Bees for Development Journal 106
BOOK SHELF
Buy these titles at www.beesfordevelopment.org/catalog or at our shop in Monmouth, UK
Top-bar hive beekeeping – wisdom and pleasure combined Wyatt A Mangum 2012 411 pages £55 (US$85; €64) M570 A culmination of 25 years of experience of keeping and observing bees in top-bar hives in North Carolina, USA. The author runs 200 top-bar hives for pollination and honey and beeswax production - meaning that his designs, methods and practical tips are proven and efficient. Ensuring that the bees build straight combs, the advantages of selling honeycomb, how to make an external feeder, are all covered – and more – with utmost practical detail. The author uses mobile two foot (60 cm) hives for pollination, and five foot (150 cm) hives for honey production. While the context is US, there is a great abundance of interest for beekeepers in other countries. For example, how do you make foundation starter strips when no foundation is available? The answer is to make starter strips from intact comb cut from a bees’ nest! This book reminds us that keeping bees for profit requires an excellent understanding of bees, a whole lot of ingenuity and a willingness to learn from trying things out. The excellent pictures on their own make this book worth buying. Although your wildlife might be different (lovely endnotes on night-time game photography in the apiary) this is the ultimate and excellent reference book for commercial top-bar beekeeping. An original text full of reliable advice.
Pot-honey – a legacy of stingless bees Patricia Vit, Silvia R M Pedro & David Roubik (eds) 2013 697 pages Hardcover £144.50 (US$226; €167) V555 An important new compilation of information about stingless bees. Forty chapters contributed by dozens of experts in their fields, covering all aspects of stingless bees: origin, biodiversity and behaviour; stingless bees’ role in culture, traditions and environment; plants used by them; sensory attributes, composition and biological properties of honey and their marketing and standards. This is a wonderful gathering of data and detail, highly valuable and interesting for beekeepers, anthropologists and researchers working in this sector.
The thinking beekeeper – a guide to natural beekeeping in top-bar hives Christy Hemenway 2013 195 pages £17 (US$26; €20) H555 An excellent new resource offering clear and practical advice on how to keep bees in top-bar hives. The author takes a fresh approach, briefly describing how we reached our current beekeeping status explaining why It’s all about the wax (as discussed on page three of this Journal). The author presents reasons why frame hive beekeeping denies to beekeepers the perfection of the natural systems that are at work in the honey bee colony. By using foundation-less hives (for example top-bar hives or Warré hives) bees are able to live and nest in a more natural way than they are able to do in frame hives. The rest of the text provides information on making a top-bar hive, obtaining bees, overwintering and many other skills for looking after bees thoughtfully. Written primarily for beekeepers in North America, this text is a stimulating read for beekeepers world-wide.
Home and away – adventures in beekeeping in the UK and Africa John Home 2012 136 pages £12 (US$18; €14) H550 A childhood passion for bees turned into his profession and for many years John Home was a commercial beekeeper owning and running Fosse Way Honey. At its peak, he managed 350 colonies in 30 different locations - transporting his hives around the UK for pollination contracts and marketing top quality honey that won numerous prizes at the UK National Honey and Royal Shows. He was also Chairman of the UK Bee Farmers Association and joined several of the campaigns by British beekeepers, for example concerning problems caused by insecticides, and issues surrounding EU legislation. Much of this book is about John’s experiences since retirement when he became a volunteer with the UK charity Bees Abroad, of which he is currently Chair. He describes his experiences of visiting associations in Africa with his wife Mary, sharing expertise and knowledge with beekeepers he has met on his many travels. Prices in US$ and € are approximate and for guidance only
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