Bees for Development Journal 130 March 2019
BOOKSHELF The secrets of bees – an insider’s guide to the life of honeybees Michael Weiler 2019 (revised edition) translated by David Heaf 159 pages Softcover This is a modest yet excellent text offering an enlightened description of how honey bees live, based on Michael Weiler’s years of experience and accurate observation. His beekeeping has been informed by comprehending the behaviour of bees, aiming always for a mutually supportive relationship. The 20 chapters describe the year in a life of a colony, explaining so many aspects of bees’ lives, clearly and excellently, and finishing with a chapter on the power of honey for bees and people. If each honey bee was paid at £8 per hour, one jar of honey should cost £100,000! An Appendix by Günther Friedman explains Demeter beekeeping, a natural way of managing bees that allows bees to swarm and to build their own combs, at least in the brood nest. The text is accompanied by excellent black and white black photographs and drawings from many sources. A wonderful book for bee keepers and admirers.
Pot-pollen in stingless bee melittology Patricia Vit, Silva RM Pedro & David W Roubik (eds) 2018 481 pages Hardcover Meliponini – stingless bees – store their honey in cerumen pots made within the colony. Pot-pollen is the other product that is stored in these pots by these bees. This book with contributions from scientists and experts studying stingless bees and meliponiculture gives an insight into pot-pollen which supports the stingless bees, and its many interesting biological characteristics that are only now beginning to be understood by scientists.
Keeping honey bees – Storey’s guide Malcolm T Sanford & Richard E Bonney 2018 (2nd edition) 212 pages Softcover A brightly illustrated book introducing beekeeping as practised in North America. Chapters cover the origins and history of beekeeping, honey bee life cycle, getting started (equipment and hive location) and colony management. The final chapter “Additional strategies” recognises that many people are looking at less intense hive systems and information about top-bar hives, horizontal hives and the People’s Warré hive is provided.
Honeybee hobbyist – the care and keeping of bees Norman Gary 2018 224 pages Softcover A beautifully presented book full of fabulous pictures and illustrations. Norman Gary began beekeeping at the age of 15 and gained his PhD in Apiculture at Cornell University (USA). He draws on a diversity of experiences including commercial beekeeping, research and teaching, apiary inspection, and working as a professional entertainer (bees and music!) – Norman has been a professional bee wrangler for 18 Hollywood movies and over 70 TV productions. Full of clear descriptions and highlighted ‘tips’ the book explains bee behaviour, describes the workings of a colony and honey bee biology, how to monitor hive conditions and deal with diseases, keeping bees in urban areas, entertaining with bees using observation hives, and teaching children the ways of North American beekeeping.
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