I cant't explain how sad I feel today :( I was invited by Holma Forest Garden to hold a two days course in Top Bar Beekeeping (previous blog post) First day theory and second day work shop, building top bar hives.
After they have sent out the newsletter to their members about this course, they got many calls from their members which are also conventional beekeepers and members of their local conventional bee club. They said that top bar beekeeping will only spread Varroa and other kind of disease! This is non-sense! How can they claim such things if they never kept bees in top bar hives???!!!
Holma Forest Garden organizers felt confused with these complaints and decided to cancel this course until they discuss this matter further. They didn't know Top Bar Beekeeping course would cause so much controversy.
It seems conservative/conventional minds have won this battle, battle against new possibilities :(
Very sad day for the bees ...
As Gandhi said; First they ridicule you, then they fight you and then you win!
So sorry to hear that Dusko, sure I think Top Bars are different to manage that normal box style hives and you need to learn new techniques to manage them.
ReplyDeleteBut I can't see how anyone could say they cause more diseases or mites?
Any hive that is neglected can cause issues, but it doesn't matter what the hive is like. It’s how good the beekeeper is.
Keep the faith man…Gary
Thanks Gary. Im only sorry about the 10 persons who signed up for this course and got nothing :( Im guessing that the conventional beekeepers from that area read on the net about Top Bar Beekeeping being mostly practiced as Varroa-treatment-free. I did explain that if one wants to treat one can do so like in any other hive. To no avail. Human ignorance is deep indeed ...
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