Bookshelf

BEECONOMY - what women and bees can teach us about local trade and the global market

Tammy Horn 2011 392 pages Hardback £26.95 (€37) H100

Just as we go to press, this fresh and original new book has arrived. From its title (illustrated left) onwards, this is an imaginative telling about women and bees. Tammy Horn has read and travelled widely - across five continents - to create this social account of beekeeping. It is not a listing of women who have contributed to apiculture; rather it is a fresh take of beekeeping history and the status of the sector today. The journey begins with Horn working with beekeepers in Africa, and moves to Asia, Europe, Australasia, North and South America. From her interviews along the way, and her extensive historical research of this field, Horn provides a book full of apicultural charm and interest – describing how women today and in the past have built livelihoods around bees. Nice, for example, to have the heroic St Gobnait’s life related – a famous woman beekeeper from the 6th Century, and concerning the heroine of our own era, Horn relates her meeting with Eva Crane. Horn is a gifted author who has, along with interesting illustrations and apicultural explanations, provided an alternative perspective of our bee world.

SOME HONEYBEE PLANTS OF BAS-CONGO PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Paul Latham and Konda ku Mbuta 2011 (2nd edition) 248 pages £35 (€50) L115

A beautifully produced manual. After an introduction to the top-bar hive beekeeping practised by many of the 11,000 beekeepers in Bas-Congo Province, the main part of this text is a listing of 190 plant species. Each species is devoted one page with colour photographs and a description of its value to bees, its distribution, uses, and for some plants, propagation and management. A chart shows when these plants are foraged by bees for nectar and/or pollen. Together with a detailed list of references this is a very useful guide that will assist beekeepers, farmers and tree planters in many African countries. The authors deserve congratulation for this excellent work.

THE ROYAL ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY BOOK OF BRITISH INSECTS

Peter C Barnard 2011 400 pages Hardback £45.00 (€60) G100

The epigraph to this book, a quotation from Wendell Holmes, (1882) The poet at the breakfast table contains the line: “No man can be truly called an entomologist, sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp”. Yes indeed, this new text is a guide to insects of the British Isles, taking the reader through the 558 families of British insects, 6,000 genera and 24,000 species - of which only 55 are protected by law. However, being a temperate-zone nation, Britain has relatively few species of insect compared with numbers in the tropics. There are well over one million species of insects, and many more which have not been named by science - for comparison, there are ‘only’ about 5,500 species of mammal on earth. This beautiful, systematic book is the type of work that ought to exist for every nation, so that we could begin to comprehend the true complexity and meaning of biodiversity.

KEEPING BEES

Pam Gregory and Claire Waring 2011 256 pages £10.99 (€15) G100

These days in the UK there are many excellent new books on beekeeping: indeed we reviewed another good one by one of these authors in the last issue of BfD Journal ! Keeping bees is a beautifully produced and an imaginatively designed, readable guide to keeping bees in UK national frame hives. It is easy to read and with an abundance of pictures, will quickly enable readers to understand what is involved in the craft. Many pages have ‘top tips’ - short swatches of text that help beginners to learn fast. A fresh take for British beginner beekeepers who now have a great selection of books from which to choose.

KEEPING BEES

Ashley English 2011 136 pages Hardback £15.99 (€22) E005

And here is another one, even with the same title. This book has been written for North American beekeepers, and again with an abundance of excellent pictures, provides plenty of detail and encouragement. A novel aspect of this book is the use of profile interviews with people practising beekeeping for varying reasons, which intersperse the text. Another good book for beginners.