they have a large say in what  
questions get studied.  In my view beekeeping is about where plant  
agriculture was about 30 years ago.  The organic practitioners are  
often viewed with skepticism (at best) and accused of harboring  
disease that will infect the traditional beekeepers.  There's not a  
lot of respect and goodwill overall.  Lots of commercial beekeepers  
are seriously struggling without much attention or help and they are  
angry and scared and demoralized.  Cheap honey imports from global  
trade are making it all but impossible to do a good job and stay in  
business.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes.

Kelly
On Nov 12, 2010, at 8:52 PM, ChildrensPeaceGuild wrote:

> Hey folks,
> After watching Paul's video with Jacquline Freeman, I was moved to  
> present a
> permaculture approach to beekeeping for my Ecology class.
>
>
> I need to cite from two scientific peer-reviewed articles or  
> journals. Now I'm
> fully aware that permaculture might not be mentioned in a peer- 
> reviewed journal,
> however I would like to at least find mention of either A) organic  
> practices
> decreasing losses or B) evidence linking pesticide use to increasing  
> losses.
>
> Also, if there is an authority on the subject, I'd like to get in  
> contact with
> them.
> Thanks all!
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: paul wheaton <paul@richsoil.com>
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Sat, October 30, 2010 8:06:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] colony collapse disorder solved!, blogs,  
> lists,
> mirrors, forums, websites
>
> > Loved the video! Well done. I'm trying to share it every chance I  
> > get.
> > Additionally, it inspired me to use it in a presentation for an  
> > Ecology course
> > I'm taking.
>
> Spiffy!
>
> > Could you reccomend other articles, links, etc. regarding a  
> > permaculture
> > approach to CCD?
>
> I'm afraid that all of my knowledge comes from conversations with
> Jacqueline Freeman (the woman in the video) and Josef Holzer (son of
> the famous Sepp Holzer).  Which is why I made the video - I felt the
> information just wasn't getting out there.
>
> I know that we have some threads on the topic out at permies.com - and
> Jacqueline stops by fairly regularly.
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