Maderson & Elsner-Adams: Beekeeping in Rural Contexts

In Beekeeping, Stewardship and Multispecies Care in Rural Contexts, authors Sibohan Maderson (Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University and Geography and Planning, Cardiff University) and Emily Elsner-Adams (Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University and Elsner Research and Consulting) examine rural environmental stewardship through the practices of beekeepers in the United Kingdom.

Beekeeping is a historically rural practice that has faced unusual decline in recent years. Although beekeepers’ specific practices vary, the article outlines how almost all beekeepers share a sense of stewardship for their bee colonies. The authors argue that the motivations and practices of beekeepers can provide examples of proper interspecies care in rural societies.

Specifically, the article examines how beekeepers respond to problems with the colonies they oversee. For example, some beekeepers use chemicals to combat disease, while others refrain out of concern for the long-term health of their bees. Regardless of such differences, beekeepers as a whole are concerned with the broader agricultural landscape. Both commercial and hobby farmers place their colonies in a larger landscape, requiring farmers to understand the environment. Interviews conducted by the authors returned numerous examples of beekeepers describing their colonies as part of a “community.”

Because they view their role as beekeepers within a larger environmental context, beekeepers are willing to take actions detrimental to themselves in order to help the community as a whole (i.e., reporting a disease outbreak to a governing agency, with the result of having to destroy the colony). The authors argue that this general sense of stewardship should be viewed as an example for rural communities. The beekeeper’s empathetic relationship with the environment provides a model of environmental care and stewardship for other species.