Natural Beekeeping Trust Blog

All Posts
Newsletter
Featured
Rewilding

Nov 5, 2016
5 min

November Newsletter 2016

Greetings The leaves have started falling and we send our greetings. Samhain, All Souls, the end of harvest are now behind us and we...

698 views

Oct 16, 2016
2 min

Learning from Wild Bees and Tree Beekeeping

Picture - A 'temple' guard protects the inner sanctum of a wild tree colony (Beech Tree, 5m above the ground on a cold October day -...

1,104 views

Sep 21, 2016
2 min

Newsletter September 2016

Autumn Greetings The summer weather in the UK has been the usual variable mix, with much of the summer being cool. However we have had a...

205 views

Sep 14, 2016
4 min

Saving Local Bees: An Appeal to Landowners

The native British Black Bee (pictured above in my apiary) was said to be extinct in England by about 1920 due to the ravages of the...

3,277 views

Jun 11, 2016
4 min

Hardening of the Heart - the task of the modern beekeeper

Like Macbeth we are killing our king, our sacred self, for the values of the ego, for our own power and gain, not knowing what this...

1,153 views

May 31, 2016
4 min

What tree beekeeping means to trees (and bees)

We are often asked whether the provision of a hollow in a tree to create a hive for bees to live in harms the tree; the visual image of...

1,511 views

Apr 21, 2016
3 min

Bees and Us: the World We Share

There is too much shallow contact in our lives. I prefer face to face. I want the person I am communicating with so close that I can put...

170 views

Mar 17, 2016
2 min

Beware the Ides of March

Since becoming a beekeeper I have come to associate the Ides of March less with the assassination of Julius Caesar, and more with another...

413 views

Mar 9, 2016
3 min

Learning from Wild Bees and Tree Beekeeping

What if there was a completely different approach to beekeeping? Where the beekeeper makes a hive that suits the bees, or they do not...

194 views

Jan 24, 2016
4 min

When a Spirit of True Enquiry Infuses our Beekeeping

There is, it seems to us, at best, only a limited value in the knowledge derived from experience. The knowledge imposes a pattern, and...

183 views

Jan 5, 2016
3 min

That our Love of the Unseen may be Kindled

It is winter. The drones do not appear to be here now. Or so we think because we cannot see them. Not only do we deny their existence,...

372 views

Jan 4, 2016
1 min

Bee-Centred vs Conventional Beekeeping

The style of beekeeping advocated by the Natural Beekeeping Trust is very different from the beekeeping taught by conventional beekeeping...

429 views

Nov 20, 2015
2 min

Creative Forces

Has the Bee, that mysterious oneness of love and purpose embodied in the hive, power to help us? To really help us beekeepers to “do...

20 views

Nov 19, 2015
3 min

Rekindling the Romance?

That which is in the process of becoming seems to me to be a different way of connecting with and communing with the bees and through...

44 views

Aug 10, 2015
1 min

For the Love of the Bees

A while ago, the trustees of the Natural Beekeeping Trust received an unusual message. A high security penal institution in the Midlands...

645 views

Aug 1, 2015
3 min

Bee Breeding and Importation – A Broken Relationship

Together with their environment, bees represent a single sphere of unity, held together by thousands of dependent mutual relationships....

1,649 views

Aug 1, 2015
1 min

Treatment-Free Beekeeping

The approach of the NBKT is based on the premise that, if bees are given the right living conditions and left unstressed by constant...

836 views

Jul 31, 2015
1 min

Oilseed Rape Flourishes Without Neonics

The NFU has been badgering the government to change the rules on neonics. Their argument is that crop yields will suffer without them. ...

9 views

Jul 24, 2015
4 min

The Sunhive goes to Prison

Eighteen bundles of biodynamic rye straw – cleaned…{tick} Six stands, starters, frames, spray bottles, scalas…{tick} Six fids and...

56 views

Jul 22, 2015
1 min

Ode to an Odious Practice

This still is from a video on removing the wings of queen bees, a practice euphemistically termed ‘queen clipping’. Here is a response:...

1,308 views

{"items":["5e3b2f18e4b16f0017fabe53","5e3b2f1856843f001768326c","5e3b2f18fe412300179c3753","5e3b2f19fe412300179c3754","5e3b2f19e6876e00178ed9d1","5e3b2f1967e0ac00178a41fb","5e3b2f19534c0b001746dcff","5e3b2f19588b050017606dd2","5e3b2f197fba7e00173b06a7","5e3b2f18c68eb30019aba194","5e3b2f18ef6d68001734e7f7","5e3b2f18ce283f0018aeb8e3","5e3b2f18588b050017606dd0","5e3b2f1867e0ac00178a41f8","5e3b2f191a093400171fff1b","5e3b2f1872b40d00179a3343","5e3b2f193ef7ae0017bfe2f4","5e3b2f19fced7e001892e59c","5e3b2f1ae4b16f0017fabe57","5e3b2f1abae3b90017d5f01f"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"fill","cubeRatio":1.3333333333333333,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":30,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":32,"galleryMargin":0,"scatter":0,"rotatingScatter":"","chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":1,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCropRatios":"","columnWidths":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":1,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":1,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":true,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","galleryTextAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"nothing","fullscreen":true,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","slideAnimation":"SCROLL","scrollDirection":0,"scrollDuration":400,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imagePlacementAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":1,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"jsonStyleParams":"","gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":940,"allowTitle":true,"allowContextMenu":true,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"itemBorderColor":{"themeName":"color_12","value":"rgba(216,209,198,1)"},"showVideoPlayButton":true,"galleryLayout":2,"targetItemSize":940,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|fill|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":false,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0.5},"container":{"width":940,"galleryWidth":972,"galleryHeight":0,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}

3 4