Healing the Bees

Bees are great teachers about living in the present. Their dedication in every daily task is awe-inspiring.

Following this inspiration, how can we implement this wholeheartedness in our everyday choices? How can we be more “bee-like” in our consumption habits, when choosing our food, our clothes, our means of transportation? Can we shape our relationships and societies with this spirit?

Fostering biodiversity is key to supporting the health of the bees. Every little drop of consciousness in our everyday lives is part of the great awakening that we are all taking part of.

In 1923, during one of his lectures about the bees, Rudolf Steiner said “Today, it goes without saying that in certain respects one can generally only sing the praises of artificial breeding […] but this joy will not last for a hundred years.”

Here we are, a hundred years later… and more and more people agree that many conventional beekeeping practices are, in the long term, detrimental to the well-being of the bees. Chemical treatments, sugar feeding and intensive queen rearing, to name only a few, have long-term effects that start to strain dramatically our 6-legged friend’s health.

One of the ways we are changing our relationship to the bees is by offering them bee-friendly homes that will support their strength and immunity.

One millimetre wide, the varroa is a small mite which subsists on the vital energy of bees. Its original host is Apis cerana, an Asian bee. During their co-evolutionary journey, Apis cerana learned to control the presence of the parasite by developing adaptive behaviours, so much so that the varroa does not threaten the survival of the species. With the intensification of agriculture that took place during the mid-20th century, the varroa mite was introduced to Europe. Robust and adaptable, it spread to almost everywhere in the world in a few decades.

If, thanks to the magic of coevolution, Apis cerana and varroa have developed a stable and balanced host-parasite relationship, cannot other honey bee species do the same? Instead of applying treatments that weaken the bees, create dependency and stimulate the adaptation of varroa into stronger variants, we aim to support the bees and their immediate environment in developing new strategies to face the challenge.

Hive beetles love to feast on honey. With their thick armour, they can’t be stung by the bees. In small amounts, they don’t disturb the colony, but when out of balance, they can decimate it in a matter of a few weeks.

Asian hornets are carnivores. Their favourite meal is fresh raw honeybee, and even better, tender soft bee brood. The spread of this tenacious bee predator is unbelievably fast. Many beekeepers are devastated by seeing their colonies being decimated one after another.

Now, instead of fighting back, what if we listened? What are these invaders telling us? The Bee Deva calls them the “agents of decline”… Their presence in unprecedented numbers is a clear warning on the distortion that our relationship with Nature has come to. This is an ongoing exploration for us. You can read more about this in Sandira’s book, BeeWisdom, Teachings from the Hive.

Honeybees appeared on the earth more than 100 million years ago. Long before humans put them in boxes, they often lived in hollow trees. Whether it is living or dead, a tree shelters a vast community that is constituted of numerous inhabitants. Ants, mushrooms, birds, and squirrels live in symbiosis with their host. The tree is a super-organism with a powerful and generous field; each species occupies a specific niche within it. These niches are not isolated from one another; on the contrary, they overlap, permitting the Life energy to pass gradually from one to the other.

The BeeWisdom Network is embarking on a study collecting data on honeybees living in the wild in Portugal. If you are aware of honeybee colonies living in non-manufactured hives (hollow trees, wall cavities…) in Portugal and would like to participate in our study, connect with us by email.