Project Fort Knox rules – FAQ

“Fort Knox” is:

• a cooperation project in the selection of bees that do not require chemical treatments, developed by amateurs with amateurs in mind;
• a guarantee that no participant will be left without bees in a given season;
• a system for exchanging surviving “genetics” between the apiaries of participants;
• a project developing the genetic diversity of the surviving population;
• a system of “localising” bees;
• a certain part of the whole selection work that uses natural selection.

You join the Project by submitting a declaration. It contains basic information that will allow us to understand what your apiary looks like, what bee-friendly beekeeping methods you have used so far, and what facilities and experience you have that other participants may possibly use.

In the document you will also declare the number of colonies contributed to the common Project pool and briefly describe their history.

We invite every beekeeper, female or male, with more than one year of experience who decides to accept the Project rules. We know that they are quite strict, but remember that we offer you our support and guarantee in the event of bee losses.

A new member should be recommended by an existing participant of “Fort Knox”.

The Project is based on the principle of good faith and mutual trust. Our community has already come to know itself through many years of cooperation, so we know whether we can count on one another.

We introduced the obligation for a new member to be “recommended” by another participant because we want to get to know you in the same way before we start cooperating. We need to be sure that we are not talking to someone who will withdraw from cooperation when it is their turn to fulfil an obligation.

If you want to join us but do not know any Project member, contact us and we will give you the details of the beekeepers closest to you, whom you can visit and allow them to get to know you.

If you are only just beginning your beekeeping adventure, we can offer you the support we are currently able to provide. However, this one year is meant to teach you the absolute basics of working with bees and to allow you to reach your first independent conclusions.

Since cooperation is based on creating colonies, we want you to learn how to make nucs or packages before you have to make them for others as part of your obligations.

“Fort Knox” is not about rebuilding whole apiaries after major losses. It is a project intended to guarantee the flow of increasingly better and more resistant “genetics” between beekeepers, and also to ensure that no participant is left completely without bees.

No more than 8 colonies in total can be entered into the Project, and this number may not be greater than the number of participants minus one. For example: if there are 5 participants, each of them may have no more than 4 colonies declared for the common pool.

No more than 3 colonies may be entered outside the Project “core”, that is, into the so-called “buffer zone”. If colonies from the “buffer zone” pass the selection screen or if losses from them are replaced by colonies from the “core”, it is possible to increase the participant’s pool.

The more colonies a participant enters into the Project, the more he may receive if losses occur in his apiary, but also the more obligations to make nucs for others may be imposed on him.

The obligation to replenish the pool arises when one of the Project colonies dies. Bee colonies not treated against varroosis die not only in winter, but also in spring and summer, which is why we decided that the obligation arises whenever a colony dies, regardless of the date or cause.

Specifically, a participant’s obligation connected with replacing a particular loss arises together with the Coordinator’s decision regarding the flow of colonies within the Project.

New bee colonies, that is nucs, swarms or packages, are made as early as possible in the season, once the colonies have reached sufficient strength to allow division. The longer we wait, the less time the young colony has to prepare for winter.

In practice, everything depends on individual conditions and circumstances. The timing of the division must be the decision of each beekeeper, who knows the situation in his apiary and is able to assess it according to his best knowledge.

The Project Coordinator decides on the flow of colonies, on who makes nucs for whom, supervises the replacement of losses, collects and publishes data, and makes decisions in cases where the interpretation of the Regulations is doubtful.

The Coordinator must also ensure that cooperation is fair and that colony flows are consistent with the need to localise bees and spread the most promising genetics.

A participant may withdraw from the Project at any time by submitting a statement. First, however, he should fulfil the current obligation for the given year that has been imposed on him by the Coordinator.

We have neither the means nor the will to enforce this in any way. In such a situation, the obligation may also be removed from the withdrawing participant.

Of course, informal cooperation is also possible. We are aware that formalising the Project may sometimes discourage people. We encourage every kind of cooperation, and if you prefer to undertake it with a group completely informally — simply do so.

We treat our rules as guidance and guidelines. Writing down the Regulations and agreeing to them allows candidates and participants to know what their rights and obligations are and what they can expect within the cooperation.

The principles of evolution and natural selection provide bees in the long term with:

• the best adaptation to local environmental conditions;
• selection of the entire living environment, including microorganisms associated with bees in the hive;
• balance between insects and pathogens and parasites;
• a living environment free from so-called “chemistry”;
• preservation of the natural life cycle;
• development of adaptation to local threats;
• comprehensive selection of all traits needed for survival without constant beekeeper care;
• preservation of natural environmental pressures that favour the development of resistance.

The Regulations specify how colonies in the Project should be managed. The most important rules are:

• minimal interference;
• absolutely no treatment and no killing of mites;
• no killing, replacing or mutilating queens;
• clean wax;
• small-cell foundation or natural comb;
• honey taken only from obvious surplus;
• minimal feeding with artificial food;
• no moving bees to forage sites;
• no disturbing bees in winter;
• maintaining colonies at a strength that enables biological self-sufficiency.

Apart from this, the participant should do in the apiary what his knowledge and experience tell him will be best for the bees.

They may be any colonies that the participant has in his apiary. However, the selected colonies should be those with the greatest potential for independent survival without bee treatment.

It is best to choose the most “promising” colonies for the common pool: local colonies, bred for many generations in one’s own apiary, without frequent replacement of queens with external ones, or colonies that have already passed through some stage of selection.

The Project was also created to help people who are hesitant to begin their own selection. We do not want to exclude anyone just because today they have only “commercial genetics”.

Such colonies may enter the Project as part of the so-called “buffer zone”.

Loss of a queen may happen. In such situations, the participant should take care to preserve the maternal line. First, he leaves the queen cells made by the bees, and secondly he may introduce a sister queen or daughter queen from a hive outside the Project, provided that this colony is managed according to the Project rules.

If this is not possible, a frame from another Project hive may be given, or another solution may be agreed with the Coordinator. Every queen loss within the Project must be reported to the Coordinator.

The Project rules apply only to those colonies that are contributed to the common pool. In the rest of the apiary, you may do what you consider right and appropriate.

There are many hive and frame standards in Poland. The same is true within the Project. We could have tried to unify the standard or decided that hives would differ but remain compatible with the participants’ apiaries.

We chose the second option. It makes logistics and the creation of colonies more difficult, but it simplifies the management of colonies once they reach our apiaries.

If we want to transfer colonies in the Recipient’s hives, he must first deliver his hive or a suitable transport box. The entire responsibility for delivering the box and collecting the colony rests with the Recipient.

The Donor has additional work in the apiary and gives the bees away for free, so the Recipient should organise everything so that it is as easy as possible for the Donor.

As the Project develops, it should become possible to create local communities of people living relatively close to one another. This will reduce the organisational effort.

The Recipient should do everything possible to make life easier for the Donor. The hive or transport box should be prepared in such a way that the colony can be safely housed, ventilation can be ensured and bees cannot escape during transport.

The box should be appropriately large, filled with frames so that they do not move during transport, and prepared with the seasonal development of the colony in mind.

In the Project we track the “starting material” and subsequent flows between apiaries. Each participant marks his declared colonies with one letter or initials and adds consecutive numbers to the colonies.

Each time a colony leaves an apiary for another participant, we add the initial of the next person. The starting material, if it survives, remains permanently marked with the original symbol.

For colonies from the “buffer zone” we add the symbol “OT”, which is removed from the marking when the colony enters the “core”.

The “core” includes colonies that live without treatments for at least their third season. The “buffer zone” includes colonies whose genetics have not yet passed through the selection screen.

We try to preserve among permanent participants colonies derived from bees that have been untreated the longest, that is, from the “core”. Colonies in the “buffer zone” should primarily be used to replace losses of other colonies from that group.

A participant may use colonies in his apiary according to his own will, provided that the provisions of the Regulations are respected. Colonies should be maintained at a strength that allows biological self-sufficiency.

First of all, they must serve to replace losses resulting from imposed obligations. However, if the participant has no obligations, he may make small nucs for himself or catch a swarm that he will house in the private part of the apiary.

The welfare of the bees and the welfare of the Project must come before the individual needs of the participant.

Localising bees is one of the key tasks in selection for resistance. Transporting bees means additional logistics and removing them from their existing environment, but Poland has relatively similar climatic conditions and lacks natural barriers that would strongly separate bee populations.

Buying bees from the neighbourhood would often mean starting selection from scratch, because most locally available colonies are treated bees and have not been selected for resistance.

The dispersion of the Project also has advantages: it increases the resistance of the entire pool to large local or regional apiary collapses.

Such concerns do arise, but in our assessment the risk is minimal under the conditions in which we practise cooperation. Pathogens occur everywhere, and the movement of bees by migratory beekeepers and trade in nucs and queens are common phenomena.

Within the Project we transport bees that have already shown some ability to withstand mites and pathogens. Selection in our hives proceeds rather towards balancing the parasite–host relationship.

Such a potential risk exists. In our view, however, it is minimal. Above all, we assume that pathogens are made more virulent mainly through treatment and disinfection, not through natural selection.

Colonies most often die in autumn or winter, and natural winter conditions often reduce pathogens on combs. In nature, new swarms have occupied sites after dead colonies for centuries.

In our opinion, this is not possible with the resources and possibilities available to us. If we had such a drone area, we would probably not need the Project in its present form.

The most important thing is that initiatives should be as simple as possible, especially for small amateur apiaries and beekeepers with little experience. Many of us also believe that bee “genetics” is not the only and not the most important key to success.

Exchanging queens would reduce logistical problems, but it would not ensure the fulfilment of all Project goals. We want the Project to be a guarantee system for beekeepers and to encourage them to conduct their own selection of local, resistant bees.

In our solution, we transfer not only genetics, but also workers and the environment in which the colony lived — together with epigenetic factors and the hive microflora. This may be just as important as the queen herself.

Beekeepers with only a few hives are rarely able to pass successfully through the selection process alone, because losses are too high. By joining the Project, they become part of a larger selection system and can contribute to the development of resistant genetics.

The more of us there are, the larger the pool of bees subjected to selection will be, and the greater the chances of spreading resistant genetics.

Most of us believe that relying on swarms would be better for bees, because it is their natural method of reproduction and limits beekeeper interference.

Unfortunately, with large losses and the need to replace them, catching natural swarms would not ensure a sufficient pace of rebuilding colonies. Most of us are amateurs who cannot observe the apiary constantly throughout the season.

Fort Knox is an informal project operating on the basis of the goodwill and trust of its members. It has no legal form.

By joining the Project, you agree that the provisions of the Regulations will apply to the declared bee colonies. If one day we decide that the Project should take on a legal form, we will consider establishing one.

The Project has no funding. All cooperation takes place without money. Fort Knox colonies are transferred free of charge, and the related costs, such as travel, are borne by the participants.

Currently, the only costs of Fort Knox are website fees, covered through voluntary contributions.

We will undoubtedly have to consider this.

At present we communicate by email. Our experience shows that various announcements on communication platforms do not always reach their recipients, and we do not always know whether the information has been read.

We will certainly also consider other solutions.