Why Beekeeper Choices Matter to Honey Bees

Описание: Why do beekeeper choices matter to honeybees?

About 95% of beekeepers in the U.S. are small-scale backyard beekeepers and hobbyists, yet many common practices don’t reflect how honeybees live and survive in nature. In this expanded video, I explain how beekeeper decisions — colony spacing, honey harvesting, sugar feeding, and winter preparation — directly affect honeybee health and overwintering success.

Wild honeybee colonies thrive without treatments, without sugar feeding, and without crowded apiaries. In nature, colonies space themselves far apart - about 1 mile apart - which limits disease spread, and they overwinter in compact, insulated tree hollows stocked with sufficient stores of their own honey.

At ForestBeehive Apiary ( https://ForestBeehive.com ) in central Maine, I host only a few stationary horizontal Layens hives, spaced apart, with varroa-resistant RHBA-certified Russian honeybees, kept completely treatment-free. Instead of maximizing honey harvest, I leave nearly all honey for the bees and remove only a small surplus.

This video shows:

-why hive spacing matters
-why inner hive space matters in winter
-why leaving the bees' own own honey for the bees matters
-how small management choices can have far-reaching biological effects

Whether you’re a beekeeper, a hobbyist, or simply interested in honeybees and nature, this video explores why beekeeper choices truly matter to honeybees.

Large freezer storage bags used to store Layens honey frames in this video (Amazon affiliate link):
https://amzn.to/4sFnFav

Filmed at ForestBeehive Apiary (https:// forestbeehive.com) in central Maine, where a small number of stationary horizontal hives host honey bees overwintering on their own 100 naturally foraged honey, without any treatments or supplemental sugar-feedings.