Wing clipping of Queens and Organic Certification
As beekeepers, we often find ourselves scratching our heads over the ways agricultural regulations apply to our hives and wonder if the regulators know anything about honey bees. Recently, having viewed a BIBBA video about a Czech beekeeper who has organic certification, Andrew Abrahams, a BIBBA member who is the sole beekeeper on the remote Hebridean island of Colonsay emailed me explaining that he had hit a brick wall in securing organic certification for his honey, and the reason highlights a frustrating quirk in UK/EU organic standards.
Andrew, who makes part of his living from his bees ticked all the boxes bar one. I quote from his email “In the EU Organic Honey regulations, wing clipping of queens is defined as “mutilation”. UK still follows EU regulations. I pointed out that castration and dehorning of cattle, sheep and pigs seemed a bit more serious in the realms of mutilation!!” You can also add ear tagging and tail docking.
A bit of investigation revealed the official reason for what appears to be a stupid regulation to beekeepers, but here it is. Mammalian livestock standards allow carefully regulated exemptions for certain “mutilations” based on animal safety or management necessity, honey bee welfare rules do not. Honey bees are managed at colony level, so regulators view the queen as an individual whose physical integrity cannot be altered. Unfortunately, queen clipping is seen as a management technique to aid swarm control, rather than a medical emergency, so there are no concessions or exemptions allowed. Interestingly, beak trimming of poultry isn’t allowed in organic production, with no concessions.
It seems a pity that beekeepers who comply with every regulation apart from one technique that has been used for a long time prevents them from obtaining organic certification. Currently, I see only two ways around it. Change management or decide if the “organic” label outweighs the management methods that is best suited.
I am quite well-known for giving undesirable queens the “boot treatment”. I wonder if that is covered in the regulations.
Roger Patterson
What do you think?
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