Caring for Bees in Permaculture
In my talk I will take you along a beekeepers path of transformation, developing connectedness with the bees and the budding emergence of a free-the-bees culture.
I will talk about how we can support honeybees as a wild species through Darwinian beekeeping and supporting free-living bees.
I will share how I used Looby’s Design Web to ask what the bees want and my reflections on permaculture ethics in the “Caring for Bees” design.
Erkki Pöytäniemi
Erkki’s career has been in the organic movement and industry. Around 2013 he and his wife became interested in permaculture and in 2014 they started Iso-orvokkiniitty – a 12 hectare homesteading permaculture site with forest garden, mushroom cultivation, bees etc. Iso-orvokkiniitty is a LAND center.
Honeybees were a part of that from the start. Erkki’s bee-path has taken him from standard organic beekeeping to natural beekeeping in topbar hives and Warré hives to building log hives and a dream of rewilding bees locally in Karjalohja.
Erkki holds beekeeping courses (Finnish and English) and is working on his permaculture diploma and he is the chair of the Finnish Permaculture Association.
