Bookshelf

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 (€63) 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 (€18) 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 (€21) 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 (€47) 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.

KEEPING HEALTHY HONEY BEES

David Aston and Sally Bucknall 2010 194 words £17 (€24) A350

This new text describes how to manage colonies of Apis mellifera honey bees (in frame hives, in the UK) such that they remain healthy in the presence of Varroa, other diseases, and our far from perfect environmental situation. The authors set out a clear methodology for practising integrated bee health management, to give bees an excellent chance of healthy survival.

Sections 1 and 2 describe the natural history of the colony and management approaches for maintaining bee health; Sections 3 and 4 describe pests, predators and diseases and their prevention and control; Sections 5, 6 and 7 cover the essentials of good bee husbandry, caring for the queen and managing swarming; Section 8 is a useful guide to what needs to be done each season during a typical year, while Section 9 describes other techniques that the beekeeper may sometimes need. This text is readable and clear, describing the careful and informed approach to beekeeping that becomes increasingly necessary as conditions for honey bees deteriorate. A very useful and comprehensive guide.

HOW TO MAKE BEESWAX CANDLES

Clara Furness 2010 reprint 20 pages £6 (€8) F600

An excellent text that provides completely reliable information on handling beeswax and making candles. Full of important details, hints and tips. This new edition has been enlarged by including Clara’s articles on Candle customs ancient and modern, and Judging beeswax candles. Very highly recommended.

Also NEW in store

PLAN BEE

Susan Brackney 2010 192 pages £9.99 (€15) B450

Plan Bee is a quirky book full of interesting bee facts, anecdotes, hints and recipes.

BEE BOLES AND BEE HOUSES

Anne M Foster 2010 reprint 32 pages £5.99 (€8) F335

A reprint of the 1988 Shire Classic text. Bee boles are manmade structures, built during previous centuries, when UK beekeepers kept bees in baskets known as skeps.