A sandfly might not have value. Sandflies do, if you are an eater of sandflies, or rely on the larvae cleaning the place up, but you understand that.
Another bizarre beekeeping rule ?
- Thread starter StephenB
- Start date
Point 1. By 'peer review', or club membership, course completion etc.etc. Removable frames? "Afraid I'm not a believer. Moveable combs might be a standard, but I'm one of those not unable to remove skep combs, or drive bees out, so I'm wary of being too prescriptive. The important point (to me) is that you have to be able to monitor and care. I can do that in a skep, you can't; we might operate the same ethical standard but have different abilities..
AFB rules would override this issue as whatever/how you keep your bees you have to be able to inspect every frame.
AFB rules state it must be in a movable frame. It does not define what a moveable frame is. No reason, if you can remove the frames from skep, that you could not use one.
Remember the top bar debacle ?
Remember the top bar debacle ?
I started reading this, initially thinking you were alluding to those who get out of the wrong side of the bed in the a.m.
Hold on, back up the bus. ‘Rules’ and ‘Ethics’ are very different things, and actually it’s ethics that inform rules, not the other way around. Ethics are the higher order here, but the same ethical principle could create quite different, even contradictory, rules.
Without falling down the Top-bar rabbit hole it’s a case that illustrates that difference. The ethical principle is merely that it is good to be able diagnose disease correctly and therefore hive construction that enables that is ‘good’. To regulate that good using Law we might therefore make a rule that combs have to be inspectable, but we might make a rule that frames have to be in a transparent tower, or that honey has to be sniffed, or whatever. To say that combs must be removable (whatever ‘removable’ means) is not an ethical principle. Rules are changeable, bound by circumstance, by expediency; ethics immutable. Rules have penalties, ethics don’t. Ethics are better thought of as a process used for reaching moral (‘correct’) decisions, not a decision itself.
If you want a set of rules head down the ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ track and revise it every year/month/day, but start with a set of coherent ethical principles.
Without falling down the Top-bar rabbit hole it’s a case that illustrates that difference. The ethical principle is merely that it is good to be able diagnose disease correctly and therefore hive construction that enables that is ‘good’. To regulate that good using Law we might therefore make a rule that combs have to be inspectable, but we might make a rule that frames have to be in a transparent tower, or that honey has to be sniffed, or whatever. To say that combs must be removable (whatever ‘removable’ means) is not an ethical principle. Rules are changeable, bound by circumstance, by expediency; ethics immutable. Rules have penalties, ethics don’t. Ethics are better thought of as a process used for reaching moral (‘correct’) decisions, not a decision itself.
If you want a set of rules head down the ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ track and revise it every year/month/day, but start with a set of coherent ethical principles.
And I believe the hope is that by developing a set of generally acceptable principles, the prescriptive, rule-based approach might not be imposed upon beekeepers... If beekeepers are generally seen to be accepting of the set of desirable outcomes, the guiding principles, they may not get caught up in prescriptive restrictions for the outputs that lead to the outcome, if you see what I mean.
To be honest ..... I think this piece of " Draft Legisaltion" is a bit of a feel good thing .....
If we are serious about making a living off our bees, then it is on us to ensure we have happy bees , and iIwould suggest that if we have been in the business of making honey for 32 summers, then perhaps we know how things tick, and last years Bees were happy bees..... and are on track to being happy again this year.
My own solution is to tick the yes box and carry on as usual.
If we are serious about making a living off our bees, then it is on us to ensure we have happy bees , and iIwould suggest that if we have been in the business of making honey for 32 summers, then perhaps we know how things tick, and last years Bees were happy bees..... and are on track to being happy again this year.
My own solution is to tick the yes box and carry on as usual.