"Sustainable beekeeping" in my view is the practice of keeping bees alive,
rather than not alive.
So the adjective is a little redundant, as one either keeps the bees alive,
or one is no longer keeping them.
It seems enough to simply say "beekeeping", when one speaks of
"sustainability".

There are various approaches that attempt to take the moral/ethical high
ground and hence attempt to use the term "sustainable", as if it was unique
to them, but all of them are more anthropocentric than focused on the
welfare of the bees themselves, as the bees are often allowed to die in
hopes of any survivors being somehow better, rather than just temporarily
lucky.

The attempt to impose human values on bees, for example the very basic issue
of the source of the carbohydrates in the diet of the bees, is most often
based upon a lack of understanding of one of the basic sciences (such as
bio-chem), but the earnestness of these anthropocentric beliefs often
includes a tacit rejection of science as a whole ("treatment-free") or a
replacement of science with mysticism ("Biodynamic").

That said, I strictly followed biodynamic practices in the extracted honey
part of my operation, as it allowed me to both sell my honey for steeply
higher prices, and be assured of selling all my crop every year at those
higher prices.  In this regard, the strict audited implementation of
Biodynamic methods was a way of assuring sustainable profits.  But none of
those colonies could pollinate apples, so the "conventional" side of the
operation did the pollination and the comb honey production, another niche
product with good demand.

But honest and educated attempts at "sustainable" practices demand that one
pay attention to the plants or the insects themselves, rather than listening
to some charismatic person with a following and a set of seemingly simple
answers to complex problems.  As always, this forces a choice between the
rational and the romantic, between the coldly analytic and the passionately
exuberant.

One important point is that those who wish to return to a pre-industrial age
in beekeeping will still use terms like "rescuing a swarm".  This exposes a
lack of perspective and self-awareness, as if it was true that the bees will
do better if "left alone", then the swarm would be best left to make its own
way in the world, and the beekeeper would be doing the bees a disservice by
hiving them.

We had a branch of the "Backwards Beekeepers" form here in NYC, and they
lasted two years before evaporating.  It should be noted that urban
beekeeping is a gateway drug to keeping urban chickens, and the animal
shelters have started to see chickens being brought in by disillusioned
urban homesteaders who decide that being responsible for the care of another
living being is too much trouble.  But then, bees are God's creatures, too,
aren't they?

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