Bookshelf

MANAGEMENT OF NATIVE BEES TRIGONA SPP APIS CERANA, APIS DORSATA

Cleofas R Cervancia, Raymundo M Lucero, Analinda C Manila-Fajardo, Alejandro C Fajardo Jr 2009 73 pages

Price to be announced

For over 20 years a team of scientists from University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) (the authors of this book) have researched the indigenous honey bee species of the country, Apis cerana and Apis dorsata, and stingless bees Trigona spp. The team have concentrated on evaluating the bees as sources of livelihoods, their potential in pollination and in developing technologies to ensure their conservation. This handbook looks in detail at the mass production of Trigona spp, transferring wild colonies of Apis cerana to frame hives, and the harvesting and processing of honey from Apis dorsata. Colour pictures, line drawings and concise text make this an easy to read textbook for all interested readers.

BUCKETS OF HONEY FROM BOXES OF BEES

Ken Pickles 2009 101 pages £13 (€19.50) Code P900

The author wrote this book with the welfare of bees in mind. He has made it appropriate for all: those who are thinking of taking up beekeeping, novices and experienced practitioners. He recognises that to fully understand bees takes a beekeeper a long time, and requires much observational study. In the UK where the beekeeping season is short and most beekeepers keep only one or two colonies, the understanding of bees must therefore be gleaned from visiting apiaries, talking with others, and learning from their triumphs (and perhaps disasters). To assist in this process, Ken Pickles has written about his long-term involvement with bees: his experience of small- and large-scale beekeeping, and relating anecdotes from visiting beekeepers local to his home in Wharfedale in the north of the UK and far away while visiting a bee farm in Canada. Not a textbook or particularly scientific, but an enjoyable read.

MEAD – MAKING, EXHIBITING AND JUDGING

Harry H R Riches 2009 reprint 80 pages £11 (€16.50) Code R205

Harry Riches has drawn on more than 25 years experience of making, exhibiting and judging mead to write this useful guide. Dr Riches is happy to admit having made every possible mistake, and therefore claims understanding of all the problems mead makers encounter. He has received countless awards for his own mead, and therefore this is the book to read if you are looking for a master class.

HOW TO KEEP BEES WITHOUT FINDING THE QUEEN

Paul Mann 2008 71 pages £6 (€9) Code M900

Many beekeeping books emphasise that finding the queen in a honey bee colony to be of paramount importance in good beekeeping practice. Paul Mann suggests that many beekeepers have trouble finding the queen, it can be a time consuming practice, and not looking for the queen in a colony means you will enjoy beekeeping more. If a technique goes wrong he attempts to do two things: firstly to put it right, and secondly to investigate what can be changed to prevent the problem reoccurring. Subjects discussed include colony production, keeping bees inside, queen rearing, swarming, and there is even a chapter on “Actually finding the queen”.

INSECT POLLINATION OF CROPS

The International Pollinators Initiative, FAO, and Barbara Herren have arranged for the 1993 edition of this invaluable encyclopaedia by Professor John Free to be available online

Go to www.internationalpollinatorsinitiative.org/ Click on Pollination Information Management System (PIMS) (upper right of the screen) Click 2nd bullet point What is the current understanding of managing the pollination of a particular crop? This information compiled by John Free over 15 years ago, remains amazingly thorough and useful. Peter Kevan, International Commission on Plant-Bee Relations

DVD THE HONEYBEE

Gill Sentilla 2009 PAL (UK) widescreen. Duration 43 minutes £12 (€17) Code VID45

This high quality film follows a colony of European Apis mellifera through a year within a frame hive in the UK. Close-up footage of the life of the queen, workers and drones begins with young adults emerging weak and hungry to be pushed and trampled by others in the colony before they are washed and fed by nurse bees. Communication within the nest, foraging for food, water and propolis, defence against wasps, the ravages caused by Varroa, wax production, swarming, and how the colony interact to survive the cold in winter are all documented. Gill Sentilla’s 2005 film Dancing with bees has proved to be one of the most popular purchases on the Bf D webstore. This new film is equally appealing and fascinating to view.

THE WILD GARDEN AND THE HONEY BEE

Michael Duncan 2009 58 pages £11 (€16.50) Code D900

Printed hand written notes interspersed with quaint line drawings keep the reader’s attention through this attractive book. Michael Duncan realised early in his beekeeping career that the honey bee is like a ‘sensitive litmus paper to environmental change’. In preparing the wild garden you will be providing a haven for honey bees and he advocates that saving our bees can save our sanity. The book gently offers an introduction to frame hive beekeeping with European honey bees including getting started, equipment required, management throughout the year, and honey harvesting.

APIDOLOGIE SPECIAL ISSUE - BEE CONSERVATION

R J Paxton, MJ F Brown, T E Murray May/June 2009 40 (3)

This special edition of the highly respected Journal of bee science Apidologie is devoted to bee conservation. The editors have persuaded world experts to contribute reviews that, published here in one volume, provide an excellent collation of current knowledge concerning the status of bees and their conservation. The different factors that influence bee abundance and diversity are considered: conservation policy at global, regional and national levels, conservation ecology and bee genetics. The special edition covers the expanse of geography with papers concerning Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and the Neotropics, as well as the breadth of taxonomy, with papers discussing bees from those that are native species, to those that are invasive alien species. Together these papers provide a useful, current review of this science, and are especially timely when the conservation of bees has become an issue of global awareness. Online edition available at www.apidologie.org