BEEKEEPING AND DEVELOPMENT
BOOKSHELF For example, it certainly adds strength to arguments that honey is an important dietary component to quote that honey at times forms 82% of the total calorific intake of Mbuti hunters in Zaire. But the main purpose of this book is to explain the various ways in which bees are vital: how bees benefit people, how bees benefit trees and how trees benefit bees. This information is necessary for everyone making decisions concerning tree planting.
The behaviour and physiology of bees edited by
L } Goodman and
R C Fisher. CAB International, Wallingford, UK (1991) on behalf of the Royal Entomological Society of London and the International Bee Research Association. 362 pp. Hardback. Available from IBRA price 49.50
IBRA Members - postage
(special offer for free on this book).
Biologists have for many years used honey bees as experimental animals on which to study behaviour and the physiological mechanisms which may underlie its expression. In July 1990 researchers from Europe and the Americas participated in a Colloquium in London organised jointly by the Royal Entomological Society of London and IBRA. This book is based on the papers presented at the Colloquium, and will be of interest to research entomologists and other scientists. The book is arranged in four parts: The environment within the hive - its regulation and the interactions between bees; Communication and foraging - new studies on the dance language of honey bees, and explaining how foraging behaviour might arise; Vision and olfaction - how these affect bee behaviour; Learning - different approaches towards an explanation of how bees learn.
All community forestry programmes should make provision for bees and beekeepers and this book provides the information they need in selecting worthwhile and suitable species. Useful lists of trees that in addition to producing pollen and nectar also have other purposes are listed according to the vegetation zone in which they thrive.
“Get yourself a fruit garden and a hive of bees” Hive made from palm trunk in Guinea-Bissau. (Picture from Bees and Trees}
Beekeeping handbook produced and
published by Beekeeping
Section, Department of Crop
Bees and Trees
Production and
by B Svensson. Working Paper 183, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden (1991) 80 pp.
Available free of charge from the International Rural Development Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7005, Uppsala, Sweden’. Also available from IBRA price 6.75.
Honey hunters and beekeepers. Astudy of traditional beekeeping in Babati District, Tanzania reviewed in *
Beekeeping and Development issue 20 is
now also available through these
methods.
TWELVE
*
This new publication contains much useful information for those who would encourage beekeeping as part of community forestry activities. Readers of this journal know that bees and trees are important - they form such an everyday part of our lives - but it can be difficult to quantify this importance. Bdrje Svensson has endeavoured to give statistical or factual support for the arguments he proposes: evidence is provided in a series of fact boxes interspersed throughout the text.
Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Botswana
(1991 3rd edition) 80 pp. Available from
IBRA
price
6.00.
A new edition of the useful and popular handbook first produced in 1980 by the Botswana Government Beekeeping Section. The new edition has been updated by Khaliso Kepaletswe and gives more emphasis to the use of protective clothing. Straight-sided topbar hives are still recommended as the most practical for Batswana beekeepers. This book remains one of the best available for African beekeepers, giving exactly the type of practica! information on handling bees which is difficult to find elsewhere.
