Bees for Development Journal 95
AVAILABLE FROM Bf D NOW AT WWW.BEESFORDEVELOPMENT.ORG
BOOK SHELF
HONEY BEES OF BORNEO – EXPLORING THE CENTRE OF APIS DIVERSITY
Nikolaus Koeniger, Gudrun Koeniger and Salim Tingek. Foreword by Nicola Bradbear 2010 262 pages Hardback £42 (€663) K905 Many aspects of our knowledge of honey bees are clearly explained and perfectly illustrated in this important new book. In Africa, the Middle East and Europe there is one indigenous honey bee species: Apis mellifera. This bee has been introduced to most other countries and has been researched extensively. Borneo is home to five of the eight other honey bee species and offers unparalleled opportunity for their close observation and comparison. The nine honey bee species show dramatic variations in behaviour – some nest on a series of parallel combs within a cavity, while (so-called) dwarf or giant honey bees nest on single combs in the open. The five species co-existing in Borneo include representatives of each type. The authors have been studying these bees for more than 20 years, thus gaining a unique insight of the species’ diversity, their evolutionary history, and their astonishing adaptation to fit with their environments. The authors’ many research discoveries have been presented in research papers over the years, but now are gathered and presented here with a simple clarity that will enable readers to gain a wide and well focussed perspective of honey bee behaviour and ecology. Also included is a simple key, useful for anyone seeking to confirm the identity of Asian honey bees.
Honey gathering from Borneo’s bees is also described, with an urgent plea for their recognition and protection. Local authorities need to be aware that they are the custodians of precious resources, and need to do all they can to ensure the bees’ protection from forest destruction, non-sustainable exploitation, and introduction of exotic pests and predators. For so many reasons, these honey bee species deserve our utmost protection. This book calls for everyone concerned with bee research, and with setting bee produce quality criteria, to realise that Apis mellifera belongs to a family of nine honey bee species, and when considering honey bees or their produce, all species must be considered and protected.
BEEKEEPING FOR ALL – SIMPLE AND PRODUCTIVE BEEKEEPING
Abbé Émile Warré 2010 translation by David and Patricia Heaf 154 pages £13.50 (€118) W200
This is the first English translation of the 1948 edition of Abbé Warré’s popular and famous book, L’apiculture pour tous that has run to 12 editions in French. The fundamental premise of this approach is to allow bees to build their natural nest, always developing their nest downwards, just as they do in nature, and never rearing brood in old comb. Please see pages 3-5 in this edition and the next BfDJ to read David Heaf’s description of Warré beekeeping. At the same time, the hive is very simple and easy for people to make and to manage - as Abbé Warré put it: ‘More honey with less worry’.
At Bees for Development we believe that the Warré hive (and in Asia the Top pile hive as described in BfDJ94 ) represent simple and feasible ways to keep Apis mellifera and Apis cerana type bees. If you decide to try these or similar methods, let us know how you get on.
THE BAD BEEKEEPERS CLUB
Bill Turnbull 2010 247 pages Hardback £13.99 (€221) T750 Bill Turnbull is well known to British beekeepers as the BBC (as in British Broadcasting Corporation) journalist and presenter of the popular Breakfast Time programme. Away from television, Bill is an experienced beekeeper and Patron of Bf D Trust, and now he has written about another BBC, the Bad Beekeepers Club! This is an engaging account of his beekeeping life, written in self deprecating style, whereby his abilities never quite match up to his aspirations. Nevertheless, his bees continuously provide him with important lessons in life, and even honey harvests too with jars of honey that happily sell at fantastic prices in celebrity auctions. An enjoyable read that will strike a chord with all enthusiastic beekeepers and their long-suffering families.
BUMBLEBEES – BEHAVIOUR, ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
Dave Goulson 2010 317 pages £31 (€447) G444 A new edition of this comprehensive text first published in 2003, now updated to include findings from the considerable research that has been undertaken on bumble bees in recent years. The result is a current account of the status of bumble bees and how we are affecting their ecology – in some areas such as North America they are becoming extinct, while elsewhere they have been introduced for pollination to areas where they do not occur naturally, as in Japan, and are proving to be invasive species. Intended for students, researchers and amateur entomologists, this text provides an excellent review of bumble bee biology and behaviour. 16
