History of cooperation

The beginning: the need for change

In 2014, a movement of beekeepers began to emerge — people who wanted to free bees from constant treatments with chemical agents. At that time we took steps to change our apiaries so that in the future we could enjoy healthy beekeeping.

The beginnings were modest. A few of us simply started exchanging emails, then we met, and as a result the first association was created — one that spoke clearly and openly about the need to completely abandon the use of so-called “chemistry” in apiaries and to introduce the principles of natural selection.

But the process itself is exceptionally difficult and painful. Unfortunately, it often involves enormous losses and the death of bees — bees we love, just as all beekeepers love them. We face a difficult choice: whether to use toxins or biocidal agents to save bees, or consciously allow some of them to die so that future generations may be healthier, better adapted and no longer require unpleasant treatments.

Why the Project was created

Treatments may save many small lives in the short term, but in the long term they prove extremely harmful to beekeeping as a whole and make the survival of bees dependent on the introduction of chemical substances into hives.

We decided that, when making this difficult choice to remove “chemistry” from apiaries, we had to do everything in our power to ensure that our bees did not die in vain and that each successive season brought us closer to truly healthy beekeeping.

Therefore, when we founded the Natural Beekeeping Association “Wolne Pszczoły” — “Free Bees” (www.wolnepszczoly.org, website in Polish), we decided to develop a project that would allow us to support one another through the hardships of selection.

The birth of Fort Knox

From the very beginning, together with several other people, I worked actively to make such a project happen, although — like them — I did not know what exactly it should look like or what precise rules it should be based on. I did know, however, that “something” had to be done. Others knew just as much...

Various ideas were far from perfect, until finally, during a brainstorming session, one exceptionally simple but very interesting idea appeared. Marcin Zarek, the current coordinator of the Project, came up with the idea of mutually replacing losses in bee colonies contributed to a common pool.

This is how the “Fort Knox” initiative was born. At that stage it was a project of the “Wolne Pszczoły” — “Free Bees” association.

Time passed, and some of the Project’s rules were improved, changed and reinterpreted in order to adapt them to changing circumstances. After all, every apiary is different, and every season brings new challenges. It was therefore necessary to create general rules that would apply to a completely unpredictable reality.

The first years of selection

You can read about the first years of our selection efforts (2015–2017), as well as some of the assumptions and modifications of the Project, in the texts below:

2018: reaching a wider audience

The year 2018 brought enormous opportunities to promote our community and Project “Fort Knox” itself. By then we already knew that the Project had withstood the adversities and hardships of the first, most difficult period.

That year I also took part in two international events devoted to natural beekeeping and beekeeping without the use of medicines, where I represented the “Wolne Pszczoły” — “Free Bees” association and Project “Fort Knox”.

The first of these events, held in April, was the treatment-free beekeeping conference in Neusiedl am See, Austria. It was organised by the Austrian beekeeper Norbert Dorn. Project “Fort Knox” met there with enormous interest and a very positive reception — I must admit that it was even surprising to me. More details can be found in the article I wrote for the monthly journal “Pszczelarstwo” (article in Polish).

The next event was the “Learning from the Bees” conference, organised, among others, by the British organisation Natural Beekeeping Trust, in Doorn in the Netherlands at the turn of August and September. There, too, the Project met with very strong interest (article in Polish).

A new chapter

There is no doubt that taking part in these events gave me a lot to think about. Above all, I realised that the Project is something that can change the attitude of amateur beekeepers towards the selection of bees resistant to the honey bee mite (Varroa destructor).

We in Poland had something to show the world, even though our project had never grown beyond a small amateur concept. What mattered, however, was that it showed potential — potential that was immediately noticed by colleagues from abroad, especially from German-speaking countries.

In recent years, the Project has also proved its usefulness in selection work, and in particular it has turned out to be exceptionally useful for small apiaries that would not be able to pass through the initial selection period on their own. We therefore decided that it was worth making the whole know-how available to those who had shown interest.

In my personal opinion — and I was not alone in this view — this was the moment to open the Project to the outside. After discussion within the “Wolne Pszczoły” — “Free Bees” association, we therefore decided that it was time for a new chapter in the life of “Fort Knox”. We gave it the status of an independent project.

Thanks to this, as supporters of this concept believe, the Project can develop and open itself to new communities, as well as to individual beekeepers who would like to cooperate with us but do not necessarily wish to join various formally operating organisations.

Fort Knox as the common property of its participants

From spring 2019, “Fort Knox” therefore became the “property” of those who create it, who want to cooperate closely with others and share both the risk of losses and the joy of bees living without “chemistry”.

And here we are now: in the fifth season since the launch of the working version of the Project and in the fourth season in which we will help one another rebuild losses in our apiaries.

We hope that the idea of “Fort Knox” will spread in ever wider circles, both in Poland and beyond our country’s borders. We believe that it has enormous potential, and we hope that others will see it too.

Today the Project is based on members of two organisations: the Natural Beekeeping Association “Wolne Pszczoły” — “Free Bees” and the “Bractwo Pszczele” — “Bee Brotherhood” group (www.bractwopszczele.pl, website in Polish). We hope that there will be more of us in the future. We therefore invite every interested person who wishes to follow the rules developed so far to cooperate with us.

What lies ahead

At the same time, we are aware that opening the Project “to the outside” will involve new challenges, difficulties and certain “risks”. Perhaps over time there will be more and more people with us whom we do not yet know.

Personally, however, I hope that our community will cope with all adversities and that the Project will allow ever wider groups of people to enjoy bees that do not require any treatments.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us. Any support — even a good word — will certainly help us.

BM.