New York Times Article Today

Today there is a very environmentally oriented article in the New York Times about beekeeping.

The article focuses on the damage all of the chemical elements brings to the beehive. The point is to try to help the bees grow strong in the face of all the chemicals that are currently in use in the hive.

Thankfully, so far, my hives are not subjected to poison.

The pure organic beekeeper will say that I am introducing powdered sugar by sifting it over the bees and that it is not natural. They have a point, but I am not using poison and the powdered sugar does have impact on the Varroa mite.

The pure organic beekeeper will say that I am introducing a chemical element by feeding sugar syrup to my bees in the drought of Georgia. Again, they have a point, but I am not using chemicals in the way of poison or feeding syrup like corn syrup which again introduces poison into the hive. Corn is the second most poisoned crop in the country after cotton. So when beekeepers feed corn syrup to their bees, the bees get the poison which has been sprayed, dusted, etc. onto the corn.

While I am not a pure organic beekeeper yet, keep watching because that is the way I am going. For the first time this year, I have frames of honey frozen in my basement freezer so that I can feed the bees actual honey in the winter this year.