Dee Lusby said;   “See nothing organic about artificial feeds, 
syrup,essential oils and supplements that actually aredetrimental to the 
bees longterm needs.”

     It seems to me that a distinction could be made between “natural” 
beekeeping and “organic” beekeeping, and that in either case, where one 
draws the defining line is somewhat arbitrary.   Natural beekeeping would 
be more along the lines of what the Lusbys do, and it is easy to see how 
that would also qualify as organic beekeeping; no treatments, no 
supplements, nothing.  But then is it even more natural, and therefore 
more “in the long term interest of the bees” to use Kenyan top bar hives 
and let the bees decide for themselves what size cell they will make?  When 
it comes to natural, the minute humans get involved the question gets 
raised as to where you draw the line.  If you use a substance which is 
naturally occurring in honey, such as formic acid, that might reasonably be 
thought to go beyond what is natural, but then again it might not.  After 
all putting bees in boxes with rectangular frames and stamped out sheets of 
foundation might not be considered a natural thing to do.  But what the 
heck.
    I get even more confused when we talk about what is organic and what is 
not. Some would say that what is organic is determined by the degree to 
which you keep things natural, letting the bees find the strength to deal 
with parasites and pathogens more or less on their own.  Others would allow 
organic to include the use of substances which occur in nature, like 
essential oils and formic and oxalic acids, in ways which do not raise the 
levels of those substances in the honey.  Also, if you feed syrup at 
critical points, in such a way as to prevent it from being moved into the 
supers, is the honey you extract from those supers therefore not organic?  
When we talk about what is organic are we talking about the process or the 
product or both?
    I like the idea of things being natural and organic, and I think it’s a 
good strategy to not allow the bees to get too dependent, if at all, on 
substances and treatments in order to stay alive. But surely there is 
enough ambiguity in those terms to allow for some degree of flexibility in 
methods.  I need for there to be some flexibility because at my level of 
beekeeping (4-8 hives) I can’t afford to keep risking all my colonies in 
order to get to a place where they "might" survive without me doing 
anything to keep them going.  On the other hand I do want to be able to say 
to people I give or sell my honey to that it is a natural and healthy thing 
to eat.

Steve Noble     

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