The dominator
The dominator holds that nature is for supporting the existence of the human race.Therefore it is merely a source of raw materials to serve human goals and to be conquered,controlled,subdued,domesticated.The dominator seeks the maximum utility and profit that is legally,economically and practically possible.But by using breeding technology the trial and error process runs more efficiently,from a limited pool of starting material,and at the expense of fewer misfits.
The dominator beekeeper will modify the genetics of his bees by whatever available technique that is also profitable.It may involve artificial insemination and even recombinant DNA technology.If he cannot find the desired genetics locally,he will import them,if necessary from the other side of the world.If possible he will try to bread out any tendency to swarm,and select for supersedure.
Mindful of the labour cost he will open the hive only as often as he needs for maintaining full control.He will take as much honey as possible and leave sugar in exchange.In search of lucrative pollination contracts,he will truck bees thousands of miles..By his supering strategy,including chequerboarding if he deems it profitable,he will make sure that during the main flows the bees perceive empty space above their heads that urgently must be filled.
The utilitarian ethic of the dominator expresses itself in certain practices which,happily,have come to an end or been greatly reduced by more recent hive designs and their management.One is the kiling of bees in skeps by asphyxiation over pits of burning sulphur in order to harvest the honey.Another is the formerly routine procedure in certain cold northern climes of killing colonies in autumn to save the cost of feeding and insulating them against the severe winters,and then buying in package bees from theSouth to repopulate the empathy hives.Only the unfavourable economics of this have almost totally put an end to the practice.
The steward
The steward also sees nature from an anthropocentric perspective,but,unlike the dominator,he recognises definite limits.He sees himself as entrusted with the use of nature,not with its consumption.The steward at least endorses a duty to care for organisms other than humans,regardless of the extent to which they resemble humans in their capacity for suffering.The problem is then one of ranking the intrinsic values which the steward recognises as attributes of organisms.Subjecting an animal to a particular form of husbandry or breeding must not happen arbitrarily.Although human interest prevail over those of animals and plants,the latter's interests are more important than purely economic interests.
Instrumentalisation of creatures has to be balanced against other considerations.
A vivid example of such instrumentalisation is the cow bred to such an extreme for milk production that she needs a 'bra' to support her udder.An example frombeeding domestic fowl would be the elimination of broodless,and from bees,of selecting against swarminess.Society accepts that animals can be used for various purposes,but sets limits on that use.However,bees fall outside such control.
The steward's duty of care extends to species conservation,protection of ecosystems,to the extent that sometimes human interests must yield to avoid putting nature out of joint.The steward does not want to damage nature's integrity but will gladly domesticate it within limits.
The beekeeper,with the steward attitude to nature,favours the more traditional methods of breeding,but,like the dominator,would resort to modern techniques if a very good case could be made,such as risk of entire loss of the species in a particular region due to an epidemic.He will keep his bees in a way that most beekeepers do,through perhaps avoiding extremes such as queen clipping or not letting bees winter on their own honey.He will,nevertheless,control swarming in the conventional ways,though try to balance his inspection frequency against the possible harm it does to his colonies.He will also inspect comb for decease and that accordingly,perhaps favouring non-synthetic acaricides and,instead of antibiotics,comb replacement combined with requeening.He is willing to migrate short distances with his colonies to ensure that they are presented with a good supply of nectar and pollen.
He will err on the cautious side when deciding how many hives a particular locality can support.Beefarmers ,a classic example of whom is Robert Manley tend to occupy the dominator/steward end of the spectrum of fundamental attitudes.
The partner
The partner regards animals as potential allies,thus presupposing that they have their own 'say' when interacting with humans.He conceives nature as an interplay of life forms,in which each invests its own expressiveness and intrinsic value.This needs not conflict with a scientific approach,but does call for a respect for nature.
Mankind distinguishes itself from other life forms in that it is not only embedded biologically in nature but also is free to have a conscious relationship with nature,and ethical attitude to it.The partnership is nevertheless asymmetrical,because it consists of the interaction between life forms at different levels of organic complexity.Organic or ecological husbandry satisfies the requirements of the partner but so does as a sustainable husbandry that is not necessarily certified organic. In such husbandries,technological exploitation can occur as long as the animal is not unnaturally forced,i.e. its species-specific functions are not prevented. The exploitation might even be of mutual benefit. Biodiversity including diversity of husbanded species is respected.
Compared with the dominator and the steward,the partner beekeeper is willing to accept lower profits in return for maintaining his bees under somewhat more bee-friendly conditions. When breeding bees,he avoids any form of laboratory based genetic modification,though would nevertheless accept conventional queen breeding in mini-nuclei.His hive may or may not contain frames. If it does,he will make them deep enough to contain the brood nest in one box. If he uses foundation,perhaps only as starter strips,it will be from beeswax produced colonies that have not been treated with synthetic chemicals.If he doe not use a queen excluder,he will manage his hive to minimise the chance of the queen laying in the honey boxes. By keeping inspections to a bare minimum,reducing colony density in the landscape,allowing healthy drone populations and letting the bees winter on their own honey he will optimise colony health. If,despite these measures,his bees succumb to disease,he will opt for requeening and combreplacement rather than using chemicals,or he will cull colonies. To control the Varroa mite he will use formic acid,which is already present in the hive or some other natural acaricide that does not contaminate his wax.
To raise new queens and make increase he will as far as possible work with the swarming process,intervening to make splits when the time is ripe.
The partner,and of course the participant,seeks to do his beekeeping in a way that is more respectful of the rest of living nature. Putting hives in certain habitats in a powerful lure to certain wild predators,for example bears in the northern hemisphere and honey badgers in the southern hemisphere. Indeed,beekeepers in Canada are allowed to shoot bears caught in the act.
But the beekeeper at the ecocentric end of the ethical spectrum seeks ways of protecting his hives from these creatures,thus avoiding having to kill them.
For instance,on Warré hive beekeeper in Canada is experimenting with hoisting hives with pulleys onto difficult-to-reach branches,several metres above ground,to prevent robbing by ground predators such as bears. Another solution is to call the wildlife authorities to set culvert traps and move the bears away.
Ross Conrad describes an organic beekeeping that espouses the partner approach,although he sometimes refers to it as stewardship.
The participant
The participant sees nature as the totality of interdependent and interwoven life forms. Mankind is an integral part of nature,therefore respect is due to other organisms,not only because of their instrisic value,but also because of nature's complexity. The innumerable relationship and balances between organismus have a surplus value that exceeds their usefulness to mankind. This has implications that are more far reaching for the participant than for the partner.
The participant is more biocentric in his principled choices for setting limits on man's interventions in nature. Although he must also inevitably intervene in nature for the purpose of food production,in doing so he tries as best he can to make use of the inherent dynamism of natural processes. He bases his science and technology on holistic approach guided by observable phenomena. But participation is not necessarily incompatible with advanced technology.For example,it could be used to investigate the conditions the animal concerned is aiming for,so that husbandry of it can best accord with its essential nature.
Relative to the partner ,the participant beekeeper's interests are even more centred on his bees and on their contribution to the natural surroundings.
He works with locally adapted bees,raising and selecting them for maximum health.
Although he would like to harvest a modest honey crop,he is willing to forego it if there is any risk that by taking it he would have to feed sugar. He is then content to stop at helping maintain a sustainable population of bees in the landscape.
He is mindful of the needs of other pollinator species for floral resources and adjusts his number of hives accordingly.He provides 'bee-appropriate' homes for his bees in which relatively natural comb accurs,supported by spales or top-bars. The bees themselves are thus free to determine their optimal cell size and the distribution of cell sizes in the colony,as well the population of drones required at any particular time. He avoids supering altogether as he sees it placing unnecessary stress on a colony to fill the space would constantly appearing above it. His queens are free,if they wish,to roam the whole hive.
He applies the principle that the bees work from the top downwards,so he gives extra space underneath the colony by nadiring. This helps minimise swarms being triggered by lack of space. If the bees are nevertheless intent on swarming provided that the siting of his apiary is not to urban,he allows them to do so and uses the swarms to start new colonies. He disturbs his colonies as little as possible,maybe even only once a year,and instead observes his bees from outside the hive,learning as much as he can from hive sounds,smells and entrance phenomena. He uses non chemical treatments whatsoever. His Varroa policy is co-adaptation or co-evolution of bee and mite. He harvests his honey,for example by taking one or more boxes of it from the top of his hives provided they are broodless,and he leaves plenty of honey for the colony's winter needs. He has no wish to return to the practice in skep beekeeping of asphyxiating colonies to harvest the honey. He will be reluctant to move his colonies at all unless the natural food supply has become threatened by unforeseen conditions. He welcomes an ethical scientific study of bees,including sophisticated analytical techniques,especially if this will tell him how to keep his bees in an even more bee-friendly way or conserve the species and its habitats.
The attitude of the participant has been linked with biodynamic husbandry although not all the features of biodynamic beekeeping can be recognised in the foregoing characterisation of the participant. Of the works available in English Berrevoets ' Wisdom of the Bee' is the most thorough summary of the principles of biodynamique beekeeping.
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