“Fort Knox” in practice
A summary of the first pilot year of the Fort Knox Project: a shared pool of bees, the first losses, logistical problems and the need to refine the rules of cooperation.
This article was written at a time when the “Fort Knox” Project was still closely connected with the Natural Beekeeping Association “Wolne Pszczoły” — “Free Bees”. Today the project operates independently, allowing members of different organisations as well as non-affiliated people to participate.
Why was the project created?
“Fort Knox” is a project run by our Association. Its main assumptions are mutual support in the course of bee selection and providing a kind of guarantee for participants in case they lose bee colonies. In short: the point is that none of us should ever again have to start selection from scratch. You can read more about the assumptions and beginnings of the project in the article Fort Knox, or our “gold” reserve.
After the first pilot year
During the recent autumn meeting of the Association, the time came to summarise the first pilot year of “Fort Knox”. At the same time, we sat down to work on the regulations, because it was high time to finally write down the rules. In a small group it is easier and simpler to agree without excessive formalities, but as the structure develops and grows, unfortunately we have to “play” at writing down certain rules of cooperation. And there is no point hiding it: we hope that more and more people will be willing to contribute bees to the shared pool, because all of us can benefit from this — especially in the first years of selection, when we must all expect large losses. During the first year, several problems and issues appeared that required discussion and the development of the best possible solution. We have regulated these matters, but I think we are all aware that new problems will appear as the “Fort” continues to operate, and it will not be possible to find a simple regulatory solution for each of them. Therefore, some rules will probably need further modification or clarification in the future, while for now we have left ourselves a certain gateway: in case of doubt, the decision will be made by the democratically elected project coordinator.
Participants from outside the Association
One of the problems we faced was the question of allowing people from outside the Association to join the project. Different approaches clashed here, and in fact both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages. In the end, we allowed people who are not formal members of the Association to participate in the project, but with certain restrictions. It must also be remembered that the whole project has to be based on mutual trust — after all, no one intends to control anyone, and we must be sure of the quality of the selection and of compliance with the rules. For this reason alone, we cannot think in terms of unlimited access to our circle.
What have we actually managed to do?
But let us move on to what has actually been done within the project. After all, everyone will be able to read the final regulations and rules themselves — the Project Regulations can be downloaded at the bottom of the page and in the Association section — while the actual operation of the project is certainly more interesting than formal matters.
As part of the pilot phase, five members of the Association declared more than a dozen bee colonies for the shared pool. This is not a large number, but it should be remembered that it is only a small percentage of the bee colonies undergoing selection, and the project is meant to create an incentive and provide a kind of guarantee, not to build the entire selection pool.
As could be expected, not all bee colonies survived… After the previous winter, four colonies died, and it became necessary to multiply the remaining ones in order to replace the losses. For better or worse, this was achieved, and probably all newly created colonies were given at least a small chance of survival — we deeply hope they will manage. Of course, logistical problems also arose. There are still few of us, and we live far apart. A trip to collect bees — even free ones — from several hundred kilometres away is not at all easy to organise when work is piling up during the season. And after all, we all still have jobs somewhere, and there is never a shortage of work around the house. In any case, somehow it worked, and the colleagues who lost bees during wintering received nucs from the others. The more of us there are, the easier it will become, because it will be possible to find someone from Fort Knox closer to oneself, or to organise joint trips to collect a larger number of bee colonies.
Losses not only in winter
During the season, however, another problem appeared — one everyone was aware of, but somehow did not take into account when formulating the initial assumptions. Untreated bee colonies do not die only during winter. In fact, they can collapse at any time of year, on any day. After the first season without treatment, as long as no exceptionally bad local or seasonal conditions occur and no particularly virulent pathogen strain appears, most colonies somehow manage to overwinter. But the number of mites in spring and the general condition of the bees determine whether a crisis will appear and when. Some colonies come out of winter strong, only to then “turn sour” and collapse or linger on just a few seams of bees. So while Fort Knox in its initial form was meant to be a response to winter losses, in practice we had to extend it to the whole year. It turned out that during the 2016 season crises appeared in several bee colonies and the bees died. As of today, we already have several colonies to restore in the 2017 season. We will see whether the winter is kind and how large the losses will be next spring. There is no denying that with losses of up to 50% of the entire project pool, we should not have major difficulties replacing the missing colonies — after all, it is “only” one nuc from each surviving colony. As it turns out, it is not always that simple to make one when colonies are weakening and something is wrong with them, and that is exactly what happened this year too. Nevertheless, we hope that after the first difficult years the situation will stabilise, losses will become easier and easier to replace, and there will be more and more untreated bees.
Waiting for spring
For now, all that remains is to wait for spring. Some time ago, each of us prepared the colonies for wintering as best as they could, according to external conditions and the health condition of the bees. What matters is that new people have already joined the project, and others have increased their share in the shared pool. May it continue this way — strength lies in unity!