Alberthe is a bee guardian, natural beekeeper and sunhive weaver in the Netherlands. She set up local charity ‘Bijen Dichterbij’ to inform and educate people (and especially children) about the importance of resilient (i.e. pesticide free and biodiverse) habitats for resilient bees. She translated and edited the Dutch edition of Günther Mancke’s book on the Weissenseifener Hängekorb and occasionally teaches sunhive weaving worshops.

Ferry is a member of SmartBeeing, a Foundation dedicated to improving the living conditions of bees through practical work, education and advocacy of sustainable practice in beekeeping and land care.

I was born in Bavaria where I trained as a conference interpreter, subsequently emigrated to England to work for the UK government in defence, international relations and law. When children came into my life, I studied anthroposophy and trained as a teacher. A fortuitous encounter at church led to an interest in bees and biodynamic agriculture. I am a co-founder and trustee of the Natural Beekeeping Trust and find immense interest in the company of bees, sheep and horses. I hope that we will learn to do justice to the bees in the ways we live on this earth. It would be sad to live in a bee silent world. 

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Abstracts for Parallel Sessions

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Spirit of the Hive

What we seek is to be at one with the bees

Some of us describe ‘relating’ to their bees, even confess to a sense of ‘knowing’ them. Some are aware that the families of bees have distinct personalities. And some are able to carry out their interactions with the hive without fear, but with confidence in the ‘relationship’ of mutual trust, even co-operation.  What is the entity that we relate to? Sometimes appeal to? What is it that energises and carries forward the life of the hive. Is it knowable? Can it help us, teach us, change us? I would like to say some words about my journey, in the hope of encouraging you to face your bees with understanding. Face to face.

Conference Chairman, Natural Beekeeping Trust Trustee, Tree Beekeeper and conference web master. As with his bees - Jonathan is never happier high up in a tree.

"Sometimes a man must go alone into the forest and die into its heart, so he can  bring back the forgotten pieces of this world" - The Bright Burning by Daverick Leggett

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Abstract(s) for Parallel Sessions

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Wild Bees, Bees in Trees, Rewilding

Jonathan is currently running two large scale re-wilding projects in 2,000+ acre organic farms in Spain and the UK, each with very different starting points: The first uses the local wild un-managed bees and provides new nesting opportunities where there are few, the second starts with 30 commercially managed hives to see if these bees can be re-wilded back into the forest setting. The talk will cover the highs and lows of each project and the design decisions.

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Jos is a member of the organising team and works for the Odin food cooperative as their full time beekeeper.Odin is a Dutch organic food cooperative with approximately 400 employees, a wholesaler, 19 organic supermarkets and a delivery service. At the moment Jos is taking care of 48 bee hives at 16 locations - 11 of which are biodynamic farms.

Is a geomancer, beekeeper and co-founder of BeeTime, a residential program for artistic research, based in Southern Andalusia, Spain. BeeTime creates spaces to develop creative thought processes and socio-ecological art practices inspired by the honeybee.  Artists from all discipline as well as researchers from fields such as systems thinking, humanities, social sciences and deep ecology are invited to learn about a bee-centered approach to beekeeping, and a regenerative approach to the landscape.

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Abstracts for Parallel Sessions

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Spirit of the Land

Karmit Even-Zur explores in her work the creative language used to speak with the earth and for the earth. She will discuss in this session, practical ways of supporting the living landscape, through practices of earth energy work.

Bees are my passion. I am a keen student of their beautiful lessons and am thrilled to be  part of the organising team for the conference. I am a board member of Smart Beeing.

Rachel is a trustee of the Natural Beekeeping Trust, where she is the sweet force behind the sunhive impulse, teaching workshops, conference organisation and supporting the work of the charity with a multitude of skills.

Rudolf van Aalderen, entrepreneur, founder and Chairman of the Smart Beeing foundation.