NATURAL BEEKEEPING
Let me first introduce myself !
My name is Alex Vermeulen, and I'm living in Belgium in Namur area.
In the late eighties I graduated as an engineer , and I am working as an engineer since many years. I also have a passion for, and a need to be in nature often.
As a freshly graduated engineer I decided to go and work at a biological farm in France, region Alpes Maritimes. I stayed there during several months. They also had a few bee hives in the mountains, and after one joint visit, I was declared expert beekeeper, and had to go and visit the hives the next times!
My working principle of Natural Beekeeping
More than 30 years later, when moving with the family to Wallonia, I decided to go for a real education as a beekeeper, and to have my own bee hives.
But I decided to one clear principle : I will never apply any acids, chemicals, medicins, basically any additives in my hives or on my bees. If I don't manage it like this, then I decided I will stop as a beekeeper.
This is quite a challenge, as classical beekeeping relies on the application of acids and additives to fight parasites like the Varroa destructor.
I read and I searched a lot, and I decided to start by using ground mites like to Hyoaspis to fight the Varroa in a natural way. This however didn't really work well, I lost many colonies, and it was clear after several years that it is hard to apply this method successfully in Dadant type beehives.
In this picture you see the setup of some of my first bee hives with compost containers with ground mites under neath the bee hives.
The Varroa Controller
Sed pede ullamcorper amet ullamcorper primis, nam pretium suspendisse neque, a phasellus sit pulvinar vel integer.
