BREEDING

• Hives should be made of natural materials that present no risk of contamination to the environment and bee products.
• The ability of bees to adapt to local conditions, their vitality and resistance to diseases should be taken into account.
• Bees should be kept healthy through preventive measures, selection of appropriate breeds, favorable environment, balanced diet and appropriate husbandry practices.
• Hives shall be placed in fields certified as organic and/or wild areas that have not been treated with substances prohibited in organic production.
• The operator shall not site hives within foraging distances of sources of high-risk contamination and pollution, e.g. nonorganic agricultural
• At the end of the production season, hives shall be left with enough honey and pollen reserves for the colonies to survive the dormancy period. Any supplementary feeding may be allowed only between the last honey harvest and the start of the next nectar or honeydew flow period. In such cases organic honey or sugar shall be used. (When organic sugar is not available, exceptions may be made for a specified time limit.)
• Hives shall be made basically of natural materials. Use of materials that are potentially toxic or present risk of contaminating the environment and bee products is prohibited.
• Bee boxes shall be painted with only lead-free paints. Plastic foundation, if made with wooden frames and coated with organic beeswax, is permitted.
• Conversion existing bee colonies may be converted to organic production. Introduced bees shall come from organic production units when available.

Where preventive measures fail, and colonies become sick or infested, they shall be treated immediately. Treatments shall respect the following principles: 

• Preference should be given to the use of herbal medicinal products or alternative treatments provided that their therapeutic effect is effective for the condition for which the treatment is intended.
• If necessary, allopathic chemically synthesized medicinal products (e.g. antibiotics) may be used under the responsibility of a veterinarian. In such cases the bee products shall not be sold as organic. The use of allopathic synthesized products for preventive treatments is prohibited.
• All treatments with veterinary medicinal products shall be clearly recorded in details, i.e. the type of product, (including the indication of the active substances), the diagnosis, doses, the method of administration, the duration of treatment and the withdrawal period.
• Treated hives shall be placed in isolation and go through a one-year conversion period.

FEED

• Colonies may be fed with organic feed only to compensate for temporary forage shortages due to weather conditions or other exceptional circumstances.
• The sources of forage should be essentially organically produced plants or naturally occurring vegetation.

PEST CONTROL

Permitted disease and pest control:

• Lactic, formic acid
• Oxalic, acetic acid
• Sulfur
• Natural essential oils, e.g. menthol
• Eucalyptol, camphor
• Bacillus thuringiensis
• Steam, direct flame and caustic soda for hive disinfection.

HANDLING & PROCESSING

• Bee products shall be sold as organic when beekeeping has been managed in accordance with this standard for at least one year.
• Destruction of bees in the combs as a method to harvest honey or other bee products is prohibited.
• Extraction of honey from combs that contain brood is prohibited. 
• Chemical synthetic bee repellents shall not be used during honey extraction operations. 

The operator shall not:

• Adulterate honey with water
• Use fine mesh filters or diatomaceous earth to separate seed crystals from honey
• Use high pressure filtration systems
• Heat or handle bee products using kerosene heaters or any heating systems which produce petroleum vapors in the room.
• Control stray bees or other insects using synthetic insecticides, repellants or fumigants.

All steps of extraction, processing and storage of honey or other bee products shall be handled with care and documented.