Beekeepers are setting up hives in a neighborhood near you, but most will just be part of the conventional system which use the same tools that may have contributed to the decline of bees in the first place. Biodynamic beekeepers are different, using a more nature-centered approach: they oppose moving hives for pollination, mass harvesting honey, and killing and replacing the queen every year. They open the hive when the moon is right, and use natural medicine like chamomile tea to treat the hives.

I first learned about biodynamic beekeeping in Israel from Yossi Oud, who studied the Rudolf Steiner methods of beekeeping via German colleagues.

With 24,000 species of bees in the world, Israel is home to about 1,300 species, compared to a total of 600 species in a country as large as Canada, says Oud, an Israeli beekeeper and teacher who works with biodynamic beekeeping methods. He says Israel is unusually rich in bee species, and this is due in part to the country’s plant diversity. 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 outside Jerusalem.

Read more: Palestinian women make beekeeping sweeter

As we learn more about sustainable methods such as regenerative farming and agriculture hopefully beekeeping will meet somewhere in the middle.

The Land of Milk and Honeybees

“Israel is the land of milk and honeybees, and a special area and hotspot for animals, plants and bees,” says Oud. “Of the 1,300 species of bees in Israel, 8 of them are social bees,” he tells Green Prophet.

The local bee for the most part, which is the Syrian bee, is extinct, he notes. This is an aggressive bee which has been replaced by an imported Italian bee which is now common in wild hives, urban hives and in commercial hives. The Italian bees were brought to Israel in the 1930s to support the vineyards, he says.

Because there is such a wide diversity of plants in Israel, he stresses, this is reflected by the large range of bee species. It all goes together.

What makes the honey bee different from other bees is the honey stomach which creates honey and which is also 95% of their diet, says Oud, noting that people and honeybees have had a strong connection for thousands of years as seen in cave art in France that depicts a kind of bee agriculture. Bees were also domesticated in ancient Egypt.

Honey is a magical elixir. Mystical even. And our love for it goes way back to the earliest signs of advanced civilization, he notes.

Bees and Islam

ystically, all major world religions have a connection to bees, and Islam is no exception: “In the Quran, Chapter 16 is named after the bees” says Oud who is Jewish but who works with Muslim and Christian Palestinians to help them learn the trade of beekeeping in a project called Bees for Peace.

Why is there an entire chapter on the bees in the Quran, The Bee?

Within the chapter, two verses cover the essence of the honeybee:

And your Lord inspired the bee: build homes in mountains and trees, and in (the hives) they build for you.

Then eat from all the fruits, following the design of your Lord, precisely.

The Bee (Arabic: النحل; an-nahl) is the 16th chapter (sūrah) of the Qur’an with 128 verses. It is named after the honey bees mentioned in verse 68, and contains a comparison of the industry and adaptability of honey bees with the industry of man.

An-Nahl, Chapter 16 (verses 68 to 69) talks about a variety of topics, but Allah, according to Muslims, specifically chose the title The Bee to catch the attention of the readers. Bees are said to be Allah’s miracles; the way they function and how they behave, are to be held as an example.

According to some Islamic traditions, everyone needs a sheep and bees to ensure prosperity for the coming year.

In Judaism, the bee is not kosher but you can eat its honey, which is a rare ruling as you can’t drink milk from a non-kosher animal such as a camel. Deborah (Dvora in Hebrew), who was a prophet, is also associated with bees. Dvora means bee in Hebrew.

In the Bible, honey is mentioned 61 times and its meaning is often linked with prosperity and abundance. In the third chapter of Exodus, when God called Moses to lead the slaves out of Egypt, he called him to lead them to a land that will flow with milk and honey. This is the land of modern day Israel.

In the Song of Songs of the Old Testament (4:11-16): “Your lips, my beloved and (promised) bride, drip honey as the honeycomb; Honey and milk are under your tongue, And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.”

Honey is a ritual food eaten during the Hebrew holiday called Rosh Hashanah, which celebrates the Jewish New Year. “May you have a sweet year,” is a common blessing as people eat apples dipped in honey.

What is biodynamic beekeeping?

To further the understanding of biodynamic beekeeping, we are to view the colony as one creature, explains Oud. What does the hive know? For most of us it’s a mystery but we do know that each worker female lives about 6 weeks, there is one queen and a small percentage of male drones.

The biodynamic queen lives for 6 or 7 years, and the worker bee has about 16 jobs, among which is making propolis, the immune system of the hive, which is collected from tree resin, says Oud.

The job of the male drones? While they might look like loafers who can’t even feed themselves, male bees bring genetic diversity from one hive to another on their travels,, says Oud. They mate with the the new emergent queen once a year in the spring when she flies out of the hive, and the rest of the colony follows her in a swarm to establish a new colony.. And that is how bees give birth, according to biodynamic beekeeping. The old queen stays in the hive and raises her new brood after the rest have left.

Related: What is apitherapy that uses the stings of the bees?

Bees for Peace

Bees give so much sweetness in life and health as well, but they can be credited for bringing people together in the Middle East when politicians fail. Oud has started a number of educational programs in Israel including Bees for Peace where he teaches Muslim woman how to be urban beekeepers. is your honey real or fake? “When people learn to work for the bees’ welfare, much sensitivity and gentleness is developed, and that could translate into our daily life. In this way the bees teach us to act for society, to live in co-existence, let go of stigmas, and help us get closer to ourselves, others, the land and the world,” says Oud.

Oud started Bees for Peace to join hearts and create cooperation between Christians, Muslims and Jews, Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians. The initiative helps build bridges through the bio-dynamic bee keeping method in multiple constellations – amongst kids in schools, through courses and activities for adults coming from different sectors and cultures and in diverse joint initiatives.

Biodynamic is a term developed inside the teachings of anthroposophy, developed by the spiritualist and educator Rudolph Steiner from Austria in the early 1900s. There is dozens of Steiner schools in Israel, also known as Waldorf Schools, and Oud comes from that education system as an educator and teacher. There is even a biodynamic farm in Egypt called Sekem.

Bees for Peace emphasizes empowerment of women from “traditional houses” (whether Muslim, religious Jewish or other disempowered populations), who usually don’t go out of the house to work. They learn the art of beekeeping on their rooftop or from their garden and can make a small income from honey, beauty products, or other products derived from the wax of the hive.

The conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon has made it difficult for women in northern communities to tend their hives. Many hives have died says Oud, and I spoke with one Muslim woman who says she misses her hives like her family. She was staying at a hotel in Nazareth, unable to live in her village in the north as its constantly being bombarded by missiles.

The Marj Ibn Amer Almond project in the Jezreel Valley trained Israeli and Palestinian women to grow bees by the biodynamic method, in order to increase the number of bee hives in the area, to enhance the women’s involvement in the almond agriculture and to increase the almond yield, especially in light of the decreasing numbers of bees in the area and in the world.

The project was carried out by the El-Hukayer organization, an NGO dedicated to socio-economic development within Palestinian society in Israel.

Tlmei Achva is an educational agricultural farm in the city of Lod, for Muslim-Jewish kids and teenagers, secular and religious, where they work and grow bees together.

There is an urban beekeeping farming project in the city center of Jerusalem.

There is a biodynamic beekeeping course at Ecome center and in the city of Jericho, West Bank. The NGO works to empower Ethiopian women through growing bees and building traditional Ethiopian bee hives.

The Honey Women of East Jerusalem is a project in collaboration with the Sinsila Center and the Mosella Association.

Have a swarm? Call SOS for the Bees. Locals who find a swarm or an unwanted hive should not use poison to kill them.

SOS for the Bees is a volunteer-run group that collects swarms and re-homes hives. In Hebrew, it is Magen D’vorim Adom. You can call Yossi Oud and his team of volunteers will run to collect the bees.

::Bees for Peace

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SEKEM, an Egyptian organic farming community has been chosen as one of 16 ‘Sustainability Champions’ in the developing world which are tackling environmental and social problems

A recent report by the World Economic Forum has identified 16 successful companies from as far afield as Costa Rica and China which have shown great environmental awareness and tackled social problems. These ‘New Sustainability Champions’ include just one company from the Middle East and North Africa region- SEKEM.

Established by Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish in 1977, SEKEM is a truly unique enterprise which integrates social, economic and environmental development in an organic farming community just outside, Cairo. Today the company is run by Dr. Abouleish’s son Helmy and what started as a 70-hectre organic farm is now a several thousand hectres farming community which champions sustainable agriculture.

After years of working to improve the soil quality of reclaimed land from the desert on the southeastern edge of the Nile Delta, SEKEM harvested their first crop of organic fruits, vegetables and spices in 1983. They now produce organic fruit, vegetables, cotton, cereals, herbs and herbal medicines which are all grown without pesticides or fertilizers.

The main advantages of organic agriculture in these reclaimed desert lands is that it helps to improve the soil, it optimises water use and also supports more workers than conventional farming. SEKEM, which means ‘vitality from the sun’ in Egyptian hieroglyphics, currently employs around 2,000 people.

SEKEM farms use organic waste fertilizers which are able to hold more water than chemically fertilized land- something which is ideal for the water scarce country. Working with Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture, SEKEM also demonstrated the possibility of successfully growing organic cotton by using biological pheromones to control cotton insects. By 2000, the use of pesticides on Egyptian cotton fields had fallen by over 90% and 80% of Egyptian cotton is now grown without synthetic insecticides.

Indeed, Helmy Abouleish has said that a 100% conversion of global agricultural land into organic agriculture would transform the agricultural sector from a significant contributor to climate change into a net carbon sink.

As well as various subsidiaries involved in the agricultural field, such as Conytex which produces children’s garments from organic cotton, one of SEKEM’s initiatives is the Egyptian Society for Cultural Development. Founded in 1984, the society has helped build a kindergarten, the SEKEM primary and secondary school with 300 pupils, a vocational training centre, an institute for Adult Education, an education programme for disabled children as well as a SEKEM medical centre which treats 30,000 people a year.

Workers all enjoy great working conditions, a fair wage and run remarkably well-managed farms and beautiful buildings surrounded with the fragrances of chamomile and mint. In 2003, the eco-friendly business won the prestigious Right Livelihood Award – known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ – which honours those working on the most urgent challenges facing the world.

: Image via Bijan/flickr

For more on organic farming in the Middle East see:

Nature Reserve In Jordan Growing Organic

Qatar To Invest In 1,400 New Local Farms

Organic Farming On The Rise In Emirates

Under The Nile’s Organic Cotton Clothes & Toys For Babies

The post Egypt’s Sekem biodynamic farm a Sustainability World Leader appeared first on Green Prophet.