Treatment-Free Beekeeping – friendship & cooperation at home and across the Atlantic

Marcus Nilsson, Sweden

Treatment-free beekeeping in Sweden has revolved around Erik Österlund and his work to obtain varroa tolerance in honeybees. He has shared his knowledge and results with local beekeepers in his area and has also, over the years, reached out to other treatment-free beekeepers around the world.

Magnus and Ulrika Kranshammar from Varberg, Sweden, who have also been working to develop and promote treatment-free beekeeping in their own bee yards as well as running the local county of Varberg Beekeepers Association, decided they wanted to raise some money to fund a meeting or conference on this important subject. They turned to Eric Österlund to ask which foreign guests and TF beekeepers to invite. Erik without hesitation told them to get in touch with Kirk Webster in Vermont. Said and done, Kirk was contacted and accepted to come and hold two lectures, the first ones outside the US.

The conference “The Way to a Varroa Tolerant Bee” turned out to be a huge success with over 150 beekeepers from around Sweden and Scandinavia in the audience and beside Kirk Webster, were many reknowned speakers, both beekeepers and scientists. Among them was Norwegian beekeeper Terje Reinertsen who in his own words wrote:

“We, my wife Anita and I, met Kirk Webster at the weekend conference in Varberg. Up to this time it has been the most interesting conference on the subject we have attended as it was focused only on treatment-free beekeeping. It is always good to meet with fellow beekeepers, especially those who believe that is of the uttermost importance strive for this goal. All lecturers shared a wealth of knowledge and experience to show those in attendance that this aim could be realised.”

After the conference many of the lecturers and some of the guests decided to socialize over dinner at a local inn. Discussions continued and new friendships developed and we all had a strong feeling that this conference was just a starting point for further cooperation, in Scandinavia, as well as abroad. After the conference, Kirk expressed a wish to visit both Terje in Norway and Magnus and Ulrika in Sweden, which of course was welcomed by all parties.

It so happened that the Kranshammars and Kirk both went to the Apimondia Congress in Montréal in 2019, after which the Swedish couple were invited to visit Kirk and work for a week with him at his bee yards in Champlain Valley, Vermont. During and after work, beekeeping practice in general and treatment-free beekeeping in particular were discussed. A second trip to visit both Terje in Norway and the Kranshammars in Sweden was agreed upon, however the plan got abruptly postponed by the pandemic and will be realized now in August 2022. After a weeks stay and work with Terje in Norway the journey continued to western Sweden and Varberg. The Kranshammars run a small homestead side by side with their landscaping and garden business. They are also engaged in the local beekeeping association where they arranged a lecture by Kirk for the local beekeepers. Kirk also was intrigued by the Swedish horizontal trough hives and the experimental super deep frame hive that Magnus has developed beside the other trough hives of his own construction.

Ulrika Kranshammar, Kirk Webster, Magnus Kranshammar.

Kirk Webster and Marcus Nilsson.

Terje Reinertsen.

As there was time for more excursions in Sweden, a visit was made to Eric Österlunds home in Bäckaskog, then on to Southern Sweden to visit Beefriendly in Scania, a project run by the author of this article. The project is based on work with swarms of local feral bees only, to try to develop a sort of local “ecotype”, tolerant of varroa and which would work well in the surrounding landscape. Bees are kept treatment-free in horizontal trough hives that closely resemble the Layens hive paired with the Drayton hive, a kind of “franken hive” of sorts. Bees are not fed and winter on their own honey supplies. But more on that in another article.

I had contact with Kirk over a land line today as I was finishing this short report on how important physical meetings are between treatment-free beekeepers from different parts of the world. I asked what his impressions from the journey were and he told me that he had wanted to meet with Terje to see how he tended his bees for a long time and that he was happy with the warm welcome and hospitality he was given in Norway and Sweden. He also was both surprised and impressed with our bees in that they were docile and easy to work with compared with those he had at home. This first trip to the Nordic countries was the experience of a life time which he hoped to be able to repeat in the future.

As regards Eric Österlund and his group of treatment-free beekeepers, they meet annually and are planning this autumn’s get together in November. The group continues to grow, accruing a mass of knowledge and experience in which they can all share.

For more information: www.kirkwebster.com | www.elgon.es/diary www.landbi.no/introduksjon-til-reinertsenshonninggard (site in Norwegian but YouTube films with English subtitles)