[Kevin Pfeiffer]

actually, the premier of this film, More Than Honey, was Aug 9 and 10 in Beverly Hills.

Ah, the US premiere. It’s initial release, in Germany, etc. was in the fall of 2012; I’ve seen it twice now.

You have to remember, though, that Mr. Miller didn’t singlehandedly create this “egregiously unsustainable model”, but was more or less pulled into it. There are certain parallels that Imhoof draws between the apiary history of his family and the Millers (although the specific details are different), each of which dealt with the mechanization of farming in a different way; today the Imhoofs are no longer beekeepers, but Miller’s family still is. In such individual situations there is rarely a clearly right or wrong answer — and this is brought across in greater detail in Nordhaus’s book, I think. (See link to review below.)

our current land of almost a million acres of almonds in the Central Valley of CA is a most egregiously unsustainable model

Yes, but as the book points out, the CA almond farmers took on this crop and multiplied its productivity yield vs. established practice eight-fold. That’s a powerful economic incentive.

The approach to orchard management promoted by Xerces reminds me of the traditional European “Streuobstwiese” (meadow orchard) — these are likewise rich invertebrate habitats and the general trend today in Germany is to try to preserve or restore these where possible.

Best wishes,

Kevin

Here a useful review of Nordhaus’s book (by a “beek”):
http://www.hannahnordhaus.com/the-beekeepers-lament-reviews-alternet/

• This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by Kevin Pfeiffer. Reason: typo
• This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by Kevin Pfeiffer. Reason: added link
• This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by Kevin Pfeiffer. Reason: edit to opening

[Kevin Pfeiffer]

Has this just arrived in the States? The beekeeper with the African bees that he keeps in the desert — is that one of you all? (Sorry, I can’t recall his name.) In my memory he was in southern CA, but perhaps down by San Diego…

The film was well-received here in Germany.

I can also strongly recommend the book “The Beekeeper’s Lament” by Hannah Nordhaus. John Miller, the same commercial beekeeper that appears in the film, plays a large role in her book, which IMO offers a more sympathetic and nuanced portrait of the plight faced by commercial keepers today.

-Kevin

[Kevin Pfeiffer]

Dear Susan,

Many thanks for the additional information. The (undefined) meaning of “removable frames” is of course what interests me. I think that our removable fixed bars satisfy the intent of the law (comb-by-comb inspection if necessary) and I already suspected that most hobby beekeepers have relatively little contact with veterinarians, apiary inspectors, etc.

I should add that the Bienenkiste is NOT unmanaged (e.g. like a bird house or a feral colony in the wild), but rather that the brood space is minimally managed (with the exception of the “honey room” there is no expansion or reduction of the brood space, let alone removing or re-arranging of combs). The hive is routinely inspected by the beekeeper and most of the usual activities otherwise occur (feeding for winter as necessary, addition of foundation in the honey room, honey harvest, inspection for brood, signs of disease.

The only exception is that we encourage (well, at least “minimally discourage”) swarming, which is, after all, this superorganism’s means of reproduction. A Bienenkiste colony usually begins with a captured swarm (natural or shook). We check regularly for queen cells and try to manage the colony so that after swarms are avoided. Naturally there are those situations where the beekeeper tries to avoid any swarms (although, in all honesty I don’t know any beekeeper who has never had a swarm); for these situations we have been experimenting with splitting the colony by means of “drumming”, a technique that the old box hive beekeepers once used to transfer a colony from one hive box to another.

So, thanks again. That helps already to give me a better sense of beekeeping today (at least in SoCal).

Here my “greeting card webpage”, with a few pictures of my bees, etc.

http://www.bienenkiste.de/rat/netzwerk/visitenkarte/index.html?u=KMP

-K

• This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by Kevin Pfeiffer. Reason: typos

[Kevin Pfeiffer]

Okay, I’ll take a look at the video with Michael B. I see now better how this works for you in your specific situation.

But for my work (having to write something about the type of hive we are using) I am really more concerned about your feedback with regard to using an undisturbed comb structure (bars that are normally not removed). I realize that it is difficult to speculate about something you’ve never seen, let alone tried, but do you see potential problems, either with inspectors or the general beekeeping community?

Is there much interaction in CA with apiary inspectors (among hobby beekeepers)? Do you send in samples ever for American Foulbrood tests — taking a small sample of honey adjacent to brood comb? (This is possible with the Bienenkiste.) Are their beekeepers you know using skeps or other fixed-comb concepts?

I think this all falls under the term “picking your brains” — thank you in advance, if you can offer any further insights!

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