By PAUL WHEATON
I’ve heard that by adding a roof to protect your bee hives, you can increase honey production by as much as four or five fold. The bees stay generally healthier since they are much drier when it is raining, much cooler in the summer, and, if the bee hut is faced to the southeast, warmer in the winter. A few straw bales strategically placed around the hive in the winter can help too. The key to this strategy is that the bees will burn energy to maintain the right temperature. And energy is honey!
Jacqueline Freeman of Friendly Haven Rise Farm is my favorite beekeeper. Rather than raising thousands of colonies and focusing on honey production or crop pollination, she raises just a few colonies and focuses on the happiness of the bees. I have visited beekeepers that show respect for the bees, but Jacqueline is the only person I know of that shows what I think is reverence for the bees. In this video she shows us her bee hut, or, as she calls it a “bee house”.
When the hives are on the south side of a bee hut, they get shade in the summer, sun in the winter, and all year protection from rain. Also, they are up off the damp ground. This makes the hive easier for the bees to care for – now they can spend more time gathering nectar and building up those honey reserves!
These hives are mite free. What does Jacqueline use to keep the mites off? Nothing. No miticides. No insecticides. None of the so-called “organic” solutions (powdered sugar, essential oils). What she does do, is provide 3 season nectar forage close by. If the bees don’t have to go far to get their nectar, it causes them less stress. And they are getting nectar that is high quality and free of pesticides and herbicides. Yay for happy bees!
Here is a picture of a bee hut recently built at Wheaton Laboratories.
Special thanks to Jacob Wustner from Sapphire Permaculture Apiary for donating two hives and one colony to the lab.
For more information on caring for our bee friends you can listen to four podcasts I did with Jacqueline Freeman.
Podcast 284 – Reverence for Bees part 1
Podcast 285 – Reverence for Bees part 2
Podcast 286 – Reverence for Bees part 3
Podcast 287 – Reverence for Bees part 4
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See the entire Paul Wheaton archive.
Paul Wheaton is the tyrannical dictator of Permies.com, the largest permaculture forum on the web. As a certified master gardener and permaculture designer, he’s built an empire around what he calls, ‘infecting brains with permaculture’. His forums are full of rich information, and there are a number of great free resources, guides, and articles that can be found on his sister site, Richsoil.com as well.
Most recently, he has worked with rocket mass heater experts Ernie and Erica in developing a DVD set on making your own rocket mass heater, and has produced another video series on permaculture gardening, which detail how to use hugelkultur, swales, and natural ponds to capture and utilize water without irrigation. His recent work with natural buildings based on Mike Oehler’s designs have resulted in the creation of the Wofati, a semi underground natural home design.
Crowned the Duke of Permaculture by Geoff Lawton and the Bad Boy of Permaculture by the Occupy Monsanto movement, Paul continues to educate and inspire at his property – dubbed Wheaton Labs – in western Montana, where he conducts experiments in permaculture and natural building, hosts workshops, and entertains the curious passerby. More information on stays at the property can be found here.