Bookshelf

THE HIBERNATION DIET

Mike McInnes and Stuart McInnes, with Maggie Standfield

2006 150 pages soft cover £8.50 (€12.75) Code M020

This book aims to help people adopt a healthy diet and lose weight if necessary. The authors include a pharmacist and a sports nutritionist. The diet they propose is based on the concepts of liver fuelling and fat burning throughout sleep. They advocate the taking of a spoonful of honey before bed, to optimise fat loss. This is based on understanding of the biology of tissue recovery, which is fat burning. Arising from this the authors developed a strategy for optimising fat burning during sleep by fuelling the liver prior to sleep. Honey, which contains fructose, is ideal for this purpose. The theory is that if the liver is fuelled prior to bed, recovery hormones are released to do repair, regeneration and construction of new tissue. These hormones are exclusively fat burning hormones. For this to occur, blood glucose must be stable, and the liver must be well fuelled: a spoonful or two of honey is the ideal way to do this.

ROBBING THE BEES

Holley Bishop

2006 324 pages hard cover £15.00 (€22.50) Code B355

The subtitle of this book is: 'A biography of honey, the sweet liquid that seduced the world'. Holley Bishop is a beekeeper, and a journalist. In this book, she provides an insight into why beekeepers find their craft so endlessly fascinating and interesting. She describes the folklore and history of beekeeping: a newcomer to the field will find this an informative and pleasant way to learn more about the culture surrounding bees and their honey. Well written and readable, this is an enjoyable book, and especially encouraging for anybody thinking of keeping bees for the first time.

THE NEW NATURALIST BUMBLEBEES

Ted Benton 2006 592 pages hard cover £47.50 (€71.25)

Code B325 soft cover £26 (€39) Code B330

An important new text on bumblebees, providing a detailed, up-to-date account of their behaviour and ecology. Although the text is focussed on bumblebees of the UK, there is information that is new and useful for all who are working in this field. For example, Chapter 1 contains interesting information about the extent of bumblebee species richness worldwide.

Like honeybees, bumblebees play a crucial role in the pollination of flowers and vegetables. The farming industry relies heavily on these efficient pollinators to pollinate beans, tomatoes and many fruit crops such as apple, pear and plum. However, bumblebee populations have recently suffered alarming decline, with three of the UK species already extinct and another nine (of the remaining 25) on the endangered species list. A further decline in numbers could have a serious economic impact on the farming industry, while the impact upon biodiversity is unknown. In light of this, bumblebees have been a source of much interest, and detailed research and field studies over the past decade have brought them into the public eye, raising awareness of their plight.

The author, Ted Benton is an expert in this field, and in this text, he combines 15 years of his own field studies with the latest research findings, to provide a detailed and comprehensive account of the lives of the UK species. The book is full of excellent colour photographs and line drawings showing the sexes and castes of all species, and detailed photographs of bumblebee habitats. In addition to chapters on life cycles, psychology, 'usurper bumblebees', and predators, Chapter 6 discusses foraging behaviour, while Chapter 7 discusses floral arrangement. Chapter 8 provides a key to enable identification. Chapter 10 discusses agricultural change, conservation status and habitat requirements and explains the patterns of bumblebee decline. This significant new text will assist greatly in helping these species to be better understood and appreciated, and we hope, conserved.

BEEKEEPING IN THE TROPICS

Leen van't Leven, Willem-Jan Boot, Marieke Mutsaers, Piet Segeren and Hayo Velthuis

2006 86 pages A5 soft cover £11.70 (€16.80) Code L155

This is a new edition (the sixth) in this Agrodok-series No 32 (first published in 1988), with a fresh Chapter on seasonal management. The book provides a brief and practical introduction to what is involved in tropical beekeeping and the different approaches that are possible.

BEE PRODUCTS

Marieke Mutsaers, Henk van Blitterswijk, Leen van't Leven, Jap Kerkvliet and Jan van de Waerdt

2006 94 pages A5 soft cover £11.70 (€16.80) Code M705

A new booklet (Agrodok-series No 42) that introduces the various products and services provided by bees and how the beekeeper can capitalise on them. After the introduction, chapters include pollination, honey, pollen, bee bread, royal jelly, brood, beeswax, propolis, bees, bee venom, quality and regulation, and marketing. There are also two appendices, glossary and further information.

LIVESTOCK AND WEALTH CREATION

Improving the husbandry of animals kept by resource poor people in developing countries

edited by E Owen, A Kitalyi, N Jayasuriya and T Smith

2005 601 pages soft cover £42 (€63) Code O165

This book is written towards the achievement of one of the main Millennium development goals: poverty reduction. The text is the result of collaboration between 105 contributors from 26 countries, and aims to provide information relevant to the needs of people who have few resources. Part One (Chapters 1-13) sets the agenda on key issues and principles in livestock development and poverty alleviation, describing the cross cutting issues that need to be understood before embarking on initiatives to develop outputs from any given species. These Chapters explain why poor people keep livestock, poverty assessment methods, knowledge dissemination, products and marketing, and improvement strategies. Part Two (Chapters 14 to 26) considers species individually, with emphasis on how to improve productivity. Bees are an important source of livelihood for the rural poor and apiculture is covered in Chapter 14, written by Nicola Bradbear. Chapter 27 provides a conclusion to the book: improving the survival and production of livestock kept by the resource poor is vital for livelihood security and transformation from poverty to relative prosperity. Appropriate information and an enabling environment are the key elements essential for this process.