Bookshelf

Manuka – the biography of an extraordinary honey

Clive van Eaton

2014 256 pages £14.95 (US$23; €19) Published by Exisle Press ISBN 9781775591634

This is the book that has been waiting to be written about Manuka honey. Cliff van Eaton provides a wonderful profile of Manuka honey – what it is, how its’ healing properties have been studied, and bringing readers right up to date with the most recent research findings concerning the amazing basis for Manuka’s healing properties. However, the book is not just about Manuka: it is also about bees and honey, plants and history, coincidences and humans. An excellent read – full of interesting facts for everyone, beekeepers included.

Beekeeping on two fronts 1914–1918

Compiled by Stuart Ching

2014 52 pages £8.95 (US$14 ; €11) Published by Northern Bee Books ISBN 9781908904560

This is a lovely book, a compilation of letters written to the British Bee Journal during the period 1914-1918. Some of the letters are from Sergeant Atwell who fought in the British Army in France, and found time to write to the Journal with records of his bee sightings and sad accounts of beekeepers within the conflict areas. Letters from others describe problems facing British beekeepers at the time, especially the famous ‘Isle of Wight’ disease.

Reflections on beekeeping

W S Robson

2014 98 pages £9.95 (US$16; €13) Published by Northern Bee Books ISBN 9781904846826

Another lovely text about bees and beekeepers. Willie Robson has worked for more than 50 years earning his living from beekeeping at Chain Bridge Honey Farm in Northumberland, near to the English-Scottish border. Mr Robson learned his beekeeping from his father, Selby, and has in turn passed on this knowledge to his son, Stephen. Packed full of beekeeping lore, this is a charming, gentle discourse on gentle bees and beekeeping.

Diagnosing bee mites

Diana Sammataro

2014 98 pages £9.95 (US$16; €13) Published by Northern Bee Books ISBN 9781908904591

A very clear and useful book full of pictures and diagrams that explain in the most straightforward way how to identify Varroa and other bee mites, and how to diagnose the symptoms they cause. Treatment options are summarised. Very helpful pictures make this a useful and rapid learning tool.

Smoking allowed – A pictorial past of the honey bee smokers in the United States

2014 64 pages £9.95 (US$16; €13) Published by Northern Bee Books ISBN 9781908904461

The title says it all! Pictures of smokers dating from the smudge pot of the 1860s to the Higginsville smoker of 1932.

So you want to be a beekeeper?

J R Slade

2014 66 pages £9.95 (US$16; €13) Published by Northern Bee Books ISBN 9781908904546

A very simple and brief guide to beekeeping as practised in the UK. Some rather quaint terminology.

DVD: Commercial top-bar hives in Zambia

Horst Wendorf Video Productions

2014 Running time 41 minutes £25 (US$39; €31)

For centuries beekeepers in the Copperbelt Province of NW Zambia have been using bark hives hung high in trees because they proved to be the best choice economically for small-scale farmers to generate income from honey production. However the hives are no longer environmentally sustainable as mature trees are killed in the hive making process.

Since 1990 several development programmes have looked at alternatives. As narrator Joseph Masaku Fwalanga says “frame hives ae not successful in Africa as they rely on extensive knowledge, skills and imports”. Top-bar hives are usually kept on stands to raise them off the ground, but the bees prefer hives hung in trees so occupancy rate was low and honey production poor. Hanging the top-bar hives in trees (to copy bark hives) proved impractical as a ready to harvest top-bar hive can weigh up to 80 kg and needs several people to lower it to the ground.

In 2008 the Kafakumba Training Centre started a beekeeping venture to commercialise top-bar hive beekeeping and created the private company Bee Sweet Honey Ltd. Five years later the company developed the ‘hybrid’ hive – a shorter top-bar hive that can be suspended in trees with the aid of a pulley and grappling iron. To date 20,000 hybrid hives have been allocated to small-scale farmers: hive occupancy rates are good and honey production is on the increase.

Available to purchase from our online store www.beesfordevelopment/shop

Also in store: DVDs by Horst Wendorf on beekeeping in Laos, the Philippines and Zambia

The hybrid hive

PHOTO © HORST WENDORF