This special salon launches the new web site https://freelivingbees.com/ – A new initiative by the Natural Beekeeping Trust
With this Website the trust seeks to showcase and encourage practices that restore and support the honey bee and its natural habitat and recognize the honey bee as an independent wild species. Michael and Cheyanna interview trustee and fellow podcaster Jonathan Powell about the site and the story behind it.
This Salon explores the fringes of arboreal apiculture and what it takes to develop and unlock the potential of new paradigms. Michael shares his journey into uncharted territories of rewilding honeybees and elaborates on challenges and opportunities that come when we begin to re-conceptualize apiculture in the light of mass extinctions and a new evolving global movement of apian conservation. Touching on practical as well as philosophical questions, we look deeper into this emerging field.
This salon will focus on the rewilding of honeybees in various landscapes and ecosystems. We are delighted to say that our special guest will be André Wermelinger from Switzerland. André is the Managing Director of FreeTheBees, an organization that has been instrumental in returning the lost craft of tree beekeeping back into Europe. André is a passionate advocate of wild Apis Mellifera, promoting both legal protection and monitoring of wild colonies by engaging with scientists and conservationists. More information about his work is available here
In this Salon we focus on what we may call ‘Stillpoint’, a transitional time between past and future, very creative but also challenging. It has an inwardly and outwardly dimension and is significant for our relationships to the entire web of life. ‘Stillpoint’ invites us into a reflection of a world in motion and continues our inquiry into the ongoing unfolding of our relationship with honeybees.
In this Salon the group discusses the recent podcast with Richard Prum (Salon 9) and his views on how beauty has shaped evolution. The team then goes on to discuss the dichotomy of native vs alien – also in the light of climate crisis and ’neo-natives’
In Salon number 9 we welcome Professor Richard Prum of Yale University to discuss the role of beauty in evolution.
Richard’s latest book, About The Evolution of Beauty, was named a best book of the year by the New York Times book review, Smithsonian and Wall Street Journal.
A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed “the taste for the beautiful”—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. Prum introduces agency and perception as essential components for evolutionary processes and challenges the dogma that holds that natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves.
We ask Richard about his unpublished work on pollination and bees to understand the influences of beauty and way the selection process is shaped by the memory of things beautiful … or sometimes dangerous.
We will have several guests from Europe and the US to share a space of inquiry and discussion about the concept and their personal practice of ‘Rewilding Apis Mellifera’.
Presenters include Michiel Verspuij* (Ireland), Deborah Richmond (UK), Torben Schiffer (Germany) & Michael J. Thiele (US). Each will share their unique perspective on the subject.
* For information on the Welsh project mentioned by Michiel Verspuij please watch this video edited by Jonathan Powell: https://youtu.be/FsvFmtgmkmI
Listen to Torben Schiffer; our guest for Salon No.7. Torben works for Prof. Jürgen Tautz / Hobos Project (University Würzburg), his research focuses on the climatic conditions of tree cavities and beehives, and the effects on bee health. Additionally, he is an expert on the symbiotic relationship between book scorpions and honeybees. He proved that book scorpions feed i.a. on varroa mites and beetle larvae (such as small hive beetle). Furthermore, he is exploring the effects of beekeeping on the grooming behavior of bees.
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