James presented “Treatment-Free and Sustainability, Can they Co-Exist?” for the Michigan Beekeepers Association Conference in Lansing, MI. March 11, 2023. During this talk he presented a bird’s eye view of major concepts of sustainable beekeeping and practice as well as the spectrum of definitions involved in treatment free beekeeping. He also described an optimistic outlook on resistance breeding and the impact it can have on the future of beekeeping and acaricide dependence.
This presentation will elaborate further on what treatment free beekeeping is for the individual beekeeper, their neighbors, and beekeeping at large.
During this presentation you will learn how leaders in beekeeping define treatment free beekeeping. We will also learn how individual beekeepers put these concepts into physical practice in their apiaries. We will also discuss what sustainable beekeeping means from the hobbyist to the commercial beekeeper and the roles each play in this definition with treatment free beekeeping in mind.
Additional time will be provided for discussion and Q&A.
James Lee is the President of the Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan. As a forensic social worker he’s intrigued by the why behind the how. He’s the owner of James Lees Bees in Romulus, MI where he manages 80 colonies pursuing sustainability in apiculture and small-scale food systems.
