Braila's Apiary - Northen Rokies BC Region

- an approach to beekeeping encouraging minimal manipulation and as hands-off an approach as possible.

Maintaining a healthy beehive is a complex and occasionally difficult challenge, with threats to our bees including pests, pesticides and more. But one of the most pervasive threats relates to that from mites, such as the varroa mite.

We practice treatment free beekeeping - perhaps the most common practice mentioned by proponents of natural beekeeping is the desire to avoid chemical treatments to address issues in the hive. This is also the most controversial aspect of natural beekeeping and you will easily and readily find experienced beekeepers on both side of this coin.

We practice foundation-less beekeeping. Bees make good choices! Bees will create the entire comb, rather than lay it over a man-made foundation. These frames often have a small "wedge" at the top, merely to provide the bees with a helping hand to get started.

Our goal is to breed a bee adapted to the Northen Rockies  BC Region climate, well suited to the specifics of the local environment and can survive infestations without the need of chemical treatments for mite control.   At least three populations of European homey bees have developed this ability by means of natural selection and have been surviving for more than 10 years without mite treatments. For more info see article: Norwegian honey bees surviving Varroa destructor mite infestations by means of natural selection 

Our hope is to be able to reproduce this results in our apiary.