Been reading about Prof Tom Seeley’s presentation at Apimondia and elsewhere on non-intervention beekeeping.
Some food for thought but not convinced the list of ways in which “conventional” beekeeping differs from “natural” populations really represents UK beekeeping very accurately. Nor does his personal circumstances beekeeping in heavily forested low population density areas.
Eschewing any medicinal approach and relying on unconstrained swarming to magically “evolve” a solution to varroa seems unfair to evolutionary theory, human neighbours and bees. If your went past a large field of dead and dying sheep suffering from Scab mite would you applaud the farmer for sagely trying to develop a strain of naturally resistant sheep? No, me neither.
I am not convinced that this theoretical approach represents UK beekeeping, Darwin or natural evolution very well to be honest. Other views are available...
Some food for thought but not convinced the list of ways in which “conventional” beekeeping differs from “natural” populations really represents UK beekeeping very accurately. Nor does his personal circumstances beekeeping in heavily forested low population density areas.
Eschewing any medicinal approach and relying on unconstrained swarming to magically “evolve” a solution to varroa seems unfair to evolutionary theory, human neighbours and bees. If your went past a large field of dead and dying sheep suffering from Scab mite would you applaud the farmer for sagely trying to develop a strain of naturally resistant sheep? No, me neither.
I am not convinced that this theoretical approach represents UK beekeeping, Darwin or natural evolution very well to be honest. Other views are available...