The word ‘husbandry’ was purposely chosen. Firstly, it describes not just management, but management with care and responsibility for one’s charges, just as in olden days it referred to Man’s relationship with the family livestock and crops - and with the immediate environment too. Secondly, many forms of natural beekeeping of today have their roots in the traditional crafts of the past, when natural local materials were used for the construction of hives. The use of plastic is abhorrent to such beekeepers; so is exploiting the bees to the full for whatever hive products can be gleaned from them. Indeed, many natural beekeepers are pleased to keep bees just to help redress the fall in numbers, for the valuable pollination work that they do and for the sheer pleasure of seeing them at close quarters outside their homes or flying around their gardens. 

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In the words of Wendell Berry:

'Husbandry is the name of all the practices that sustain life by connecting us conservingly to our places and our world; it is the art of keeping tied all the strands in the living network that sustains us.'