BCOKSHELF Zambian beekeeping handbook by Bernhard and Renate Clauss. Beekeeping Division of the Forestry Department, Zambia (1991) 108 pp. Paperback.
Available from IBRA price
to be announced.
This an A4 size handbook prepared and printed in Zambia. It will be of great value to all those who seek to encourage beekeeping in resource-poor areas of Africa. It is full of practical “hands on” information. It is written in a style that is easy-to-read and encouraging. It gives excellent advice on handling bees. [t is extremely well illustrated. It contains details of many different types of hive, traditional and modern. It provides sound information of exactly the type needed where there are few resources, and where existing vegetation and honey bees are precious. [t will become a classic text!
Bees and beekeeping in the North West Province of Zambia. Report on a beekeeping survey by Bernhard Clauss. Forest Department-IRDP
Available from IBRA price
(1992) 168 pp. Paperback. to be
announced.
From Bees and beekeeping in the North West
Province of
Zambia.
This report is the result of a three and a half year beekeeping survey of Zambia’s North Western Province. Every page is packed with carefully researched information, and the result is comprehensive and unique description of forest beekeeping: the bee flora involved, the honey bees involved, traditional practices recent hive trials and resultant comparisons between new and old technologies, marketing, difficulties facing beekeepers, and concerns for the future. The Appendix provides new and valuable data on bee plants and flowering calendars. a
,
In the closing page of this book, Bernhard Clauss makes a plea which should be considered by all who seek to teach or learn beekeeping: Any certificate in beekeeping should be granted strictly along guidelines similar to a driving test: nobody can qualify for a driver's licence if he/she fails to pass the practical part of it...
Hive management by Richard E Bonney. Blandford (1992) 152 pp. Paperback.
Available from IBRA price 10.50.
This book does not start at the absolute beginning, describing items of beekeeping equipment and explaining the difference between queen, drone and worker. Instead it starts at the beginning of hive management, for example explaining why bees swarm, what happens during swarming, steps the beekeeper can take to prevent bees swarming, and what to do when they swarm anyway! It provides the reader with clear understanding of the reasons behind routine beekeeping practices. Richard Bonney is a beekeeper in the USA, and his text relates to frame hive beekeeping with Apis mellifera.
Beekeeping
in the
tropics
by P Segeren, V Mulder, ]
Beetsma and R Sommeijer.
Agrodok 32. Published by Agromisa, PO Box 41, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands. (1991) 3rd revised edition. 83 pp. Paperback.
Available from Agromisa in English and French for Dfl7.50 excluding postage. Inhabitants of ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries can apply for Agrodoks free of charge from CTA, PO Box 380, 6700 AJ, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
This Agrodok booklet gives information on how to work with cavity-nesting honey bees. The booklet stresses the importance of starting at a local level and only later, with growing experience, trying to improve the local system of beekeeping or even trying to introduce new systems. A lot of information is packed into this booklet. [t starts with background detail of bees, a honey bee colony and the importance of honey and wax production. Subsequent chapters address bee handling, discussion and description of different hive types, feeding and care of bees, and how to establish colonies. Final chapters describe how to harvest and process honey, wax and pollen. Diseases are described briefly and further notes are given in four appendices.
Proceedings of the International Symposium on recent research in bee pathology edited by W Ritter, associate
editors O van Laere, F Jacobs, L de Wael. Merelbeke, Belgium; State Research Station for Nematology and Entomology for Apimondia (1991)
223 pp. Paperback. Available from IBRA price 17.50.
