Bookshelf

Ethiopian honeybee flora: some 500 common herbs, shrubs and trees

by Reinhard Fichtl and Admasu Addi

Margraf Verlag, Weikersheim, Germany (1994) 510 pages and 600 colour photographs. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development (see Books to Buy) price £68 00

This new flora has by now been mentioned several times in Beekeeping Development, but we make no apology for this as it is one of the best produced guides to bee plants yet published. One hundred trees and 400 herbs and shrubs chosen from the 7000 or so flowering plants found in Ethiopia represent the wide range of plants that are important to bees.

There are excellent colour photographs showing flowers of each of the 500 plants presented, often with honeybees foraging upon them. Each entry gives information about the plant itself, its flowering period and value to bees. Some of the plants occur throughout the tropics and subtropics, and others even more widely as crop or ornamental plants. There is a good description of the current status of beekeeping in Ethiopia too, even including the method for making Tej, the important beverage of traditional social gatherings. This book is expensive but will make an interesting and valuable addition to beekeepers’ libraries.

Beeswax crafting

Wicwas Press, Cheshire, Connecticut, USA (1993) 126 pages. Hardback. Available from Bees for Development (see Books to Buy) price £15.75

A useful text giving many practical ideas for using beeswax. Introductory chapters explain what beeswax is, its chemical and physical properties and how to process it. A range of recipes for making cosmetics and ointments is given, although some of the ingredients may be hard to locate. A number of art processes are described and the techniques of batik and encaustic art (painting with molten wax) are detailed. Elizabeth Duffin illustrates precisely her techniques for making wax flowers: these always attract attention and interest at beekeeping exhibits, showing the wide diversity of uses for beeswax. A separate chapter explains, with enough information to help the beginner get started, the different candle-making techniques. Plans are given for building solar-wax extractor and simple wax tank.

Promotion of non-wood forest produce through social forestry

edited by N G Hedge and N I Daniel BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune, India (1993) 257 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development (see Books to Buy) price £10.00

The cover of this book illustrates very well it is content. The book contains 39 talks given or. Multi-Purpose Tree Species, giving information on some of the less well-known products harvested from trees. One paper relates to beekeeping, others discuss all sorts of products: medicines, cosmetics, pesticides, gums, resins, dyes, spices and oils. Many of these commodities are familiar to rural people but their uses have not been documented by researchers. There is plenty of fascinating detail in this rather modest publication. For example, one author from South India describes how almost everyone in a village of 386 houses is employed for three months of every year in making plates and cups from the leaves of Butea monosperma ‘Flame of the forest’ trees.

Miel de abejas (Bee Honey)

by Patricia Vit

Universidad de los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela (1993) 97 pages. Paperback. In Spanish Available from: Gloria Somoza, Consejo de Publicaciones Universidad de Los Andes, Av Andrés Bello, La Parroquia, Mérida, Venezeula

This book is a useful manual for those interested in the chemical composition and physical properties of honeybee honey It gives a general introduction to the origin, different types and uses of honeys. It describes analytical techniques to evaluate the quality of honeys, sensorial (colour and flavour determination) and physicochemical analysis (moisture, index of refractometry, pH, minerals, reducing sugars, HMF, diastase and nitrogen). It provides a general introduction to mellisopalynological analysis. It also includes the results of the analysis of 500 Venezuelan honey samples.

Rogel Villanueva

Beekeeping for honey production in Sri Lanka: management of Asiatic hive honeybee Apis cerana in its natural tropical monsoonal environmet

R W Punchihewa

Sri Lanka Department of Agriculture, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in association with Canadian international Development Agency (CIDA}, Quebec, Canada (1994) 232 pages. Paperback. In English and Sinhala editions. Available from Bees for Development (see Books to Buy) price £19.95

We are delighted to welcome this excellent new book to our Bookshelf! There is no other text on Apis cerana, the Asian hive bee, to compare with this one. Dr Punchihewa is a scientist and beekeeper. He has distilled in this book his practical skills, experience and knowledge. The first chapter describes the biology of Apis cerana including up-to-date research findings. The main part of the book is precise explanation of how to satisfactorily manage Apis cerana: clear instructions are given on every aspect After many years of practical trials, the author has finally settled on method of using top-bars in the brood box and full (four-sided) frames in the honey supers.

The book contains also much apicultural information about Sri Lanka. It is estimated that the country produces about 25 tonnes of honey each year: at least 10 tonnes of this is from honey hunting. On average further 20 tonnes are imported, mainly from Australia, and of this imported honey almost 90% is used for indigenous (ayurvedic) medicine.

The book is attractively produced with excellent diagrams and over 100 colour photographs. prologue is provided by the Professors Koeniger. They conclude: ‘keeping the local honeybees for honey production and conservation must gain more momentum’. This book will help.

SPECIAL OFFER - Biogeography and taxonomy of honeybees

by Friedrich Ruttner

(1988) In English Berlin, Springer Verlag, 284 pages, hardback

An extremely valuable text dealing with the evolution and ecology of honeybees. We are very pleased to be able to offer Beekeeping Development readers this excellent book at the special price of £43.00, including postage The usual retail price is £76.00.

This offer is only available on orders received before 30 April 1995.

AFRICAN BEEKEEPERS SPREAD THEIR NEWS

Two newsletters from East and West Africa

Honey News

Published in Bamenda, Cameroon, this eight-page newsletter aims primarily to link members of NOWEBA an Association of 38 beekeeping clubs in North West Cameroon. Honey News is sponsored by Helvetas, Switzerland and is published in English. Available from. NOWEBA, Cameroon.

Kituo Chautafiti Nyuki Njiro

This Newsletter is published in Swahili and is intended for beekeepers in East Africa. It is produced by researchers at Njiro Wildlife Research Centre in Tanzania who have been working on an ODA-funded project to determine good, functional designs for top- bar hives. The Newsletter has plenty of beekeeping news, practical tips as well as beekeeping cartoons. The current edition is funded by NINA in Norway. Available from Njiro Wildlife Research Centre, Tanzania.