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.

BeeCabulary Essentials

Andrew Connor

2018 234 pages Softcover

Another beautiful book about bees and North American beekeeping. The author insists that even though he grew up surrounded by bees and other insects (his father is entomologist and beekeeper Larry Connor) beekeeping was not what he wanted to do. Eventually he “discovered bees for himself” and became just as passionate about these amazing insects. Andrew wrote this book to share knowledge and help others: it is a very comprehensive guide covering bee anatomy, behaviour and management, hive products and types of both hives and bee keepers (there are seven!).

Foraging afar – tales from a decade of beekeeping around the world

William Blomstedt 2018 253 pages Softcover

This is a well-written, interesting, honest and fresh book about world beekeeping. For a decade William Blomstedt travelled the world visiting and working with beekeepers in many nations and discovering how they operate. The result is a compelling story of his travel experiences and discoveries. Ultimately, he settles in Slovenia – that great nation of beekeepers. This book is testament to the many different ways that people worldwide build livelihoods around bees. Highly recommended.

Bees and the ancient mysteries

Iwer Thor Lorenzen. Translated from German by Paul King

2018 59 pages Softcover

This book begins with a description of the `Logos mysteries’, based at the ancient temple of Artemis in Ephesus, where priestesses were known as Melissas (honey bees) and the sacrificial priests were called Essenes or `bee-kings’. Lorenzen (1895-1976) was a believer in Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner postulating the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. He became known for his love and knowledge of beekeeping particularly amongst biodynamic farmers. Lorenzen discusses flowers and insects, describing the beginnings of the honey bee, its connection with the fig wasp and the subsequent transformation that took place.

This concise, difficult work features a helpful foreword by Heidi Hermann of the Natural Beekeeping Trust.

Artist to bee speaker – 50 tales of Paula Carnell’s journey

Paula Carnell

2019 101 pages Hardcover

Paula Carnell was a successful artist whose life changed when she became ill. Bees arrived with Paula when she was wheelchair bound. She gradually recovered and is now a full-time bee consultant and speaker. She travels the world learning about where bees and humans live in unity and spreading the message that what is kills bees is killing us too! This book gives 50 tales from her journey.