On November 25, the 10th anniversary conference “Natural Beekeeping” was held at the Institute of Biological Development of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From year to year, the conference is attended by both scientists and enthusiasts of this method of beekeeping - beekeepers who, bit by bit, collect and share precious experience in the natural keeping of bees and make efforts to restore the ancient traditions of beekeeping.
The main principle of natural beekeeping is not the quantity of honey obtained, but its quality. Honey must be obtained with obligatory respect for the work of bees, their work and life in natural conditions.
The atmosphere of live communication reigned at the Conference - it was immediately clear that friends, caring and convinced like-minded people had gathered here. Even more beekeepers participated in the Conference online.
It was interesting to learn about the basic principles of Natural beekeeping: refusal of fertilizing, refusal to use medications, reproduction of bee colonies only in swarms, the use of certain hive designs (boards, logs) that allow the bees to independently prepare for wintering, wintering of bee colonies only outside, A reasonable approach to selecting honey is only once a year and only the excess, after all the brood has come out and the bee colony has completed preparations for wintering.
The main idea is minimal interference in the life of the bee colony. This was sounded in the report of Dmitry Boguslavsky, Ph.D., senior researcher at the Institute of Biological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “inspection of bee colonies is a great stress for them, their productivity decreases, the transfer of infectious agents is possible, so the number of inspections should be kept to a minimum.” He further recommended that beekeepers pay more attention to monitoring systems, and we, knowing the capabilities of the Apipulse integrated monitoring and warning system for the health of bee colonies being developed by MVT LLC, completely agree with him.
Also, Andrey Artemov’s report on the “Point of Return” project was of particular interest. The project arose as a response to the growing process of death of bees due to changes in their habitat, human activities, and the destruction of stable ecosystems. The main goal of the project is the conservation of honey bees in cooperation with “wild nature”, through the restoration of their habitat, which in turn should have a positive impact on the conservation and restoration of biological diversity and further on eliminating or reducing the problem of food security for humanity as a whole. From small to large.
Also, in the same vein of helping humans to the civilization of bees and themselves, there was a very interesting report by the creator of the “Forest Gardens” project, Georgy Afanasyev, on the creation of gardens for pollinators.
Time was devoted to the problem of the spread of bee pests—varroa mites—in our country. Speaker Benjamin Forster made a presentation “Natural selection for resistance to the Varroa mite. Chances and risks."
The Natural Beekeeping Association outlined long-term plans for the development of the association’s activities for the next year, which found a wide response from beekeepers participating in the conference in person and online. And so, on a positive wave of emotions from communication with like-minded people and plans made, the conference was completed. Beekeepers are returning to their daily work for the benefit of bees and humanity, and we have returned to work on developing the “Apipulse” Integrated Monitoring and Warning System for the health of bee colonies, in order to make the hard work of beekeepers easier and more efficient, to help them preserve bee families, without incurring financial losses, increase the yield of honey and bee products.
The main principle of natural beekeeping is not the quantity of honey obtained, but its quality. Honey must be obtained with obligatory respect for the work of bees, their work and life in natural conditions.
The atmosphere of live communication reigned at the Conference - it was immediately clear that friends, caring and convinced like-minded people had gathered here. Even more beekeepers participated in the Conference online.
It was interesting to learn about the basic principles of Natural beekeeping: refusal of fertilizing, refusal to use medications, reproduction of bee colonies only in swarms, the use of certain hive designs (boards, logs) that allow the bees to independently prepare for wintering, wintering of bee colonies only outside, A reasonable approach to selecting honey is only once a year and only the excess, after all the brood has come out and the bee colony has completed preparations for wintering.
The main idea is minimal interference in the life of the bee colony. This was sounded in the report of Dmitry Boguslavsky, Ph.D., senior researcher at the Institute of Biological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “inspection of bee colonies is a great stress for them, their productivity decreases, the transfer of infectious agents is possible, so the number of inspections should be kept to a minimum.” He further recommended that beekeepers pay more attention to monitoring systems, and we, knowing the capabilities of the Apipulse integrated monitoring and warning system for the health of bee colonies being developed by MVT LLC, completely agree with him.
Also, Andrey Artemov’s report on the “Point of Return” project was of particular interest. The project arose as a response to the growing process of death of bees due to changes in their habitat, human activities, and the destruction of stable ecosystems. The main goal of the project is the conservation of honey bees in cooperation with “wild nature”, through the restoration of their habitat, which in turn should have a positive impact on the conservation and restoration of biological diversity and further on eliminating or reducing the problem of food security for humanity as a whole. From small to large.
Also, in the same vein of helping humans to the civilization of bees and themselves, there was a very interesting report by the creator of the “Forest Gardens” project, Georgy Afanasyev, on the creation of gardens for pollinators.
Time was devoted to the problem of the spread of bee pests—varroa mites—in our country. Speaker Benjamin Forster made a presentation “Natural selection for resistance to the Varroa mite. Chances and risks."
The Natural Beekeeping Association outlined long-term plans for the development of the association’s activities for the next year, which found a wide response from beekeepers participating in the conference in person and online. And so, on a positive wave of emotions from communication with like-minded people and plans made, the conference was completed. Beekeepers are returning to their daily work for the benefit of bees and humanity, and we have returned to work on developing the “Apipulse” Integrated Monitoring and Warning System for the health of bee colonies, in order to make the hard work of beekeepers easier and more efficient, to help them preserve bee families, without incurring financial losses, increase the yield of honey and bee products.