Bookshelf

Value-added products from beekeeping

by Rainer Krell

FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 124, Rome, Staly (1996) 409 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £30.00

Beekeepers can gain extra financial value from their craft by “adding value” to the products. The production of foods containing honey as an ingredient, or cosmetics containing honey, are examples of ways in which honey can be sold for higher financial return. This excellent new book provides plenty of ideas and methods for doing so.

Many of the recipes can be prepared using traditional skills at home, or on medium to large industrial production scale.

Honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, venom and wax are dealt with in separate chapters with information on harvesting, storing, and using each product. There is also chapter on cosmetics, and many useful addresses.

The new complete guide to beekeeping

by Roger Morse

The Countryman Press, Vermont, USA (1994) 207 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £13.50

Professor Morse has the happy knack of being able to explain complicated things such that they appear simple.

Thus his new edition of The complete guide to beekeeping succinctly describes all aspects of beekeeping that beginner needs to know. The book is written primarily for North American beekeepers, using solely North American technology. It contains an abundance of excellent, practical beekeeping advice.

Tropical commodities and their markets: guide and directory

by Peter Robbins

Kogan Page Ltd, London, United Kingdom (1995) 276 pages. Hardback. Available from Bees for Development price £45.00

A unique guide to many different tropical products providing comprehensive information on their production, use and market forecast.

There are entries for beeswax, honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly.

This guide will be useful to anyone involved with co-operatives considering the export marketing of their products.

A special paperback edition of the guide, for use only in developing countries, can be ordered for £12 directly from TWIN Ltd, United Kingdom.

Planning and implementing sustainable projects in developing countries theory, practice and economics

by Audace Kanshahu

AgBé Publishing, PO Box 1, 1010 Brussels, Belgium (1996) 196 pages Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £26.50

Do you know the difference between a Programme and Project? What factors make a project sustainable, and just what is feasibility study? This book gives plenty of useful business information for managing a project. It is full of worthwhile advice, from project planning and appraisal, through implementation, tendering for goods and services, reasons for project success and failure, and alternative approaches to development.

Three cells of honeycomb

by Francis Smith

F G Smith, Nedlands, Australia (1994) 284 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £20.50

The title of this book derives from Francis Smith's life and beekeeping work in three different continents; Europe (United Kingdom); Africa (Tanzania); and Australasia (Western Australia).

The story begins as World War II ends, with Smith leaving the British army and becoming a forestry student in Aberdeen. Upon graduation he was immediately appointed by the Colonial Office as Beeswax Officer in Tanganyika (as Tanzania was known at that time), post in which he remained for 13 years. At the independence of Tanzania he moved to work in Western Australia as Senior Apiculturalist, and 12 years later became Director of National Parks there

Among many achievements, Smith identified and named two races of honeybees, Apis mellifera monticola and Apis mellifera litorea. The book reveals an interesting contrast between life then and now. Smith and his family faced plenty of challenges along the way, and picture emerges of a good life, with plenty of resources available. Readers currently working in beekeeping development will be interested to read of work underway 45 years ago.

The Asiatic hive bee: apiculture, biology and role in sustainable development in tropical and subtropical Asia

edited by Peter Kevan

Enviroquest Ltd, Ontario, Canada (1995) 316 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £20.00

This book has evolved from the proceedings of conference held in Malaysia in 1988. The gestation period has been long one, but the labour was worthwhile. This is a useful text. Papers by 37 authors cover wide range of aspects of Asian beekeeping. The history of beekeeping in Asia, basic biology of Asian bees, honey, wax and other bee products, and crop pollination. Also covered are the diseases and pests of bees which occur in the region, and there is, importantly, chapter on beekeeping and development in Asia. The book is attractively illustrated, and good value.

A nomad amongst the bees

by Julian Johnston

Northern Bee Books, Hebden Bridge, United Kingdom (1995) 88 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £7.00

Julian Johnston has spent his life amongst bees starting at the age of six. Working for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

Johnston travelled world-wide and gained an international insight into beekeeping. After practising in many countries, he is now, once again, looking after bees in the English countryside. This is an entertaining life-history book following beekeeping around the world.

Actes du troisieme seminaire regional sur la recherche et le developpement de l’apiculture en Afrique de l’Quest

L’Association Nationale des Apicultures du Benin (1996) 151 pages. Paperback. In French. Available from Bees for Development price £20.00

The proceedings of the Third West African Bee Research Seminar held in Parakou, Benin, December 1995.

Subjects covered include beekeeping and the environment, the value of hive products, and the future prospects for beekeeping in West Africa.

SELLING HONEY

The Root Co, Medina, USA (1994) 46 pages. Paperback

QUEEN MANAGEMENT

The Al Root Co, Medina, USA (1995) 49 pages. Paperback. Both publications available from Bees for Development price £6.00 each

These two small books are part of series titled “Best of Bee Culture’. They are formed by selecting articles from the last few years of the American beekeeping magazine, Bee Culture. The result is useful, readable nuggets of information on each subject.

VIDEO SHELF

The Documentary Honeybees in Oman

prepared by Hood Bin Saif Al-Alawi

Directorate General of Agriculture Veterinary Services Beekeeping Section, Sultanate of Oman (1996) VHS. Running time 45 minutes. English and Arabic versions available from Bees for Development price £25.00 including airmail postage

An excellent documentary on beekeeping in Oman. The camera team initially escorts honey hunters to harvest from “cave-dwelling” bees. Importantly this film carries footage of Apis florea beekeeping in Oman. Specialist beekeepers move the single combs built by Apis florea to artificial “caves”. The documentary shows how the comb is carefully cut to remove the honey-containing section. The beekeeper returns the brood comb clamped between two halves of split stick to the original site for the colony to continue.

Following on is beekeeping with Apis mellifera. Instructions show how to make and extract honey from tubl (date palm log hive), and how to capture and transfer a swarm to this type of hive.

The documentary also explains the activities within bee colony, and management techniques of frame hive beekeeping including centrifugal honey extraction.

The book Honeybees in Oman available from Bees for Development price £6.25 provides an excellent accompanying text to this documentary

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