275
The Subtle Life of the Bee
high cost and scarcity, wax lends itself to tampering, and some producers add paraffn. Both the
choice of location and the level of permanence of the apiaries can reduce problems of environmental
contamination of the wax, which is itself a fatty substance that absorbs and holds toxic substances.
The use of old combs is recommended, because they are rich in propolis that makes the wax more
rigid, which can then better transmit the vibrations that bees produce, in particular the dance of the
explorer bees as they communicate the location of the fower felds (Contessi, 2017).
Conventional beekeepers oppose swarming in order to maintain families rich in foraging bees,
gaining an abundance of honey by artifcially preventing the family from separating. Other beekeepers, more sensitive to the species’ requirements, allow swarming and thus enable the only form
of natural evolution possible for the hive organism. It can be said that conventional beekeepers
violently enter the hive to proft from their forced overproduction and unfortunately ignore good
management maxims such as ‘Bees must eat honey and not sugar’, or ‘Let them swarm, it is their
only form of regeneration’. Moreover, some beekeepers change the queen every year in the belief
that she lays more eggs, but in fact, queens live 5 or more years and, like cows, they improve their
performance with age.
Enlightened beekeepers should be universally recognised for the dedication they offer for all of
humanity. Honey, wax, pollen and propolis can be seen as a gift from bees for humanity, and even
their poison – painful for us if stung, becomes a medicine, a therapy. Beekeeping and agriculture
are sisters, as they were when every farmer had his/her own hive, with honey being a by-product of
little interest compared to the bees’ role among the fowers, the trees and around the farmhouse, for
the sake of the environment and the family.
CONCLUSION: THE IMPORTANCE OF FLOWER POWER
In many respects, we should consider the beehive as not just the hive itself but as the whole 3-km
foraging radius or territory of the worker bees. This is the organism of which bees are the cells
that nourish and feed on the fowers. In this way, everyone can help to create a bee-friendly world,
a natural setting with wonderful fowered pastures seeded specifcally for bees. We are thus all
encouraged to guard the spontaneous borders of the felds, to plant and care for fowering meadows,
to sow strips of wild fowers in urban and residential areas, in our gardens and on our balconies.
Bees need pollen and nectar plants, and we can plan sowing and planting for next spring–summer,
because it is precisely in summer that bees are more hungry. We can sow perennial mint (Labiata),
scalar seedlings of purple tansy (Phacelia), borage and black mustard, fower beds destined for the
annual sowing of garlic, poppies, sunfowers, celery, sweet clover (Melilotus). Bees will also enjoy
the Japanese medlar, the viburnum, the snowdrops, the frst hazelnuts, the veronica, the frst dandelion, the willow, the minor ash, the cornelian cherry tree (Cornus mas). We fnd them on the catkins
of the alder and the winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) and then again on the now more
frequent dandelion and so gradually in a continuous and more intense dance. In this way, the desire
to give bees a great wealth of fowers, including ornamental and aromatic, will be born, to realise
for them what we call the bee pharmacy, because biodynamic beekeepers believe that if bees have
the possibility, they will choose the plants and fowers that for them are curatives, similar to grazing
cows, which choose the right herbs that, during their milk cycle, help their calves to recover from
juvenile diseases (Menestrina, 2019).
In his cycle of lectures on The Bees, Rudolf Steiner said: ‘Actually, every human being should
show the greatest interest in this subject, because, much more than you can imagine, our lives
depend upon beekeeping’ (1998: 5). So, what we now consider to be the need of bees is increasingly
being seen as our need, because a world in which bees can no longer live is a world that lacks what
is essential for man. In this sense, bee health is a responsibility of all human beings (Menestrina,
2016) (Figure 24.1).
The Subtle Life of the Bee
high cost and scarcity, wax lends itself to tampering, and some producers add paraffn. Both the
choice of location and the level of permanence of the apiaries can reduce problems of environmental
contamination of the wax, which is itself a fatty substance that absorbs and holds toxic substances.
The use of old combs is recommended, because they are rich in propolis that makes the wax more
rigid, which can then better transmit the vibrations that bees produce, in particular the dance of the
explorer bees as they communicate the location of the fower felds (Contessi, 2017).
Conventional beekeepers oppose swarming in order to maintain families rich in foraging bees,
gaining an abundance of honey by artifcially preventing the family from separating. Other beekeepers, more sensitive to the species’ requirements, allow swarming and thus enable the only form
of natural evolution possible for the hive organism. It can be said that conventional beekeepers
violently enter the hive to proft from their forced overproduction and unfortunately ignore good
management maxims such as ‘Bees must eat honey and not sugar’, or ‘Let them swarm, it is their
only form of regeneration’. Moreover, some beekeepers change the queen every year in the belief
that she lays more eggs, but in fact, queens live 5 or more years and, like cows, they improve their
performance with age.
Enlightened beekeepers should be universally recognised for the dedication they offer for all of
humanity. Honey, wax, pollen and propolis can be seen as a gift from bees for humanity, and even
their poison – painful for us if stung, becomes a medicine, a therapy. Beekeeping and agriculture
are sisters, as they were when every farmer had his/her own hive, with honey being a by-product of
little interest compared to the bees’ role among the fowers, the trees and around the farmhouse, for
the sake of the environment and the family.
CONCLUSION: THE IMPORTANCE OF FLOWER POWER
In many respects, we should consider the beehive as not just the hive itself but as the whole 3-km
foraging radius or territory of the worker bees. This is the organism of which bees are the cells
that nourish and feed on the fowers. In this way, everyone can help to create a bee-friendly world,
a natural setting with wonderful fowered pastures seeded specifcally for bees. We are thus all
encouraged to guard the spontaneous borders of the felds, to plant and care for fowering meadows,
to sow strips of wild fowers in urban and residential areas, in our gardens and on our balconies.
Bees need pollen and nectar plants, and we can plan sowing and planting for next spring–summer,
because it is precisely in summer that bees are more hungry. We can sow perennial mint (Labiata),
scalar seedlings of purple tansy (Phacelia), borage and black mustard, fower beds destined for the
annual sowing of garlic, poppies, sunfowers, celery, sweet clover (Melilotus). Bees will also enjoy
the Japanese medlar, the viburnum, the snowdrops, the frst hazelnuts, the veronica, the frst dandelion, the willow, the minor ash, the cornelian cherry tree (Cornus mas). We fnd them on the catkins
of the alder and the winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) and then again on the now more
frequent dandelion and so gradually in a continuous and more intense dance. In this way, the desire
to give bees a great wealth of fowers, including ornamental and aromatic, will be born, to realise
for them what we call the bee pharmacy, because biodynamic beekeepers believe that if bees have
the possibility, they will choose the plants and fowers that for them are curatives, similar to grazing
cows, which choose the right herbs that, during their milk cycle, help their calves to recover from
juvenile diseases (Menestrina, 2019).
In his cycle of lectures on The Bees, Rudolf Steiner said: ‘Actually, every human being should
show the greatest interest in this subject, because, much more than you can imagine, our lives
depend upon beekeeping’ (1998: 5). So, what we now consider to be the need of bees is increasingly
being seen as our need, because a world in which bees can no longer live is a world that lacks what
is essential for man. In this sense, bee health is a responsibility of all human beings (Menestrina,
2016) (Figure 24.1).