Book Shelf

BOOKSHELF

Keeping bees simply and respectfully

Johannes Wirz and Norbert Poeplau 2021 172 pages Softcover

This excellent new book details a current, up to date and thoughtful approach to beekeeping. Mellifera e. V. is an association in Germany that works for bees, nature and humans. Over many years of study, observation and teaching, the association arrived at good beekeeping methods underpinned by the belief that honey bee colonies must be allowed to swarm and to mate naturally, and to live on their own, natural combs.

To enable beekeeping in this way, the association advocates the use of the Golden Hive, a movable frame hive that provides optimal living conditions for honey bees, enabling them to build their own comb, and to swarm, while enabling people to live near to bees and to harvest from them.

The feature which most distinguishes the Golden Hive from others is that while it contains frames, foundation* is never introduced to the hive: instead, the bees are allowed to build their own natural, elliptical combs. The horizontal hive consists of one cavity (not split into separate parts as in modular frame hives), and the brood nest and storage area are easily expanded without major disturbance to the bees.

With clear explanations and an abundance of illustrations and good diagrams, this new text now makes this excellent beekeeping system widely available to beekeepers in the English speaking world.

In Germany, beekeepers are still required by law to treat their bees to manage the Varroa mite, and the text still advocates this approach, while acknowledging that it was a mistake for Germany to have taken this ‘chemical route’.

With its excellent and clear explanations, this new book can be followed by beginner beekeepers and provides plentiful and interesting food for thought for experienced beekeepers too. *Foundation is the hexagon-embossed, rectangular sheet of beeswax conventionally provided within frames

A lively hive – a biodynamic beekeeping guide for honeybee health

Alex Tuchman 2021 200 pages Softcover

Another encouraging and fresh book about simple and sustainable beekeeping. Spikenard Farm Honeybeee Sanctuary in Virginia, USA was founded by Gunther and Vivian Hauk in 2007 to research into biodynamic beekeeping and teach practices that consider the needs of the honey bee above everything else. This text is written for beginners and describes a biodynamic approach applied to the use of Langstroth hives, which are the most commonly used style of frame hives in North America. A very helpful and interesting, practical guide.

Good Nutrition Good Bees

David Aston & Sally Bucknall 2021 423 pages Softcover

This a large paperback book, bursting with facts about honey bees and beekeeping in the British Isles. The central theme is the importance of providing bees with good nutrition, and how we must ensure this for the future. However the text covers far more than this – it contains 62 sections, the first third covering apicultural history, fundamentals of the superorganism, its biology and physiology with respect to nutrition, the nutrients that bees need, honey bee health and diseases, the second third focussing on the floral sources and how bees acquire their nutrition from them, and the final sections devoted to beekeepers’ feeding of honey bee colonies and whether or how best to do this. This book is very clearly laid out with a comprehensive index, is completely up-to-date with current research on honey bee nutrition, is packed full of reliable information and data, and will be of interest and value to beekeepers far beyond the UK. Very highly recommended for readers who need to be well informed about honey bees’ requirements.

Wasps – the astonishing diversity of a misunderstand insect

Eric R Eaton 2021 256 pages hardcover

This book will make you love wasps and appreciate them as amazing, mostly solitary insects thriving in nearly every Earthly habitat. They are overwhelmingly beneficial to humans. They are pest control agents, and precious pollinators. Their nests are architectural masterpieces. This is a beautiful book, consisting of 11 chapters covering all the topics, and filled with amazing and interesting pictures. For our readers who already love bees, the good news is that wasps are wonderful insects too, and deserve our interest and protection. Indeed bees arose from stinging wasps approximately 125 million years ago, and as the book tells us, bees are just hairy wasps!

Wasp

R A Jones 2019 208 pages Softcover

This informative text shows exactly why wasps are worthy of far greater understanding and awareness of their major role at the centre of many food webs. Reading this book will help you to gain far greater appreciation of the roles that wasps play, their natural and cultural history. Like bees, they have highly sophisticated nesting and colony behaviour. Next time someone says to you ‘I love bees but I hate wasps’, you will be able to explain why they ought to adjust that view.

We reviewed another excellent book on wasps in BfDJ 107 – Bees and wasps by James Maclaine

Britain’s Insects

Paul D Brock 2021 608 pages Softcover

A wonderful introduction towards the 25,000 species of insects that have been recorded in Great Britain and Ireland. It is a photographic guide, providing a clear introduction to each of the 25 orders of insects, their key characteristics, biology and ecology. The introduction is incredibly useful – beginning with how to first establish if something is an insect: that is does it have six legs, and the three main body parts - head, thorax and abdomen? If it is, then begin to determine the order of insect to which it belongs. Containing 2,600 excellent photographs, the book covers 1,653 species, gives up-to date distribution maps, and for grasshoppers and crickets, QR codes leading to sound recordings of the various species. A future ideal world will have experts like Paul Brock and brilliant guides like this for every region – it is a most wonderful book and must surely help to raise awareness towards protecting this precious insect biodiversity.

A natural history of insects in 100 limericks

R A Jones and C Ure-Jones 2021 120 pages Softcover

This sweet book by Jones and his son, Brings insects to everyone, With quick texts and nice pics, In your head they will fix, Insect knowledge imparted with fun!

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