Bee Culture is not my culture
I just got my first issue of Bee Culture Magazine. When I first subscribed to it I couldn’t wait to get my first issue. All that useful information I’d be able to read about bees and maybe some tricks of the trade. What I got was something rather different. I didn’t expect the magazine to be difficult to read. What I mean by difficult is that I opened the magazine to the first page and the first thing I see is an ad for medication for bees. So I thought “Ok, I can ignore ads for bee medication and mite treatments and other
unnatural things.”. There just so many of them though. I should have expected it. It is a magazine after all. So I start reading the articles and I get hit with the reality of the situation. As a new beekeeper (or future beekeeper), even though I haven’t gotten any bees yet. The way I’m planing to start. I get hit with the fact that I will be in the minority of beekeepers. The articles in the magazine are filled with mentions of bee treatments, medications, mite strips, feeding sugar syrup. Reading the articles I started to get the feeling with all the mentions of medications that if I didn’t use them I would be doing something wrong and it has something to do with how the author of the articles places the mention of medications and treatments. Most treat it as fact and as a part of routine maintenance when either ramping the colony up for spring or bedding the colony down for winter. There is an element of peer pressure and this not just in the magazine, it’s in the Bee Source forum as well. A new beekeeper who starts out on the forums or reading through Bee Culture or even just reading Beekeeping for Dummies since they all mention medications would think that by medicating bees they’re doing the right thing. I haven’t seen American Bee Journal yet but I can only surmise that I would be in for the same bombardment of ads and articles that mention medications, supplements, mite treatments and more peer pressure.
I’ve learned more about beekeeping through the Organic Beekeepers Group on Yahoo and by reading entries in the Backwards Beekeepers than anywhere else. I’ve learned about the industry off of the Bee Source forums but as far as taking care of bees I think I’d take the information with a grain of salt unless it’s from someone I know that has the same goals. I know Michael Bush frequents the forum. I’m just disappointed that Bee Culture has no organic section and I realize that would be hard to do since we advocate no treatments of any kind, no artificial feeds (only sugar, and that is a last resort). The industry is built on treatments, medications, feeds and other artificial means. The magazine couldn’t survive without the funding those ads provide.
I’m fine with the fact that I belong to a minority of beekeepers. I know I’m doing the right thing by the bees I’ll be getting. So I’m also fine with the thought; Bee Culture is not my culture.
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Hello,
I enjoyed reading your perspective of our magazine, but I thinik you may have missed some aspects of what we do. For instance, Ross Conrad is a regular contributor of ours…author of Natural Beekeeping…and though some of our editorial is aimed at how the majority of beekeepers pursue the craft, we certainly cover all aspects….chemical free is certainly important to all of us, and that was apparent in that Bee Culture sponsored the EAS meeting this summer with a strong emphasis on no chemicals, few chemicals and definately using resistant bees. My point is that there is more to Bee Culture magazine, and beekeeping in general, than treatments and chemicals…especially the latest in IPM management skills needed to keep your bees healthy and alive…don’t give up on us after only one issue…
Kim Flottum