Farming is defined as the growing of crops or keeping animals by people for food, and raw materials. A Farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. A Bee Keeper is called an Apiarist. An Apiarist keeps Bees in order to collect Honey and other products that the hives makes. Therefore a Bee Keeper is a ….Farmer.
Who makes sure that the cows, the crops and yes, even the Bees are kept healthy? Who treats the critters when they are sick? How do we even know if they are sick? Behavior would tell us, the animals overall being. Cows, horses, dogs and cats tell us that that are ill by way of body language or a decrease in the production of milk, or … honey.
My sister once told me that “Farmers are the stewards of the earth”. It is the farmer’s job to ensure that the creatures we care for are healthy, happy and content. So its really not that far of a stretch to say that if you have happy and healthy Bees, you will have a lot of honey and other bee products. But if your Bees are sick or unhappy, then they won’t produce as much honey. So who do you call when your hives are sick? What do you do?
I received a phone call from a friend once, whose horse was colicking. She asked if I had any Banamine. Having a few horses of my own, I always kept an extra stash of the necessities. I ran the extra Banamine over to her farm, saving her horse. Before the regulation of Bee Farming by the USDA, Bee farmers would do just that. Call other Bee farmers for left over antibiotics, pick them up and give them to the Bees. The Bees would get better, and start producing again. Do you see the problem? Mis-dosing your Bees, or worse yet, misdiagnosing the creatures you’re supposed to care for isn’t doing the Bees any good. When the Farmer notices that something is wrong with their animals, they call the Veterinarian. YES!!! The veterinarian! I’ll admit, I’m just as bad as most horse owners, if we can get away without the farm call, then yeah, we’ll treat our own horse. My beloved Appaloosa had Lyme Disease so what did I do? I called my sister who gave me a huge bag of chicken antibiotics. The drug is the same, the labeling and dosage is different. But then again, I’m not a farmer, I don’t have a responsibility to harvest food products.
Regulations overseeing the production of food products falls to the USDA. They are responsible for checking in with farmers, inspecting livestock, farms for cleanliness, making sure that the animals are drug and antibiotic free. These regulations are in place to protect the public against the ingestion of tainted dairy, beef and poultry. As of January 1, 2017, the USDA deemed Bees as livestock, making the Bee farmers just as responsible for taking care of our little friends as the farmers are for taking care of the big critters. Veterinarians are being taught how to care for Bees and their hives, to recognize different illnesses that can cause hive death. The health and well being of bees is up to the stewards of the earth. So what happens when our Bees do get sick? How do we keep our bee products ‘organic’? What does that even mean? Keep reading and we’ll find out how to Bee Organic.
Bee Proactive 