It is a misconception that honeybees need beekeepers in order to survive...

Picture - A 'temple' guard protects the inner sanctum of a wild tree colony (Beech Tree, 5m above the ground on a cold October day - Essen Germany) In the following article Jonathan Powell addresses the subject of bees as we hardly know them. Wild bees living in trees. Of course, all bees are wild. But a few hundred years of ever more refined honeybee “management” and environmental degradation have taken their toll on the creature. Deprived of nearly all ways of expressing t

What if there was a completely different approach to beekeeping? Where the beekeeper makes a hive that suits the bees, or they do not come. A system where the beekeeper is required to give up control and complexity, and evolution is once again determined by the bees and nature. This article was first publish in Beekeepers Quarterly Issue 123, 2016 I have written many articles about tree beekeeping, and could easily write another about this ancient form of beekeeping. However