By David Heaf
This document comprises an update of an article which appeared in four parts in The Beekeepers Quarterly (Issues 91, 92, 93 & 94, 2008) together with an introduction on various possible ethical
stances beekeepers might adopt. This introduction is added because it was pointed out by an aspiring
sustainable beekeeper that there should moral principles behind sustainable beekeeping that are more
fundamental than those of sustainability or bee-appropriate management. This introduction on ethics
is an effort to get closer to the ‘why’ of the approach described, rather than just the ‘what’. Anyone
wishing to skip the ‘why’ may wish to jump directly to the more practical discussion which starts
under the heading Part 1 of Towards Sustainable Beekeeping below (page 5).