Holistic Approach to Colony Colapse Disorder

The next Apiary I went to was at a kibbutz called Ein Harod Meuchad. My friend owned this seven hive apiary. He had built all the equipment and caught swarms from all over. When inspecting the hives, it was obvious that most of his hives did not have queens. He was a beginner at beekeeping and his philosophy behind beekeeping was an anthroposophy one as well. Though his hives were not doing well, what I appreciated about this visit was his eagerness to learn about beekeeping, the spiritual aspect. Bringing bees for pollination of the surrounding orchards, as well as, saving swarms that would otherwise be killed.

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I then took a bus to the next apiary in a small village called Katzir, my friend had four hives in the apiary all facing north on top of a mountain. He explained to me that he decided to put the hive underneath the rock on the north face because of the intense heat from the sun during the summer time. He felt that his bees were much happier in the shaded area then when he kept them in the sun. The location was remote so that no one could find his bees either. He said that in this area there was a good nectar flow in April and that was it so the bees had to fend for themselves a large chunk of the year.