103
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing
agricultural ecosystems
Abejas y Permapicultura: equilibrio de los ecosistemas agrÃcolas
Telly Yarita Macias Zambrano
1
Teddy Miranda Flores de Valgas
2
Tanya Beatriz Bravo Mero
3
Teresa Viviana Moreira Vera
4
Abstract: Permaculture dates back to the origins of man, fauna and
flora that coexist on planet earth, each with a mission that contributes
to maintaining the harmonious balance of ecosystems, for which,
bees, the noble laborious, play a fundamental role in the pollination
of agricultural crops and the diversity of plant species, floral, timber,
fruit that make up the agro ecosystems, without which, the food of
man would be limited; So much so that permapiculture safeguards the
natural habitats of bees to guarantee their productivity, preserve their
health and prolong their life; in this context, the objective of the work
delved into the importance of permapiculture to maintain the balance
of agricultural and agroforestry ecosystems, nature and mother earth
as a whole. Based on a methodology of documentary review in
primary and secondary sources, books, manuals and scientific articles,
live recorded workshops and recorded interviews of experts, it was
possible to obtain as results a characterization of permapiculture to
determine that its importance lies in the rescue of ancestral knowledge
that respects the natural environment of bees as producers of food and
health for men. For these reasons, it is necessary to renew the
traditional beekeeping practices oriented to an intensive beekeeping,
towards the permapiculture that will guarantee the permanence of the
brides of the sun on earth, and consequently to all the species, of
which human beings are also part, being now, the moment to rethink
and practice the filial love for the permapiculture.
Keywords: Apis melliferae bees, beehive, agricultural ecosystems,
nature, permapiculture.
Published
Edwards Deming Higher Technological
Institute. Quito - Ecuador
Periodicity
October - December
Dates of receipt
Received: May 19, 2023
Approved: July 03, 2023
http://centrosuragraria.com/index.php/revista
vol. 1. Num. 19. 2023.
pp. 103-125
Correspondence author
itspem.tmiranda@gmail.com
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License, Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International.https://creativecommons.org/lice
nses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es
1.
Ingeniero, Centro de investigación internacional, capacitación, eventos y publicaciones, itspem.tmacias@gmail.com,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5005-7967
1.
Ingeniero, Instituto Superior Tecnológico Paulo Emilio MacÃas, itspem.tmiranda@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4907-8189
1.
Master, Universidad Técnica de ManabÃ, tanya.bravo@utm.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3437-8584
1.
Master, Universidad Técnica de ManabÃ, teresa.moreira@utm.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9868-3652
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
104
Resumen: La permapicultura se remonta a los orÃgenes del hombre,
la fauna y la flora que coexisten en el planeta tierra, cada uno con una
misión que contribuye a mantener el equilibrio armónico de los
ecosistemas, para el cual, las abejas, las nobles laboriosas, juegan un
rol fundamental en la polinización de los cultivos agrÃcolas y la
diversidad de especies vegetales, florales, maderables, frutales que
conforman los agro ecosistemas, sin las cuales, la alimentación del
hombre se verÃa limitada; tanto asà que, la permapicultura salvaguarda
los hábitats naturales de las abejas para garantizar su productividad,
preservar su salud y prolongar su vida; en tal contexto el objetivo del
trabajo ahondó en la importancia de la permapicultura para mantener
el equilibrio de los ecosistemas agrÃcolas, agroforestales, la naturaleza
y la madre tierra toda. Basándose en una metodologÃa de revisión
documental en fuentes primarias y secundarias, libros, manuales y
artÃculos cientÃficos, talleres en vivo grabados y entrevistas grabadas
de expertos, se pudo obtener como resultados una caracterización de
la permapicultura para determinar que su importancia radica en el
rescate del saber ancestral que respeta el entorno natural de las abejas
como productoras de alimento y salud para los hombres. Por tales
razones, se precisa renovar las prácticas apÃcolas tradicionales
orientadas a una apicultura intensivista, hacia la permapicultura que
garantizará la permanencia de las novias del sol en la tierra, por
consecuencia a todas las especies, de las cuales los seres humanos son
parte también, siendo ahora, el momento para recapacitar y practicar
el filial amor por la permapicultura.
Palabras clave: abejas Apis melÃferas, colmena, ecosistemas
agrÃcolas, naturaleza, permapicultura.
1. Introduction
The brides of the sun, the golden princesses, the winged pharmacists,
and other adjectives given to honey bees, are marked recognitions that
people who have been closely following their laborious day by day,
give them, as a way to praise their exemplary work organization, their
food and medicinal production, their sacrifice of life for the very life of
human beings, animals and plants, because the time of the planet and
humanity is in direct dependence on the survival of their species.
Numerous records found in various locations around the world attest to
the existence of bees, foragers and the activity involved in managing
and harvesting the production of winged honey bees (Lino, 2002).
(Lino, 2002)However, this activity, which was traditionally called
apiculture, is currently differentiated from api permaculture or
permapiculture, which has been the ancestral practice of the knowledge
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
105
of ancient peoples, lordships, tribes, communities and others,
throughout the world.
And the fact is that api permaculture starts from the guiding principle
of respect and harmony for the work of the winged Apis species, from
the observation of what they do and how they do it to learn how they
work to produce their food which are honey and pollen for the entire
adult population, royal jelly that feeds the queen and the larvae, wax as
the basis for the production of honey, propolis which is the medicine
against diseases to which the hive may be exposed (Alvarez et al.,
2022).
Work from which, once the honey production is ready, as the main
product produced by the bees, the renewed api permaculturist, can
benefit economically, food and medicine, because in addition to honey,
pollen harvesting, propolis tincture elaboration and other derivatives as
products that combine food and medicine, can be produced to be
marketed, from the work and production of the entire hive.
There are several products and by-products that the api permaculture
production can provide to the api permaculture producer, however, it is
the spirit of wisdom that assists him to promote creativity in him, to
elaborate from nutritious honey-based foods such as chocolates,
nougats, snacks, ice cream, candies, desserts, among others; cosmetics
such as soaps, facial creams, shampoo, ointments and medicinal creams
based on wax, propolis and medicinal plants, as some examples of the
various products that can be made from the production api
permaculture. In this way, mother nature in her maternal wisdom
welcomes such wonderful living beings; bees, producers of the most
used, consumed and artificially copied metabolites in the history of
mankind; honey, royal jelly, propolis, pollen, wax and apitoxin.
(Alvarez, 2022).
However, as time goes by and in different spaces, bees are facing a
threat that is killing their species, since:
In agricultural landscapes, there are many environmental
disturbances on native pollinator and plant communities due to
intensive cultivation practices that are unstable in time and space.
Consequently, the remaining areas of natural habitat (those most
favorable to native bee species) are few in number, isolated, small
in size and with limited flower diversity (although higher than in
crops). In addition, many mechanical and chemical treatments are
aimed at limiting non-cultivated plant species because of their
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
106
potential damage as weeds for crops. In this context, the impacts
associated with the massive introduction of a species into
communities can be exacerbated (Geslin et al., 2017).
This problem has been dragging on and has increased with the practice
of intensive beekeeping, whose domestication mechanism applied to
bees has brought economic benefits to beekeepers, but whose
environmental impact is destroying the populations of native bees and
honey bees native to tropical ecosystems. In this sense, and as MacÃas
et al., 2022) refers in their textual notes on rural beekeeping as an eco-
friendly complement to traditional agriculture, it is necessary then:
To return our gaze to the agricultural fields, to the agro-forest
systems, to the natural environment of hills and valleys, of rivers
and marshes; to put a little bit of love to recover them, is part of
what mother earth demands from the human being that she
shelters; the combination of sowing and harvesting the land
respecting the work of the bees is one of the ideal alternatives to
begin the rescue tasks, through the work of such noble insects, of
the winged pharmacists, of the servile workers, beginning to
value the effort, the time and the work that demands them to travel
kilometers to pollinate so many types of crops and thus extract
what will be their food, to repay us even more, through the
wonderful and therapeutic products of the beehive (p.749).
Which means practicing beekeeping and agriculture of not doing:
Permaculture, which is not an option, it is the path that leads to the
recovery of species, both plants and animals: endemic crops and native
insects that are bees, which leads to respect for their habitats, their ways
of life and work, of what they have to teach, because they have never
needed man (Perone, 2009), on the contrary, more and more is who will
need these beautiful winged. Therefore, the purpose of this research was
focused on determining the importance of Permapiculture that, together
the bumblebees and the permaculturist api carry out to maintain the
balance of agricultural ecosystems, agroforestry, nature and mother
earth as a whole.
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
107
Materials and methods
A review of various documents such as manuals, scientific articles,
books, memoirs, expert conferences, recorded courses, workshops,
recorded interviews, master's and doctoral theses, was carried out to
deepen the knowledge of api permaculture; however, it should be noted
that there was a wealth of material that speaks of the beekeeping
experience, and very little on api permaculture documented in articles,
books, reports or fourth level theses.
In this context, we worked with the literature found and especially with
the experience of the Argentine expert in api permaculture Oscar
Perone, exposed in workshops, which is duly documented in electronic
media recorded and available on the web.
Result
As stated by Weiller (2000)in his book about the bees and the man,
sometimes the feelings overwhelm us, some men, when meeting the
bees express themselves in such an understanding and expressive way
as in these verses of Hilde Domin "Who would be like the bee, who
feels the sun also through the cloudy sky, who finds the way to the
flower never losing the direction, to this one the fields would appear in
splendor; however short he might live, he would seldom weep" (Domin,
1997 cited by Weiler, 2000), for as he also expresses it, man has always
been fascinated by bees, one of the poetic definitions being the one
inspired by Perone to describe them as:
Bees are the poetic thoughts of God, flying from beauty to beauty,
offering marvelous gifts for everyone in doing so, that is the
sacred mission of the bees flying from flower to flower
pollinating them, offering the plants the possibility of procreating,
of giving reproductive energy to the plant life, helping it and thus
maintaining biodiversity, helping to preserve nature as we know
it so far, and producing with this great and sacred task the most
powerful and healing food products known as pure honey and bee
bread, not for nothing is it said that beehives are the pharmacies
of nature. (Perone, 2011).
And, similarly, as Maeterlinck rightly expresses it in his work The Life
of Bees (1999)man has been assisted by the profanation, "before
intuiting their secrets, before impregnating ourselves with the
atmosphere, the perfume, the spirit, the mystery of those industrious
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
108
virgins, the blond little birds, the daughters of Aristeo" (p. 15), when he
marveled at them in a picturesque village landscape of Zealandia:
There they were, at the bright crossroads where the aerial routes
converge and depart from dawn to dusk, where the busy and
sonorous swarms travel from dawn to dusk, all the perfumes of
the countryside. There one would listen to the happy and visible
soul, the intelligent and musical voice, the joyful crackling of the
most beautiful hours of the garden. There one would learn, in the
school of the bees, the designs of omnipotent Nature, the
luminous relations of the three kingdoms, the inexhaustible
organization of life, the morality of hard and disinterested work,
and what is worth as much as the morality of work: the heroic
workers taught also there to enjoy the somewhat vague taste of
leisure, underlining, as it were, with the fiery strokes of their
thousand little wings, the almost imperceptible delights of those
immaculate days that revolve on themselves in space, bringing us
nothing but a transparent world, empty of memories, like a too
pure bliss (p. 18).
Being so much their nobility, that for Perone (2012), in reality, "bees
do not gather honey, bees give life to life", understanding that bees are
not prey animals, bees are not defensive, bees are loving, because if we
do not bother them, they never bother us, they never bother us and if
not, we must stop to observe how they coexist with us in the cities, they
drink and forage in the flowers of the parks and gardens, man is
frightened, they do not even look at them, thus, the cases of stings occur
because they were first bothered by man... (Perone, 2012). (Perone,
2012).
Bees, threats they face
According to history, Apis mellifera, also known as the honey bee,
arrived in the American continent in 1956, having been known since
the Mesoamerican cultures and the Spanish colonization in the 1760s
and 1770s; but it was not until the 20th century that beekeeping became
economically active. This species is polylectic, which means that it is a
great honey producer due to its ability to collect nectar, pollen and
resins according to the flowering of the place (Baena et al., 2022).
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
109
The global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services
reveals that ancient Mayan and Egyptian texts recognize the vital
importance of bees for the survival of human conglomerates across the
planet in their different eras, as the honey bee Apis melifera is the
pollinating insect with the greatest presence in the various continental
territories, contributing to food security (Brondizio et al., 2019).
Thus, when animals and insects collect pollen from flowers and spread
it, they allow plants, including many food crops, to reproduce, and
although birds, rodents, monkeys and even people pollinate, the most
common pollinators are insects, and among them, bees (Brondizio et
al., 2019), as they contribute 25% to the pollination of various species
of flora, hence the essential of their presence in nature that has promoted
several researches for their genetic conservation (Vásconez, 2017).
Apis mellifera have great adaptability in various climates (Suasnávar et
al., 2018), although they do better in warmer environments; but like any
pollinator is predisposed to attack by other insects such as bumblebees,
mites, diseases and environmental pollution, being more resistant
depending on the conditions of the queen bee that determines the
strength of the entire colony (Acosta, 2019). Their characteristics vary
according to the locality where they are found and this is directly related
to their haplotype) and this, in turn with the climatic adaptation and the
capacity of resistance to diseases of the hive (Tibatá et al., 2017).
Honey bees have a life cycle that depends on their role, so the queen
bee lives less than the worker bee and the worker bee lives less than the
drone, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Apis mellifera life cycle
Cycle
Queen bee
Worker bee
Drone bee
Egg
3 days
3 days
3 days
Larva
5.5 days
6 days
6.5 days
Pupa
7.5 days
12 days
14.5 days
Total
16 days
21 days
24 days
Note. Taken from Suasnávar et al, (2018).
Linnaeus in 1758 described the honey bee, from there on, several
subspecies have been found all over the planet, in a diversity of
climates, from cold and icy, to temperate and warm. (Acosta, 2019).
The taxonomic classification is shown in Table 2 below:
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
110
Table 2 Taxonomy
Kingdom:
Animalia
Class: Insecta
Family:
Apidae
Species:
mellifera
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Order:
Hymenoptera
Genus: Apis
Note. Taken from Borbor (2015).
Currently, bees are facing a potential threat, thus, according to UN
information (2022)In recent years, bee colonies have been increasingly
reduced, one of the main causes being the excessive use of
agrochemicals on farms and agroforestry systems, intensive agriculture
using machinery and equipment, as well as the extreme climate change
that is being experienced, not only pose a threat to the endemic flora,
but also to the fauna that includes pollinating insects such as honey
bees, which, by decreasing together, endanger the livelihood of
mankind.
Environmental conditions such as increased temperature and humidity
directly influence the work of the honeybee in the plant-pollinator
network, including the decrease in plant diversity (Giannini et al.,
2015); furthermore, negative impacts to the honeybee may increase in
more vulnerable ecosystems such as protected areas, islands, or those
resulting from natural areas in intensive agricultural extensions (Geslin
et al., 2017).
Another factor that affects them is air pollution, which has a direct
impact on the aggressive decline of the honey bee population; in the
U.S. alone, in the last decade there has been a 44% decrease in the last
five years. Air pollutants such as hydrocarbons produce chemical
changes that mix with the aromatic molecules released by flowers,
which are the signals that bees follow to collect nectar, causing them to
become confused and taking much longer to locate them for pollination
(Cheng et al., 2020). Some of these impacts are illustrated in Figure 1
below.
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
111
Figure 1. Negative impacts on honey bees
Note. Own elaboration. Taken from Cheng et al., (2020).
Bees, contributions to the natural balance
On the other hand, bees have a beneficial impact on agricultural
ecosystems, as they are considered the most efficient pollinating
insects, however, the Apis mellifera species has undergone genetic
alterations with the particular objective of reducing their aggressiveness
and making them tame to be able to manage them in an apiary, Since
for the purpose of pollinating large agricultural extensions,
transhumance is used to transport the bees to the sown extensions, the
handling and transfer of Africanized bees is very difficult for them
because they are more stressed than the European bees. This leads to
greater colony avoidance and mortality, leaving the beekeeper with
weak colonies and fewer hives to rent. In addition, stinging accidents to
agricultural workers increase with Africanized bees, which makes their
management difficult and compromises future income for the
beekeeper (Guzman et al., 2011).
According to the experiences of intensivist beekeepers who are
dedicated to the mobilization of hives dedicated to crop pollination,
Africanized bees swarm frequently, abandoning the hives, which brings
heavy losses to beekeepers (López, 2019)For these reasons, beekeepers
opted to replace queen bees with those of European origin, achieving
Atmospheric pollutants
interact with odor
molecules sent by plants
and make bees forage and
pollinate less.
Pesticides and
insecticides have a wide
range of lethal effects
on pollinates such as
bees.
Neonicotinoids may
affect the reproductive
success of wild
pollinators such as
honeybees.
Pesticides, when
applied to crops, can
reach bees through the
air, water and soil.
Neurotoxic pesticides
adversely affect bees'
ability to recognize their
nests
Pesticides affect the
the navigation pattern, as well as
aprennl behavior.
and feeding
of the bees.
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
112
that, due to their gentleness, the hive also becomes tame and can support
the continuous transfer of their hives to pollinate agricultural
extensions, an action that has also contributed to surpass the number of
hives they had before the change.
However, it is necessary to state that, according to the experience of
permaculture or extensive beekeeping, the endemic bee of the tropical
zones whose characteristics are very similar to the African bees, has a
very resistant genetics to its natural environment, since nature is so wise
that it has provided the strength and vigor it needs to live in the climatic
conditions of the South American tropic north and center, since the
south of the continent is colder and temperate, however, the honey bees
of that area perform quite well in such ecosystems.
Thus, when the beekeeper becomes aware that he can spend time and
invest money in buying tame queens to appease the aggressiveness of
the hive, it does not guarantee that the hive will be stronger for longer,
less sensitive to pests and diseases, artificially fed and constantly
requiring the beekeeper's intervention, which does not correspond at all
with the untamed nature of bees, since they were born to be free and in
their complete freedom they travel, work and live in their chosen
homes, cohabiting with other species in diverse environmental settings,
and that by their very nature, their work is faster, their production is
more abundant and their life span is longer.
And, as bees travel miles to collect nectar from the flowers of fruit,
timber, floral, short-cycle and long-cycle species, they play a leading
role in the pollination of a diversity of agricultural crops such as
oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, apples, watermelons, melons,
coffee, tomatoes, kiwis, passion fruit, guavas, among many others, of
which we would not be able to feed ourselves if it were not for the
existence of the hard-working bees, apples, watermelons, melons,
coffee, tomatoes, kiwis, passion fruit, guavas, among many others,
which we could not feed ourselves if it were not for the existence of the
hard-working bees or for the drastic reduction of their populations,
which is already being felt in many countries of the planet. (THE
CITIZEN, 2022).
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
113
Permaculture and Beekeeping, origins and practices
In many documents collected throughout history, it is said that
beekeeping is one of the oldest productive activities practiced in
tropical areas of the earth (Contreras et al., 2018); in America the
Mayan culture is the reference that has preserved the knowledge from
generation to generation, acquiring socioeconomic relevance and
becoming a source of income and employment of rural peasant
ruralities, (Magaña et al., 2016). In addition that it is "a very broad
scientific subject, which has to do with agriculture, nutrition, medicine,
industrial products and environment." (Saha, 1999)It is also linked to
the knowledge of peasant farmers in a rural territory, which they have
been practicing empirically and is currently gaining importance,
resuming its use, especially to enhance traditional agriculture with the
pollination of short- and long-cycle crops (MacÃas et al., 2020).
It is an agricultural activity that contributes to the protection of the
environment and agroforestry production through the pollination
action of bees" and as such beekeeping, as an agricultural activity,
and from the point of view of organic, sustainable or good practice
production, this has always meant a challenge, however for
beekeeping, these words make sense considering the particular
relationship that bees (Apis mellifera) maintain with the
environment and in particular with plant species (Mancera and
Sanchez, 2019).
One of its characteristics is its capacity to integrate with various
ecosystems of life and development that use the same resources, such
as: agriculture, forestry and nature conservation activities such as
pollination of wild and cultivated plants, and maximization of harvests;
due to the collection of nectar and pollen that bees perform, bringing
great benefits to man (Velásquez and Goestchel, 2019). In addition to
being a profitable activity for family farming economies, it is also
friendly to endemic and native ecosystems, constituting "an ideal
mechanism to strengthen agricultural ecosystems, endemic flora,
surrounding vegetation, harmony between man and nature, since its
practice returns to the beekeeper, the understanding and value for his
natural environment" (MacÃas et al., 2022).
However, beekeeping worldwide is practiced in ecosystems
deteriorated by the hand of man (Agüero et al., 2018), such as
deforestation that causes the loss of the endemic flora of the area,
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
114
urbanization of agricultural land, logging of timber trees, indiscriminate
pruning, fragmentation of species habitats, human displacement to
areas with eco-systemic diversity such as native forests, hills and
mountains, introduction of invasive species, among others (Verde,
2014)The loss of beehives due to pests and diseases, rain, frost,
hurricane winds, intense heat due to climatic phenomena (Baena et al.,
2022); the practice of agriculture of death that uses agrochemicals,
exterminating the endemic flowering and with it the bees (Perone,
2011); and the use of agrochemicals, exterminating the endemic
flowering and with it the bees (Perone, 2011). (Perone, 2011).
However, weighing all of the above, Permapiculture is what the bee has
been doing for 50 million years and modern beekeeping is what man
has been doing for only 150 years. Permapiculture is the "beekeeping
of not doing", it simply gives the bees the necessary conditions to
remember their instinct and information that they have latent, they
cannot forget in 150 years what they have been remembering for 50
million years. This means that modern beekeeping is not natural,
because when we intervene in the hives, we change everything that is
happening inside, the bees must repair the environment and change the
plans of the hive. In Permapiculture, the concept of beekeeper is
changed to "honey harvester" (Perone, 2012 cited by Lopez, 2019).
Permapiculture is "the return to natural beekeeping, it is the return to
what is reasonable, to what is sustainable, to what is in harmony with
nature: harmonious, symbiotic, a virtuous circle, because that is what
happens in the natural when man does not intervene, nature creates
virtuous circles, circles of life in which everything has to do with
everything, everything is symbiotic with everything, no part is more
important than the whole, but the whole cannot be adequate without that
part" (Perone, 2012 cited by Lopez, 2019).
Permapiculture is a beekeeping technique based on a deep respect for
bees, and is born from the vocation of Oscar Perone, inspired by the
Permaculture of the Australian Bill Mollison, as a philosophical
daughter of Natural Agriculture or the "No-Making" of the Japanese
Masanobu Fukuoka, which means a return to the natural, to the optimal
production of food without polluting... (Perone, 2012b). (Perone,
2012b). It is an improved technique of what traditional beekeeping has
conceived based on respect for the bees, it is "a return to the natural, to
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
115
the optimal production of food without polluting, since the
permapiculturist does not intervene in the hives, thus achieving a
significant reduction in operating costs while experiencing considerable
increases in production" (IICA, 2016, p. 8).
Permapiculture according to the Perone method (natural
extensive beekeeping) seeks to guide the work in order to
achieve the environmental conditions, so that the bees can
develop freely according to their own nature, building
honeycombs not under a structure (frame) but rather respecting
the way and form in which they elaborate in nature. At the same
time using natural food (honey and pollen reserves) for feeding
at the critical time of the year, in such a way that gastrointestinal
diseases that man himself has developed in bees by using
artificial feeding with sugar syrup will be reduced (Morales,
2014, p. 6).
It seeks the benefit of the beekeeper by concentrating on having good
results in the number of hives as well as in their performance, achieving
this by reducing the number of interventions in each hive, so that the
beekeeper will be able to attend a greater number of units in the apiary.
It respects the colony as an individual and gives back to it all the tasks
that the bees perform alone, better than with the intervention of the
beekeeper, giving them in abundance what they need to express their
greatest potential, space, reserves and few or no revisions. (Perone,
2009).
Permaculture is not to do, to let the bees be bees again, not to intervene
anything but to harvest... place them, populate them and leave them,
they will not be touched until there is no honey for us. Bees in a natural
hive and in a hollow like the one they need, like the one they can no
longer find because we humans have taken away the immense trees
where there were huge hollows where they took refuge and provided
nature with their immense capacity to pollinate which is what they do
(Perone, 2012).
The technique is limited to locate or assemble hives with standard
materials that we already have and then place them in appropriate places
to capture the swarm that will populate them free of charge and limit
ourselves to collect the rent once or twice a year, the more times we
have to collect it, the higher will be our profits and those of nature.
Permaculture is a natural process and therefore of respect to the times
and events of nature. (Perone, 2011).
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
116
Thus, its importance lies in the harmony that has always existed
between plants, water, soil and human beings that are naturally
interconnected with each other, in a sustainable way, which corresponds
to the biological cycle of the natural ecosystem, of nature itself where
they coexist; and considers four basic principles that are based on:
1) Provide adequate space for the bees, in the most suitable way
by applying the golden ratio of the perfect number (1.61803);
2) Start with swarm captures in the areas where the apiaries will
be established;
3) It is necessary that the bees carry out their work, as they have
done ancestrally, provided the natural habitat, without much
interference from man;
4) Harvesting honey, once there is enough, and leaving the
necessary honey for the bees (IICA, 2016, p. 8).
The study by Morales (2014) refers to the work of Perone (2009) citing
that in the permapiculture hive, the bees work in a natural way, the way
they design their nests and accommodate their reserves for the winter
season is respected and avoids the loss of strength of the colony that is
common in our environment, caused by the constant revisions made by
the beekeeper. One of the main advantages of the Perone hive model is
that it uses the technique of permapiculture or natural extensive
beekeeping in which the beekeeper does not intervene except to harvest
the hives, thus substantially reducing the amount of inputs such as fuel,
wax, labor and at the same time, it achieves as its main objective, the
increase in the production of honey harvested per hive (Perone, 2009).
Another advantage of Permapiculture is that it is not necessary to have
knowledge about the different techniques and management in
beekeeping normally practiced in our environment (intensive
beekeeping). Therefore, this study could validate this technology in our
environment, adapting it to small and medium beekeepers who lack
knowledge about the breeding and exploitation of bees or for people
who want to enter the field of extensive beekeeping (Perone, 2009).
Permapiculture, the renovation
Beekeeping is renewed by the concept of Permapiculture, which goes
far beyond a new terminology, this has been developed since millenary
times, and it has been, thanks to the ancestral knowledge of those who
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
117
have preceded in life, that its practice is currently being resumed. Thus,
the expert in Permapiculture, Oscar Perone, of Argentine nationality, is
one of the main exponents, defender and promoter of Permapiculture,
not only as a means of economic production, which after all is the
product of the exercise of a productive activity and is given by logical
consequence; but by the principle of love, respect and conservation that
man must provide to their environment and nature itself.
In this way, permaculture is an integrating principle of the laboriousness
of the winged honey bees, of their organized way of working, of
producing, of reproducing, of maintaining order, asepsis and food
inside the hive, for all the bee population, the queen, the drones, the
workers, in strict respect and consideration, since they are the ones who
are teaching man, the beekeeper, the farmer, how things should be done,
both in their time and in their space. This mission of the bees is the one
that the promoted api permaculturist or permapiculturist begins to
accept, to assimilate it and consequently to put it into action, to realize,
finally, that the intrinsic values to the harmonic coexistence of the
species are the foundation or the cornerstone on which rests the own
life in mother nature.
With permapiculture, beekeeping ceases to be what it has been
and becomes a mere real estate operation. We are only the
owners of the spaces where they live and they happily offer us
huge profits for the corresponding rents, that's all, it's simple.
There is no need to know anything about beekeeping... There is
no need to apply beekeeping in hives that are only opened for
harvesting, it is another way of saying, to collect the rent... By
seeking the benefit of the beekeeper, concentrating on having
more results in the number of hives than in the amount that each
one yields, this is achieved by reducing the interventions in each
hive, in this way the beekeeper can attend a greater number of
units, consequently, he will not only win by producing more but
also by spending less. (Perone, 2012a).
According to the latest scientific studies that show that there is no
printed wax that is not contaminated, and that this contamination not
only leaves residues in the products of the beehive, but, more seriously,
together with the use of any drug, even those considered "innocuous"
as the organic ones, obstruct the micro fauna inside the hives,
preventing, among other things, the bees to properly carry out the
process of ensilage of pollen, to make bee bread with the consequent
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
118
very serious results that are noticed everywhere. So, as a principle of
self-defense, and, practical convenience for the economy of the
beekeeper and his bees, the use of stamped wax is completely
discouraged, replacing it systematically, filling the grooves of the heads
of the frames, through which pure beeswax will be poured, from the one
collected in previous harvests (Perone, 2012).
Permaculture, balance for ecosystems and bees
When beekeepers harvest every last gram of honey, do not
respect and intrude into the body of the hive animal and
introduce their contaminated tools and hands, breaking the
sacred seal of propolis with which the species defends itself
from diseases, they are attacking and ending the work and life
of the bees, that is why Permapiculture is so important, because
by offering what the hive animal needs: immense size and peace,
which is achieved with the non-intervention of the human being,
it offers the hive animal the conditions it needs to achieve
properly do its great work, and leaving us the owners of the
boxes they inhabit by the functional rooms that we offer them in
exchange for their invaluable services and wonderful products.
(Perone, 2016).
In Oscar Perone's vast experience of more than forty years as a
permapiculturist, practicing, teaching and taking the knowledge of
Permapiculture through various territories of Latin America, they have
corroborated that "the bad practices exercised for years by those who
have worked traditional beekeeping are the real reason why beekeeper
bees are at this moment in frank disappearance all over the planet."
(Perone, 2016)This situation is aggravated by the increasingly polluted
environments where bees are intended to work.
In contrast to these practices that have led to the global phenomenon of
Colony Collapse Disorder (disappearance of entire hives),
Permaculture takes care of the bees, offering the beekeeper the
possibility, in some cases, to increase honey production up to four
times, through "automatic hives", the beekeeper does not intervene at
all in the production, thus achieving, in addition, a significant reduction
in operating costs along with significant increases in harvest. (Perone,
2016).
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119
The development of the first Perone hive for Permapiculture considered
the standard material of the Langstroth hive used in beekeeping,
however, trying to adapt the hives carried with other systems to
Permapiculture, is not the most appropriate, because even in the best
cases, none reaches the results offered by the Perone hive, of very low
cost of construction and that provides spectacular results if the
conditions where it is placed are suitable for the bees to demonstrate
their true power, unknown until then, now potential. (Perone, 2012).
Therefore, to implement permapiculture, very little capital is needed,
and very little work, since it is only necessary to manufacture hives with
low-cost materials, which will be placed in suitable sites, and with
populations that when they reach adulthood, will provide harvests year
after year, if weather conditions permit, with the only activity of the
permapiculturists being harvesting, all details that make up this new
method, together with the special suit of the beekeeper, designed to
totally prevent the bees from reaching the body of the person wearing
it, and to prevent the bees from dying, knowing how to "live together
with them, in an absolutely sustainable way and in harmony with
nature" (Perone, 2012b). (Perone, 2012b).
Perone (2011) considers, like many other beekeepers and scientists, that
what inhabits the hollow of a tree or a beehive is a so-called social
individual. This individual is formed by cells that fly (the bees) to bring
from outside what the hive animal needs to subsist; also, more than one
intensive beekeeper has been heard to express 'this season I did badly,
what happened is that I could not attend them, I could not go to the
apiary as many times as they need. And they don't need us at all! The
result of intensive versus natural extensive farming is that the apparent
advantage offered by intensive farming has been lost, of achieving more
results being on top of each hive (not for nothing are bees in danger of
disappearing) and natural extensive Permapiculture achieves results in
each of the hives, not dreamed of by the intensive farming. (Perone,
2012a).
Therefore, Permapiculture respects the hive animal as an individual and
gives back to it all the tasks that the bees perform alone better than with
the intervention of the beekeeper, giving it in abundance what it needs
to express its greatest potential: space, reserves and peace. Following
the teachings of nature, he selects for the strongest, avoiding the
economic cost of curing diseases, thus completely eliminating the risk
of introducing impurities into the products. (Perone, 2012a).
Bees and Permapiculture: balancing agricultural ecosystems
120
Thus, the development of Permapiculture is based on the intimate
conviction, widely proven by the experience achieved with the hives
themselves, that what should be offered to the bees is only: space,
reserves and peace, in this way more and more hives that produce with
the lowest cost will be obtained. (Perone, 2011)But above all, it
contributes to the preservation of such a precious species, like parents
who keep, care for and save their daughters, like princesses who have
their own wings, and in each flight, as they move from flower to flower,
they give more life to life and transform the nectar into the food of life
in a perfect communion.
Conclusions
Life itself embodied in man, animals, plants, mother nature, the planet
and the universe all function in the harmony of the perfect triads
conceived by the Creator, one of its reflections being the laborious,
organized and productive work of the winged brides "the bees",
composed of workers, drones and the queen, which form the ideal
pyramidal base on which life, food and health of their own and others
in their home community called the hive is based.
In this sense, respect for bees, their work and their food is to respect,
value and also ensure food for humans, flora and fauna surrounding
agricultural ecosystems, knowing that without bees there is no
pollination, without pollination there is no flowering, without flowering
there can be no fruit and without fruit there will be no food. This link
leads to the assurance and permanence of all life on earth, without
exceptions, although it seems not to be, and it is where man must play
his role as custodian of the treasure of nature that requires a balance for
the coexistence of species.
It is time for the traditional beekeeping man to renew himself, to be
clothed with a love inspired by the life embodied in the brides of the
sun, the winged honey makers, the winged pharmacists who drink the
nectar from the source provided by God to ensure the existence of the
planet, to transport it within themselves as the true guardians until it
reaches the safe home of their hive and to transform it into the
nutritional sustenance of their entire home-community-hive; but also as
the humble and faithful servants that they are, they share it with those
who have been stalking them, bursting in and tearing them away from
October - December vol. 1. Num. 19 - 2023
121
their safe place of what by nature was conferred to them: their
resistance, their strength and their immunity, to benefit from them and
from what they do with the justified slogan of "raising them" as if they
were domesticated mammals that go out to graze to be milked.
Such a mistake has cost and continues to cost the lives of millions of
bees around the world, scourged by diseases and pests in their artificial
habitats, which have come from intensive beekeeping overcrowded
with unnecessary elements for them, and hand in hand with agricultural
practices that have abused the use of agrochemicals in plantations,
sweeping away the existence of so many beneficial insects, among
them, the bees; However, hope is the key and it joins the ancestral
knowledge and the good will of the male guardians who have generated
enough conscience to amend the past mistakes, and that hope has a
name "Permapiculture", and it only requires the decision, love and
perseverance of a man renowned as Permapiculturist to return to nature
its golden princesses.
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