Eve, do I bite your apple?

[doodlemaier]

I was kicking around the idea of becoming certified in beekeeping, today. After a whole lot of searching through the Virginia State Beekeepers Association's website I discovered that the certifying organization was, actually, Eastern Apiculture. On the website there's a tab at the top for "Master Beekeepers/Certification" On the bottom of each page concerning master beekeeping certification was a link that said "prev" and "next" and I was getting increasingly annoyed at how much clicking it was taking me just to get to where someone would actually begin with such a process. Throughout my search for "the point" I learned that they ask that you have "a minimum of 5 years as a serious beekeeper (emphasis mine) in some aspect of apiary management such as a very dedicated hobbyist (check), a commercial beekeeper, working for a commercial beekeeper or as an apiary inspector. . . . (Wait! One can be employed as an inspector and not be a master beekeeper? -2 credibility points). You'll also need a college level course in beekeeping, a letter of recommendation from someone who might, themselves, be a master beekeeper. . or not, apply and be accepted (or not) and then to pass the certification exam (within 80%) consisting of (a $50 fee) a section on theory, one on practice, and some kind of oral presentation.

And then there's the fixed-comb, wooden skep school of keeping bees for which inclusion consists of putting together some wood to form a box, and some bees. . . at which, apparently, any idiot can succeed by simply allowing bees do what they've done instinctively and unfettered for millions of years.

Historically, I've managed to destroy all interest I had in any number of subjects I professed a love for by studying the life out of them; by dispensing with any sense wonder in lieu of cold, dead facts; to trade authentically motivated and productive self-paced, hands-on, made-from-scratch, do-it-yourself learning for measured, scheduled, skull-drudging study. In this process I remembered the differences I had learned at great risk and expense in college between "intrinsic" and "extrinsic" motivation and, in turn, began to suspect that beekeeping, for me, is absolutely no different. I asked myself at that point, do I want to become certified by an hierarchical system with a proven track record of routine decline and near extinction (which at a 100% failure rate I've already a bitter, bitter taste of), or to enjoy a modicum of self-satisfying success with an anonymous group of illiterate peasant farmers who kept bees without issue for thousands of years? Do I follow a path of ancient wisdom or of modern technology? Did I want inclusion or exclusivity? I'm not saying that certification is a shill or master beekeepers don't know what they're talking about. Only that the path we choose for ourselves be genuine. . .

Clearly, I have a couple more years to wrestle with this insurrectionist, black market beekeeper's attitude. Perhaps I'll look back into certification as a master beekeeper at some point. . . or not.

Comments

[ludditeapiary.blogspot.com]

phenomenal post!

"or to enjoy a modicum of self-satisfying success with an anonymous group of illiterate peasant farmers who kept bees without issue for thousands of years"

I too have labored on the academic treadmill, spinning away semesters, and years. building Warres I found my feet back on solid ground.

great blog - thanks!

[doodlemaier]

First and foremost, thanks for your feedback. Can I take it you're enjoying some success of your own with using the Warrés? I got three packages in three hives yesterday, so we're of and buzzing here in the N. Shenandoah!

Skill and Persistence!

[ludditeapiary.blogspot.com]

1 package Italians, 2 packages with Russian queens arriving in a few weeks - all destined for my Warres. Very excited!

So interested in following your work with spales. My one Warre (a rigorous colony) died during a 3 day stretch of severe cold weather in Maine. They starved, surrounded by honey, Appears as if they would not cross the short space into the comb above.

Uninterrupted brood nest makes perfect "bee" sense.

[doodlemaier]

The evidence from your "crime scene" sounds suspiciously like that here except these colonies were in Langs - 1 russian and 1 italian, each in different locations about 70 miles apart and each bustling, robust foragers. I found the tiny clusters had eaten themselves into the corners of a shallow frame that was otherwise loaded with honey and about that time we were in the middle of an unusually cold period in December, just long enough to make that trek back across 10 inches of empty comb impossible. Hmmmmmmm. . . I wondered, this was the second year witnessing the same demise.

The experts and authorities are so busy tweaking the "software" aspects of beekeeping (genetics, medications, pesticides, etc), I suppose, because they've become complacent with the stability of the hardware involved. And here I was noticing what was essentially a mechanical shortcoming in the design of moveable frame hives, or at least large brood nests. With their silence the bees spoke.

These are my last two (ok, three) packaged swarms. This is my last year "trying". I don't expect to harvest this summer so I won't know what my spales are good for until, perhaps, this time next year. Even though I have reasonable access to a very well-equipped woodshop where I could cut rebates and finger joints and compound miter angles until the cows come home the uninterrupted brood nest is also a matter of economics. I need to know that beekeeping can be a successful endeavor for folks like us, the beneficiaries of the solar economy, the low-energy futurists, the luddites!