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Yossi Oud instructing a biodynamic beekeeping class, Tel Aviv
Beekeepers are establishing hives in a neighborhood close to you, however most will simply be a part of the standard system which use the identical instruments which will have contributed to the decline of bees within the first place. Biodynamic beekeepers are completely different, utilizing a extra nature-centered method: they oppose shifting hives for pollination, mass harvesting honey, and killing and changing the queen yearly. They open the hive when the moon is correct, and use pure medication like chamomile tea to deal with the hives.
I first discovered about biodynamic beekeeping in Israel from Yossi Oud, who studied the Rudolf Steiner strategies of beekeeping by way of German colleagues.
With 24,000 species of bees on the planet, Israel is house to about 1,300 species, in comparison with a complete of 600 species in a rustic as massive as Canada, says Oud, an Israeli beekeeper and instructor who works with biodynamic beekeeping strategies. He says Israel is unusually wealthy in bee species, and that is due partly to the nation’s plant range. I took a course with him and visited his biodynamic hives on the roof of Tel Aviv’s mall, Dizengoff Center, and at his bee farm outdoors Jerusalem.
Read extra: Palestinian women make beekeeping sweeter
As we study extra about sustainable strategies corresponding to regenerative farming and agriculture hopefully beekeeping will meet someplace within the center.
The Land of Milk and Honeybees
“Israel is the land of milk and honeybees, and a particular space and hotspot for animals, vegetation and bees,” says Oud. “Of the 1,300 species of bees in Israel, 8 of them are social bees,” he tells Green Prophet.
The native bee for probably the most half, which is the Syrian bee, is extinct, he notes. This is an aggressive bee which has been changed by an imported Italian bee which is now frequent in wild hives, city hives and in business hives. The Italian bees had been delivered to Israel within the Thirties to assist the vineyards, he says.
Because there may be such a large range of vegetation in Israel, he stresses, that is mirrored by the big vary of bee species. It all goes collectively.
Natural and concrete beehives on the roof of Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center
What makes the honey bee completely different from different bees is the honey abdomen which creates honey and which can also be 95% of their weight-reduction plan, says Oud, noting that folks and honeybees have had a robust connection for 1000’s of years as seen in cave artwork in France that depicts a type of bee agriculture. Bees had been additionally domesticated in historic Egypt.
Honey is a magical elixir. Mystical even. And our love for it goes method again to the earliest indicators of superior civilization, he notes.
Urban beekeepers gathering honeybee honey in Jaffa, Israel. Image by Karin Kloosterman for Green Prophet
Bees and Islam
ystically, all main world religions have a connection to bees, and Islam isn’t any exception: “In the Quran, Chapter 16 is known as after the bees” says Oud who’s Jewish however who works with Muslim and Christian Palestinians to assist them study the commerce of beekeeping in a challenge known as Bees for Peace.
Why is there a whole chapter on the bees within the Quran, The Bee?
Islam and the bees: Be like a bee
Within the chapter, two verses cowl the essence of the honeybee:
And your Lord impressed the bee: construct houses in mountains and bushes, and in (the hives) they construct for you.
Then eat from all of the fruits, following the design of your Lord, exactly.
The Bee (Arabic: النحل; an-nahl) is the sixteenth chapter (sūrah) of the Qur’an with 128 verses. It is known as after the honey bees talked about in verse 68, and accommodates a comparability of the trade and adaptableness of honey bees with the trade of man.
An-Nahl, Chapter 16 (verses 68 to 69) talks about a wide range of matters, however Allah, in keeping with Muslims, particularly selected the title The Bee to be a magnet for the readers. Bees are stated to be Allah’s miracles; the best way they perform and the way they behave, are to be held for example.
According to some Islamic traditions, everybody wants a sheep and bees to make sure prosperity for the approaching 12 months.
In Judaism, the bee isn’t kosher however you possibly can eat its honey, which is a uncommon ruling as you possibly can’t drink milk from a non-kosher animal corresponding to a camel. Deborah (Dvora in Hebrew), who was a prophet, can also be related to bees. Dvora means bee in Hebrew.
In the Bible, honey is talked about 61 instances and its which means is commonly linked with prosperity and abundance. In the third chapter of Exodus, when God known as Moses to guide the slaves out of Egypt, he known as him to make them a land that can stream with milk and honey. This is the land of recent day Israel.
In the Song of Songs of the Old Testament (4:11-16): “Your lips, my beloved and (promised) bride, drip honey because the honeycomb; Honey and milk are underneath your tongue, And the perfume of your clothes is just like the perfume of Lebanon.”
Honey is a ritual meals eaten throughout the Hebrew vacation known as Rosh Hashanah, which celebrates the Jewish New Year. “May you’ve a candy 12 months,” is a typical blessing as folks eat apples dipped in honey.
A pure hive created from mud for the bees
What is biodynamic beekeeping?
To additional the understanding of biodynamic beekeeping, we’re to view the colony as one creature, explains Oud. What does the hive know? For most of us it’s a thriller however we do know that every employee feminine lives about 6 weeks, there may be one queen and a small share of male drones.
The biodynamic queen lives for six or 7 years, and the employee bee has about 16 jobs, amongst which is making propolis, the immune system of the hive, which is collected from tree resin, says Oud.
Ayelet at Kibbutz Nir Galim sells beekeeping gear and provides for city beekeepers in Israel.
The job of the male drones? While they could appear to be loafers who can’t even feed themselves, male bees carry genetic range from one hive to a different on their travels,, says Oud. They mate with the the brand new emergent queen annually within the spring when she flies out of the hive, and the remainder of the colony follows her in a swarm to determine a brand new colony.. And that’s how bees give beginning, in keeping with biodynamic beekeeping. The outdated queen stays within the hive and raises her new brood after the remaining have left.
Related: What is apitherapy that uses the stings of the bees?
Bees give a lot sweetness in life and well being as properly, however they are often credited for bringing folks collectively within the Middle East when politicians fail. Oud has began a lot of academic applications in Israel together with Bees for Peace the place he teaches Muslim girl the way to be city beekeepers. 
is your honey actual or pretend? “When folks study to work for the bees’ welfare, a lot sensitivity and gentleness is developed, and that would translate into our each day life. In this fashion the bees educate us to behave for society, to reside in co-existence, let go of stigmas, and assist us get nearer to ourselves, others, the land and the world,” says Oud.
Oud began Bees for Peace to hitch hearts and create cooperation between Christians, Muslims and Jews, Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians. The initiative helps construct bridges by way of the bio-dynamic bee protecting technique in a number of constellations – amongst children in colleges, by way of programs and actions for adults coming from completely different sectors and cultures and in numerous joint initiatives.
Biodynamic is a time period developed contained in the teachings of anthroposophy, developed by the spiritualist and educator Rudolph Steiner from Austria within the early 1900s. There is dozens of Steiner colleges in Israel, also referred to as Waldorf Schools, and Oud comes from that training system as an educator and instructor. There is even a biodynamic farm in Egypt called Sekem.
Bees for Peace emphasizes empowerment of ladies from “conventional homes” (whether or not Muslim, spiritual Jewish or different disempowered populations), who normally don’t exit of the home to work. They study the artwork of beekeeping on their rooftop or from their backyard and might make a small earnings from honey, magnificence merchandise, or different merchandise derived from the wax of the hive.
The battle between Israel and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon has made it tough for girls in northern communities to have a tendency their hives. Many hives have died says Oud, and I spoke with one Muslim girl who says she misses her hives like her household. She was staying at a lodge in Nazareth, unable to reside in her village within the north as its continually being bombarded by missiles.
The Marj Ibn Amer Almond challenge within the Jezreel Valley educated Israeli and Palestinian girls to develop bees by the biodynamic technique, as a way to enhance the variety of bee hives within the space, to reinforce the ladies’s involvement within the almond agriculture and to extend the almond yield, particularly in gentle of the reducing numbers of bees within the space and on the planet.
The challenge was carried out by the El-Hukayer group, an NGO devoted to socio-economic improvement inside Palestinian society in Israel.
- Palestinian beekeepers on a roof in Jerusalem. Honey girls, by way of Haaretz
Tlmei Achva is an academic agricultural farm within the metropolis of Lod, for Muslim-Jewish children and youngsters, secular and non secular, the place they work and develop bees collectively.
There is an city beekeeping farming challenge within the metropolis heart of Jerusalem.
There is a biodynamic beekeeping course at Ecome heart and within the metropolis of Jericho, West Bank. The NGO works to empower Ethiopian girls by way of rising bees and constructing conventional Ethiopian bee hives.
The Honey Women of East Jerusalem is a challenge in collaboration with the Sinsila Center and the Mosella Association.
Have a swarm? Call SOS for the Bees. Locals who discover a swarm or an undesirable hive mustn’t use poison to kill them.
SOS for the Bees is a volunteer-run group that collects swarms and re-homes hives. In Hebrew, it’s Magen D’vorim Adom. You can name Yossi Oud and his group of volunteers will run to gather the bees.
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Bee Stings Are Sweet in Israel
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Can Urban Beekeepers Prevent Colony Collapse?
