Bees in a permaculture system

thinking...
Having written three (or is it four) articles on beekeeping for PIE, how can I explicitly talk about bees in a Permaculture system.
Obviously there are the two main sets of Principles we talk about.
If I combine David Holmgrens "Obtain a yield," his "Catch and store energy" and the 'Introduction to Permaculture,' (and generally quoted) "each element performs many functions" (and we could throw in Davids "Value biological resources" for good measure) we can immediately see how bees stack up well.
The two main material yields from a bee hive are both used as forms of energy: honey as food energy for people and bees, and wax as combustion energy for lighting. (hence the name of the book 'Sweetness and Light.')
The many functions of a beehive in a P/c system: honey production, pollen collection, wax production, propolis production, guard services, pollination, duck food...
and if I can work out how to make use of it, airconditioning...
Add in David's "Use small and slow solutions" as well, because even someone with no backyard can sometimes find somewhere for a beehive: the smallest livestock.
Looking at the situation in reverse (kind of) people who don't keep bees can help out by increasing the plant biodiversity in their systems, and permaculture designs tend to encourage such biodiversity. In fact, anyone who has a vegetable gardfen should consider planting useful nectar and pollen species for the lean times, to encourage the health and strength of any local beehives. A potentialy useful resource in the quest for bee-helping biodiversity is something like 'Honey Flora of VIctoria' published by the dept of agriculture, Victoria (my copy, from 1973 has a cover price of two dollars...)
Permaculture Melbourne members, please disregard this blog entry, as I will rewrite it more cohesively for the next (but one) edition of PIE.

Permaculture in Spring.

Much as I hate the emphasis on gardening when people talk about Permaculture, it is an important aspect, and in spring, that is certainly where the focus moves.
Had BRILLIANT flowering on our semi espaliered apricots, and they now have quite an abundance of baby fruit on them.
Our main nectarine and peach trees burst their leaf buds about a week apart.  Last year, they were both affected by curly leaf, which I treated reasonably successfully with three sprays about a week apart of Nettle and Horsetail tea (Urtica doica and equisetum arvense, not too sure on the spelling of the binomials.)  This year, the nectarine got curly leaf and the peach didn't.  I put this down to the fact that it rained during the week the nectarine opened its leaves, and not during the following week when the peach burst.  Happy to hear any other theories.
The apricot graft on the nectarine, and the plum graft on the nectarine are both healthy.  They are obviously not as vulnerable to curly leaf as the peach part of the stone fruit family.
Both of them have been attacked by little black aphids, but we have a marvelous population of lady bugs.  We photographed the entire life cycle of lady bugs on the stone fruit last year: little yellow eggs, tiny greyish black hatchlings, black, spiky, orange dotty striped juveniles, speckled pupa, and of course the beautiful adults.
We have started picking tomatoes.  I don't know if this is due to incredible skill on my part, or just a mild winter and bird netting.  Our broad beans are just about finished.  The girls must have eaten kilos each over the season, and probably a similar amount of the broad bean leaves.
Our old chicken (over six years old, possibly over seven) has been laying roughly one egg every two days for a few weeks now.  She is a Jungle fowl, presumably the ancestor breed to modern chicken varieties.  I would challenge anyone with a modern commercial hybrid to have them still laying at that rate (even if only for two or three months) at that age.  Certainly she never laid the 300 eggs per year some of the cross breeds can, but she has kept going for longer, and has been a much loved part of the family. (Her and her adopted son, and her two sons that he fathered and their adopted brother, and her grandson and granddaughter...) None of them ended up in the pot, although Liora, at the time about four years old, came up to me with "Fish" in her arms, gently patting him and said "I think this one is going to be a rooster.  We should kill him and put him on the stove and eat him." Fish's sister, Broccoli is still with us, giving us an egg a day at the moment. 
Liora, now six, said recently,  "I can't wait until we have room for more chooks, so we can kill some to eat."  Bloodthirsty child.

No, it's not all aout movies.... (it's supposed to be all about Permaculture)

And yet...
http://www.facebook.com/vanishingbees?v=wall
http://www.vanishingbees.com

New movie launched in America in August.

I heven't seen it yet, but having watched the trailer, I urge everyone to go and see it, or to host a "Vanishing of the Bees" house party, and get the story out to as many as possible.  

There are many theories about Colony Collapse disorder. Until we find out for sure what is causing it, there are some things we can do:

Lobby governments the world over for better studies on pesticides (also, grow your own food or buy organic), their effect on honey bees and humans, and their persistence in the environment.  Prefferably studies NOT run by the companies producing the poisons.

Plant more flowering plants.  Roses are lovely, but modern roses actually offer very little to honey bees. Find plants for your location that produce plenty of nectar and grow them without insecticides (or other pesticides).

Change Agriculture.  This is outside the scope of many people, (other than inthe purchasing choices we make) but massive monoculture is likely to be a contributing factor: bees eating from only one plant are not going to get all the nutrition they need.  Somthing as simple as having multpile flowering groundcovers in an orchard, or having one tree in ten  be something other than the main crop.  And clearly, cut out the use of chemical pest controls as much as possible.  Reduce the total poison load on the environment, even if we can't get rid of them altogether.
Now... I just need to find the money so I can screen the movie here.