Bookshelf

Food Chain

Food Chain is a journal providing practical and appropriate information for small-scale food processors Articles are written by workers in many countries experienced in their fields. The journal presents information in very clear format.

it is published three times a year by Intermediate Technology, Rugby, UK. The subscription is £9 for three issues, but those who cannot afford to pay may write for free subscription.

Food, nutrition and agriculture

Available free of charge to government agencies and research institutes from the Food Policy and Nutrition Division, FAO, Italy

Published three times a year in English, French and Spanish, this journal carries articles on nutrition issues, food standards and quality in developing countries. It is included here as it will be of value to readers concerned with projects addressing malnutrition problems.

Super formulas: how to make more than 360 useful products that contain honey and beeswax

by E C White

Valley Hills Press, Starkville, USA (1993) 120 pages. Paperback. £9.95

Elaine White has spent years testing formulas and methods for making all sorts of products. The common factor is that the recipes and techniques all contain or use honey, beeswax or propolis. The formulas are not just recipes for food items (although a few are included), but are for making other products.

These methods and products range from those you might already know candles, mead and vinegar, to those you probably never thought could contain products of bees: beard softener, mascara, paint stripper, and theatrical grease paint!

Many of the formulas contain ingredients that are not readily obtainable but from the 350 methods and recipes you are certain to find some that can be made and could become popular (and maybe lucrative) products in your area

A selection of Elaine White's formulas are given on page 10.

The First West African Bee Research Seminar

edited by N Bradbear

Funded by the International Foundation for Science, Stockholm, Sweden.

Bees for Development, Monmouth, UK (1993) 86 pages. Paperback. £20.00

The written texts of the papers presented at this First Seminar, held in The Gambia in 1991. The papers reveal the difficulty of managing the honeybee native to West Africa, Apis mellifera adansonii, and depict the current level of knowledge of this bee. Other information is also presented: on making beekeeping projects successful, on the further research requirements of West Africa, and concerning other bee species.

La biologie de l'abeille

by M L Winston

Editions Nauwelaerts, Beauvechain, Belgium

(1993) 276 pages. Paperback £18.00

A French translation of Mark Winston's excellent text: very highly recommended for all who want to understand the biology of honeybees, tropical and temperate.

Network

Available from. Dr S K Bhargara, Chief Technical Adviser, Forestry Planning and Policy Assistance, Asia and Pacific Region, c/o FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok.

This is quarterly newsletter carrying information on forest conservation, planning and policy projects funded by FAO in Asia and the Pacific Region.

Beekeepers in this region should read this newsletter to know what projects are being planned.

They can then ensure that their needs and those of the bees are not neglected!

Listening for change

by Slim and Thompson

Panos Publications, London, UK (1993) 147 pages. Paperback.

Available from: Panos London, White Lion Street, London. Price: £9.95

This is a guide to collecting and interpreting spoken information. The book aims to help development workers to improve their listening and learning skills, and to value the knowledge, culture and priorities of the people that projects are supposed to help. it would be of value to anyone who plans to assist traditional beekeepers: it will assist in finding the right questions to ask and in recording and transcription. This book encourages those involved with assisting development to listen to the (sometimes awkward) voices of the people they want to help.

Beekeeping: the Nevis way

by J Q Henderson Funded by Voluntary Service Overseas, London, UK (1992, 2nd edition) 38 pages. Paperback

Available from: Quentin Henderson, Gingerland PO, Charlestown, St Kitts Nevis. Price £5 including airmail postage.

A 38 page spiral bound book which sets out to provide basic information about beekeeping on the Caribbean island of Nevis to the people who live there. The bees on Nevis are European Apis mellifera. The date of their introduction to Nevis (several hundred years ago) is unknown. Colonies of these Apis mellifera are found nesting in the wild all over the island and their honey is plundered by men known as “honey cutters”. Africanized bees are not present.

The book provides information on frame hive beekeeping using the equipment and facilities available. It starts at the level of describing a hive tool and gives practical advice through to harvesting and marketing the honey, including clear instructions for removing nest of bees from the wild. The text makes constant reference (nearly every page) to Morse and Hooper's Encyclopaedia of beekeeping, which is apparently easily available in Nevis. This seems a reasonable way to provide specific text without repeating the information given in the standard beekeeping books.

STOP PRESS

Nectar and pollen plants of China by Xu Wanlin (reviewed in Beekeeping & Development 29), is now available at £13.00 (was £42.00). In Chinese.

AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

BOOKSHELF offers you an opportunity to reach readers in nearly every country of the world. Our aim is to review as many books on beekeeping and development as we can.

Send copies of your publications to Bees for Development and we will do our best to review them in a future edition of this journal. We may also stock them for sale: we are particularly interested to expand our range of books and visual aids on tropical beekeeping.

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