Bookshelf

LAST CHANCE

Bees beekeeping: science, practice and world resources

by Dr Eva Crane is now out of print.

Published in 1990 this book is the most comprehensive single volume source of information on the scientific principles of beekeeping, techniques in use, and the resources available for beekeeping around the world.

Bees for Development has copies... but for how long? You might be lucky and win copy (see our competition on the back page}. Alternatively, why not order your copy today?

Price £55.00

Perspectives for honey production in the tropics

edited by Marinus J Sommeijer, Joop Beetsma, Willem-Jan Boot, Eve Robberts and Remy de Vries

NECTAR, Utrecht, Netherlands (1997) 214 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £15.00

A very valuable new source of information about tropical honey, how it is harvested, and how it is marketed, locally and internationally. The requirements of honey harvested for local sale are different from honey for export, and local prices are often well above the world price. High water content can be problem for tropical honeys if the honey is to be exported. These and other factors are well explored.

he book is the outcome of a meeting organised by NECTAR in 1994. Efforts were made to bring experienced people from Africa, Asia and Central America to the meeting, and their valuable knowledge is usefully made available to us all in this excellent publication.

MAKE SOME MEAD FOR THE MILLENNIUM - TWO NEW BOOKS

We have joke in the UK that in life you often have to wait long time for bus, and then two buses come along. It is obviously the same with books on mead! There has not been new book on mead for a long time, and now two have come along together.

Mead: making, exhibiting and judging

by Harry Riches

Bee Books New and Old, Charlestown, United Kingdom (1997) 80 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £11.00

Harry Riches is British expert in mead. For years he won medals for his fine mead and wines. Now he is judge of mead, he can pass on the ideas and methods that brought him success.

A very readable and practical book, full of delicious recipes and good advice.

South African mead notes

by Eddy N Lear

Apimondia Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania (1997) 187 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £8.00

Eddy Lear is South African expert in mead. Like Harry Riches, Eddy has also been making and exhibiting mead for many years, and finally has published this book sharing all his secrets.

This too is readable and practical book containing plenty of recipes and tips for success.

PLANATION PLEASE! Mead is an alcoholic drink produced by the fermentation of honey and water by yeast.

The economic value of non-timber forest products in Southeast Asia

by Jenne H de Beer and Melaine J McDermott

Netherlands Committee for UCN, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1996 2nd edition) 200 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £20.00

Non-timber forest products are all the biological material, other than timber, that can be extracted from forests for use by humans. Honey and beeswax are of course non-timber forest products, along with foods, fuelwood, gums, medicines, rattan, resins, spices, and many other useful materials

The book focuses on how ae a! all these products figure significantly in the lives of the 30 million forest- dependent people in Southeast Asia. Bee products are not forgotten.

This text provides serious examination of the sustainable use of forests, and should be required reading for all involved in debate on forest conservation.

Bee flora of the Hindu Kush Himalayas: inventory and management

by Uma Partap

ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal (1997) 297 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £18.00

A very useful new text. The author has surveyed the bee flora of the Hindu Kush Himalayas and here are her findings: 366 bee plants have been described, of which 237 have been identified as being of especial value to bees. Descriptions are given accompanied by excellent colour pictures of many species, together with photographs of the pollen grains. There is also useful background information about beekeeping in the region, melissopalynology and the possible management of bee forage.

A welcome addition to the books available about plants visited by bees.

Beginner's guide to candlemaking

by David Constable

Search Press, Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom (1997) 48 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £7.00

Everything you want to know about simple candlemaking. Pages of colour photographs complement easy to follow instructions for making beautiful candles. Coloured candles, perfumed candles, floating candles, spiral candles and candles in containers are included. There is also a troubleshooting section: what problems might occur, and how to rectify them.

CONGRESS CORNER

First International Conference on Conserving the European Dark Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera

This recently produced 68 page booklet comprises the contributions, draft and programme for this Conference held in Norway in 1995.

Sixty contributors provided information on the situation of the dark bee in many European countries, morphometric studies and breeding programmes.

For further information contact: Nils Drivdal, Norway

First International Arab Apicultural Congress Programme and Reports

prepared by Rashid Yazbek

The 1997 Proceedings of this important meeting held in Lebanon in August 1996. The scientific programme included apiculture in Arab countries, bee pathology, bee biology, apitherapy, and pollination economy. 190 pages. Papers in Arabic and English.

For details of the next Arab Apicultural Congress see Look Ahead, page 11.

The forgotten pollinators

by Stephen L Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan

Island Press, Washington DC, USA (1996) 292 pages. Hardback. Available from Bees for Development price £24.00

The relationships between plants and the animals that they depend upon to achieve reproduction (bees, birds, butterflies, and countless others), is fascinating. But when habitats are threatened, these connections are threatened too. The authors explain how a change in population of one animal needed for pollination can have a ripple effect, leading to a “cascade of linked extinctions”.

Stephen Buchmann and Gary Nabhan are scientists who have been fortunate to travel the globe in pursuit of their research. They use their observations and learning to provide a marvellous account of ecological and cultural consequences of plant-pollinator interaction.

This new book is at the centre of a campaign in the USA to raise awareness about pollinators and plants and their interdependence.

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