Animal welfare is one of the most important aspects of organic farming. Organic standards insist that animals are given plenty of space and fresh air and that they are raised in conditions that suit their natural behaviour. This also includes honey bees and bee keeping. 🐝
Soil Association certified organic honey bee keepers have to adhere to the Soil Association General standards for farming and growing 🐝Standards for organic land and crops 🐝 Standards for organic livestock production 🐝 Specific standards for food and drink. 🐝 They also have their own chapter on standards for honey bee keeping.
Here are a few of the standards honey bee keepers have to adhere to…
The Soil Association Organic HONEY BEE KEEPING Standards
3.17.13 WELFARE OF HONEY BEES:
You must not mutilate honey bees, for example, clipping the wings of the queen bee.
3.17.14 FEEDING HONEY BEES
1. You must leave your colonies with enough honey and pollen reserves to survive the winter.
2. You may only feed your honey bees when the survival of the hives is endangered due to climatic conditions.
3. You may only feed them with organic honey, organic sugar or organic sugar syrup.
3.17.17 SITING YOUR APIARIES
1. When you are siting your apiaries you must ensure:
a) Your honey bees have access to water and enough natural nectar, honeydew and pollen sources to sustain your colonies.
b) Nectar and pollen sources within 3km of your apiary consist essentially of:
i) organic crops
ii) uncultivated areas with natural vegetation, and
iii) crops that have only been managed with low environmental impact methods and which cannot significantly affect the organic description of beekeeping.
c) Your bees are kept far enough from sources that may lead to the contamination of beekeeping products or to the poor health of bees.
3.17.22 EXTRACTION
1. You must make sure you adequately extract, process and store your honey bee products.
2. You must not:
a) use chemical synthetic repellents during honey extraction operations
b) destroy bees in the combs to harvest bee products, or
c) extract honey from combs that contain brood.
Read the full Soil Association Farming & Growing Standards here
Every Soil Association licensee is inspected 👀 once a year (or more if they don’t meet standards). This includes everyone involved in the process from farm to final product. There’s a lot of paperwork involved with certified organic record keeping to ensure everyone is doing what they say they’re doing. 👍
