The Sun Hive: experimental Natural Beekeeping
Sun Hives are a hive design coming out of Germany and now gathering interest in Britain. They’re part of the world-wide movement towards ‘apicentric’ beekeeping – beekeeping that prioritizes honeybees firstly as pollinators, with honey production being a secondary goal. The Sun Hive is modeled in part on the traditional European skep hive, and is aimed at creating a hive that maximises colony health. The main thing I love about this hive and the enthusiasm surrounding it is not the hive itself, but the philosophy behind it, that of apicentric beekeeping. In brief, the Sun Hive has an upside down skep hive at its base with curving frames in the top section and no frames in the bottom section. The hive is placed well above ground level (optimal for bees – they never choose to create a hive on the ground). As I said, it’s not the design of this hive that particularly gets me going (though it is very beautiful), but the philosophy behind it… putting bees first before honey yields.
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Permaculture is all about one part of a system trying to help another, so this is our attempt to help replicate that, by sharing permaculture knowledge as freely and as widely as we can. In this section you'll find a selection of completely free eBook downloads on permaculture and wider environmental topics, including the fantastic Farmers' Handbook series by Chris Evans and Jakob Jespersen, which provides a complete grounding in key permaculture techniques in a simple, easy-to-read e-book download format. On top of that, we are also offering free download copies of Gaia's Education's brilliant Four Key series, including the indispensable instruction manual for anyone looking to apply permaculture techniques to communities, Beyond You & Me, and Gaian Economics - a penetrating look at how economics can be made to work in harmony with nature, not against it. We have been experiencing problems with free ebooks on checkout.
soils
majority come from weathered rock, approximately a 1/2 come from water and air, and a small portion ( less than 10%) from humus, decomposing but not decomposed organic material. Minerals derived from the soil must be dissolved in water. Otherwise the plant will not be able to obtain them. How do plants obtain the nutrients in the soil? CEC is important for maintaining adequate quantities of plant available calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+) and potassium (K+) in soils.
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Off Gridders | A Practical Guide for Permaculturists Living Free
Honey On Tap From Your Own Beehive - Flow™ Hive Home
Soil Minerals Home: organic garden soil minerals, trace minerals, fertilizers and soil testing for gardens, landscapes, and sustainable agriculture
Permaculture
With its system of applied education, research and citizen- led design permaculture has grown a popular web of global networks and developed into a global social movement[citation needed]. The term permaculture was developed and coined by David Holmgren, then a graduate student at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education's Department of Environmental Design, and Bill Mollison, senior lecturer in Environmental Psychology at University of Tasmania, in 1978. [1] The word permaculture originally referred to "permanent agriculture",[3] but was expanded to stand also for "permanent culture", as it was understood that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system as inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s natural farming philosophy. It has many branches that include, but are not limited to, ecological design, ecological engineering, regenerative design, environmental design, and construction. History[edit] Several individuals revolutionized the branch of permaculture. In Australian P.A.
