By Alex Tuchman | Co-Director
Dear Friends,
At Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary, we honor the gifts that the bees give us through their health and vitality, rather than greedily striving to get all that we can from the bees at the expense of their health. This is the central change in attitude that makes our land a true Sanctuary for the bees, and has been the foundation for our bees to thrive while bees across the world are still being exploited in the name of productivity.
But what the bees give us when they are healthy and well cared for: honey, propolis, wax, pollination, formic acid... These are all products of healing that serve humanity. By serving the bees, we need not worry that we will not be served. Service is the nature of the honeybee colony.
The greatest expression of health and vitality in a beehive is the swarm -- the natural reproductive capacity wherein one colony creates another. This rebirth, this swarm, is a remarkable phenomenon that inspires awe and wonder in the observer. For us at the Sanctuary, we celebrate these swarms, and help to guide these new colonies into their new bodies--into a new hive.
Thus, we have established a natural breeding program that serves the instincts of the bees and honors their health and vitality through allowing their natural reproductive processes to furnish our Sanctuary, and our community of beekeepers, with both new true queens (not artificially raised) and natural swarms (not artificial splits or packages). Because the carrying capacity of our land is ~25 hives, each year we have an abundance of new colonies that need new homes. By giving these to responsible beekeepers, we spread our strong, acclimatized, and localized stock into the community to help ensure the future of healthy bees in our region and beyond.
This breeding program, and all of the educational support that surrounds it, forms the crux of our service to the honeybee. We are so grateful to have you with us on this journey, and are always so very thankful for your contributions and participation.
Sincerely,
Alex
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
