Bookshelf

The biology of stingless bees

by Hayo H W Velthuis

1997-33 page. Paperback. In Dutch, English, and Portuguese editions. Available from Bees for Development price £10.00 including postage.

There are more than 400 species of stingless bees. They occur throughout the tropics and subtropics. Like honeybees they have attained a high level of social evolution, living in permanent colonies and multiplying by swarming.

This booklet introduces stingless bees, their taxonomy, general biology and how they communicate, and their biodiversity. There are many illustrations and colour pictures that, combined with the text, add up to a useful and appealing introduction to this large group of bees

How to make and use visual aids

by Nicola Harford and Nicola Baird

1997 128 pages. Paperback. Available from Bees for Development price £9.00 including postage

This book describes ways to achieve good sharing of information between people. The “chalk and talk” method of teaching (teacher talks, students listen) is gradually changing to “learning by doing’. Projects increasingly use participatory approaches for decision making. This book assumes that both the trainers and the students (or the development workers and the community) will be involved in making the visual aids, and this will help everyone to participate, learn and remember more.

The book is full of ideas and suggestions, with excellent illustrations on every page. There are six pages of useful contact addresses for organisations around the world that are involved with participatory development.

Honey Bee

by Seyyed Javad Saadatmand

1998 484 pages. Paperback. In Arabic. Available from Bees for Development price £15.00 including postage

A book about beekeeping in Iran including advice on the best place to site hives and flowering calendars for the country. Other chapters discuss top-bar hives and their benefits, frame hives and traditional! hives. These chapters include information and illustrations obtained during the author’s stay at Njiro Wildlife Research Centre in Tanzania and he has special mention for the assistance he was given by the Centre and Borje Svensson.

There is chapter on stingless bee keeping, many colour plates of the bee forage found in Iran, and short Arabic/ English dictionary is included in the appendices.

POSTER

Bees, wasps and other hymenoptera

97 x 68 cm full colour

Available from Bees for Development price £10.00 including postage

An entertaining and decorative poster: drawings of, and brief descriptions of 33 species. The Latin, English, French, German, and Spanish names are listed along with notes on where the insects are found and their behavioural tendencies.

VIDEOSHELF

Produced by Traidcraft

1998 PAL/VHS. Running time 23 minutes

Available from Bees for Development price £10.00 including airmail postage

A well-planned video which describes fair trade and its benefits to producers and consumers. Separate sections show how fair trade mechanisms are in place and working for coffee growers co-operative in Peru, tea plantation in Tanzania, cocoa producers in Ghana and honey producers in Tanzania. Justin Madaha, B&D’s Correspondent in Tanzania and until recently Manager of the Tabora Beekeepers’ Co-operative (which has over 1000 members) features in the video. He explains why fair traded honey is good for the producers: no debts, confirmed income which makes money available to buy all the essentials for everyday living, and some income on one side for rainy day. He tells why it is important that consumers value fair traded goods, and buy them in preference to non-fair traded products. The film also shows how banana plantation workers in Costa Rica are not yet benefiting from the bonuses to be reaped from fair trade, and again emphasises how consumers can make difference.

The world of bees

Produced by Larry Hofmann

1997 PAL/VHS. Running time 62 minutes

Available from Bees for Development price £24.00 including airmail postage

The World of Bees provides ready-made, professional, hour-long “slide show” that gently explains how honeybees live and work.

It has been made by commercial beekeeper in the USA, Mr Charles Hofmann. It explains how and why bees gather nectar and pollen and how these are used within the colony. The video is particularly strong in explaining how pollination is brought about and the significant and undervalued role of bees in crop production.

The pictures of snow-covered hives and fields of dandelions will not be familiar to viewers in tropical countries, but the story that this video tells of the life of bees is equally true and fascinating everywhere. For example, honeybees often fly 50,000 miles to collect enough nectar for one pound (about 0.5 kg) of honey!

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