The Educational Apiary

Each year, we attract and observe local swarms to cultivate a self-sustaining apiary. We build custom hives to mimic the interior of a tree hollow. In this way, we optimize biomimicry and adaptation by (1) increasing the availability of nest hollows, (2) promoting healthy honey bee populations in our area, and (3) decentralizing the need to buy-treat-feed as an apiary standard.

Because we primarily model how apiaries can operate within the ecosystem, honey production isn’t directly incorporated into our mission. We readily provide education on the appropriate timing and methods for collecting overflow honey, and will ourselves collect honeycomb under certain conditions, but we don’t set production goals.

Backland’s educational apiary features stationary and small-population hives that are widely spaced on biodiverse lands. We trust in the intelligence of wild mating, swarming, and dying off. We share our study and promote reciprocity within the human-bee-land relationship. This means that we embrace the fluctuation of hive counts from season to season, simply because an unhealthy hive cannot survive in the wild. At the core, our mission explores the rewilded evolution of a managed hive.

Our work builds upon the study of rewilded hives near Ithaca, NY as published by Dr. Thomas Dyer Seeley (Horace White Professor Emeritus in Biology, Cornell University). As well as the ingenuity of custom hives popularized by Sam Comfort (founder of Anarchy Apiaries and creator of the Comfort hive). Most importantly, we uphold reverence in our relationships with Mama Nature, akin to our ancestors who treated the land as a living being.

Opposing the Industry Standard

This work inevitably opposes the standard of mainstream beekeepers, which are defined and distributed by industrial apiaries. Industrial beekeepers have the important task of managing thousands of hives to pollinate the monocrops that stock year-round grocery stores. Therefore, their livelihood is tied up in a never-ending loop of intense management like frequent inspections, mite treatment, sugar feed, artificial selection and forced migration.

Seasoned beekeepers know that the “problems” of managed hives don’t go away with more management. Intense management increases pathogens and parasites and decreases the hives ability to survive on their own, thus perpetuating a cycle of management. The use of mite treatment, for example, only causes unintended consequences, like stronger mites and weaker bees. These consequences continue the need for more treatment as a short-term solution.

Additionally, the genetics of artificially selected honey bees over generations inherently become dependent on human management to survive. Through homogenizing bee genetics and popularizing an industry standard, this, of course, mostly benefits the industry which leads introductory beekeeping courses and sells bees, box hives, mite treatment and sugar feed. Today, small-scale beekeepers are stuck in an unsustainable loop of needing more-more-more just to keep a hive alive.

This standard best suits apiaries that offer pollination services and aim to maximize honey production. Industrial practices disregard the needs of the honey bee and native pollinators, and are generally unnecessary for a community of small-scale beekeepers and organic land stewards. This point in time presents an ideal opportunity to reimagine the long-term effects of beekeeping by initiating a new feedback loop that recycles nutrients, respects local relationships and supports greater biodiversity.

Sourcing Swarms

Swarms occur when a hive splits in two—half of the population leaves for a new nest location with the elder-fertilized Mother bee, and the remaining half stays with a young-unfertilized Mother bee. Swarming isthe highest goal for reproduction. This act signifies vitality since as a hive only splits after abundantly storing food and successfully increasing the population size.

One benefit of swarming is the temporary pause in the egg-laying, where parasites and pathogens breed. This pause allows weeks of hygienic time for both halves of the hive body and prevents deadly disease. Secondly, swarms normally find a new nest location within a few mile radius of the original hive. Therefore, swarm-baiting for local honey bees (rather than installing artificially selected genetics) employs biomimicry to encourage hive adaptation.

Our Community 

We have developed partnerships with several local farmers and land stewards across Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie counties who support our study by generously allowing access to organic agricultural, residential rural and forested lands. We also work with past participants to provide peer-mentor support and apiary resources.

Community partnerships include placing temporary bait hives, permanent beehives and making observations for open information. We also address pollinator needs on apiary lands by ensuring seasonal flows of nectar and pollen, and when necessary, we nurture a layered habitat by planting flowers, herbs, shrubs and/or trees to better support biodiversity.