Do you want to be a beekeeper and need help on how to start? Charlotte Ekker Wiggins has written the definitive guide to beginning beekeeping. This diary will guide you on how to start, troubleshoot and successfully develop basic beekeeping skills and practices.The information in this easy to use guide, with handy check lists and tips, will answer your beginning beekeeping questions including: How to naturally feed your honey bees.Best beekeeping equipment. Where to set up your hives. How to get honey bees.How to manage pests and diseases.Plus much more! This diary continues to be used in Charlotte's beekeeping classes. It is approved for use with Great Plains Master Beekeeping Program classes.

The beginner as well as the experienced professional will garner a hive full of information from Applied Beekeeping in the United States. Honeybee information has been compiled and published in book form in hopes that beekeepers in the United States and worldwide will benefit. There are many topics in this book not contained in more theoretical books and through 342 pages, supplemented by 246 full-color photographs, both the novice and experienced beekeeper will take away new knowledge. This book is a collection of articles published in Bee Culture, Beekeeping: The First Three Years, and American Bee Journal over the last five to eight years plus some unpublished information and articles. The information covers a broad range of beekeeping topics from basic beekeeping (smokers, moving hives, pulling honey, going through a colony, laying workers, the bee-year, splitting, extracting your honey crop, when is a colony worth saving, swarming, drawing out comb, feeders, installing a package of bees, safety in the beeyard, frames and foundation, beeswax candles, bottom boards, walk-away splits, feeding, rotating old comb, determining how many colonies to have at each location), equipment (assembling frames and foundation, assembling equipment), planning (establishing out-yards, sales and marketing, pollination, mentoring, starting a bee club) and finance (when and how much equipment should you purchase), and much more. David MacFawn has over 50 years' experience working with honey bees, mainly in the southeastern United States.

A million pounds of honey. Produced by a billion bees! This memoir reconstructs the life of a young man from Pennsylvania as he drops into the bald prairie badlands of southern Saskatchewan. He buys a honey ranch and keeps the bees that make the honey. But he also spends winters in Florida swamps, nurse-maid to ten thousand dainty queen bees. From the dusty Canadian prairie to the thick palmetto swamps of the American south, the reader meets with simple folks who shape the protagonist's character - including a Cree rancher with three sons playing NHL hockey, a Hutterite preacher who yearns to roam the globe, a reclusive bee-eating homesteader, and a grey-headed widow who grows grapefruit, plays a nasty game of scrabble, and lives with four vicious dogs. Encompassing a ten-year period, this true story evolves from the earnest inexperience of the young man as he learns an art and builds a business. Carefully researched natural biology runs counterpoint to human social activities. Bee craft serves as the setting for expositions that contrast American and Canadian lifestyles, while exemplifying the harsh reality of a man working with and against the physical environment.

“As a world authority on insect anatomy, Snodgrass has given us this book a brilliant account of the anatomy of the honey bee and how it relates to the way that bees develop and how and why they function as they do in their interesting communal life. This book should be in the library of every student of the honey bee and bee behaviour—beekeepers as well as scientists. The book is delightfully written and is enjoyable reading.”—American Bee Journal “This is not just a technical reference book on honey bee anatomy. It is far more, it is essentially a treatise on entomology, using one species as an example, and including a discussion of the fundamentals of embryology, development, and metamorphosis as well as anatomy. The subject of each chapter is approached from the broadest evolutionary point of view, and its horizon includes all the arthropods and beyond, so that the bee really typifies animal life in general. Finally, the language of the book is such that it can be read straight through with pleasure....It is a delight to follow the author through this complete examination of one insect: how it develops, how it grows, and how it operates.”—Entomological News

Top-Bar Beekeeping is an offering designed to encourage beekeepers around the world to keep bees naturally by providing beekeeping basics, hive management and the utilization of top-bar hives. In recent years, beekeepers have had to face tremendous challenges, from pests, such as varroa and tracheal mites, to the mysterious but even more devastating phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Yet in backyards and on rooftops all over the world, bees are being raised successfully, even without antibiotics, miticides, or other chemical inputs. More and more organically-minded beekeepers are now using top-bar hives, in which the shape of the interior resembles a hollow log. Long lasting and completely biodegradable, a top-bar hive made of untreated wood allows bees to build comb naturally rather than simply filling prefabricated foundation frames in a typical box hive with added supers. Top-bar hives yield slightly less honey but produce more beeswax than a typical Langstroth box hive. Regular hive inspection and the removal of old combs helps to keep bees healthier and naturally disease-free. Top-Bar Beekeeping provides complete information on hive management and other aspects of using these innovative hives. All home and hobbyist beekeepers who have the time and interest in keeping bees intensively should consider the natural, low-stress methods outlined in this book. It will also appeal to home orchardists, gardeners, and permaculture practitioners who look to bees for pollination as well as honey or beeswax.

According to Egyptian mythology, when the ancient Egyptian sun god Re cried, his tears turned into honey bees upon touching the ground. For this reason, the honey bee was sacrosanct in ancient Egyptian culture. From the art depicting bees on temple walls to the usage of beeswax as a healing ointment, the honey bee was a pervasive cultural motif in ancient Egypt because of its connection to the sun god Re. Gene Kritsky delivers a concise introduction of the relationship between the honey bee and ancient Egyptian culture, through the lenses of linguistics, archeology, religion, health, and economics. Kritsky delves into ancient Egypt's multifaceted society, and traces the importance of the honey bee in everything from death rituals to trade. In doing so, Kritsky brings new evidence to light of how advanced and fascinating the ancient Egyptians were. This richly illustrated work appeals to a broad range of interests. For archeology lovers, Kritsky delves into the archeological evidence of Egyptian beekeeping and discusses newly discovered tombs, as well as evidence of manmade hives. Linguists will be fascinated by Kritsky's discussion of the first documented written evidence of the honeybee hieroglyph. And anyone interested in ancient Egypt or ancient cultures in general will be intrigued by Kritsky's treatment of the first documented beekeepers. This book provides a unique social commentary of a community so far removed from modern humans chronologically speaking, and yet so fascinating because of the stunning advances their society made. Beekeeping is the latest evidence of how ahead of their times the Egyptians were, and the ensuing narrative is as captivating as every other aspect of ancient Egyptian culture.

Whether you are a novice looking to get started with bees, an experienced apiculturist looking for ideas to develop an integrated pest-management approach, or someone who wants to sell honey at a premium price, this is the book you’ve been waiting for. Now revised and updated with new resources and including full-color photos throughout, Natural Beekeeping offers all the latest information in a book that has already proven invaluable for organic beekeepers. The new edition offers the same holistic, sensible alternative to conventional chemical practices with a program of natural hive management, but offers new sections on a wide range of subjects, including: The basics of bee biology and anatomy Urban beekeeping Identifying and working with queens Parasitic mite control Hive diseases Also, a completely new chapter on marketing provides valuable advice for anyone who intends to sell a wide range of hive products. Other chapters include: Hive Management Genetics and Breeding The Honey Harvest The Future of Organic Beekeeping Ross Conrad brings together the best “do no harm” strategies for keeping honeybees healthy and productive with nontoxic methods of controlling mites; eliminating American foulbrood disease without the use of antibiotics; selective breeding for naturally resistant bees; and many other detailed management techniques, which are covered in a thoughtful, matter-of-fact way.

A clear and comprehensive guide to beekeeping. The number of people interested and active in keeping bees at an amateur level has continued to increase over the past few years in both rural and urban situations. This guide, aimed at beginning beekeepers, and the only one to be endorsed by the BBKA provides an authoritative text, along with clear photographs and illustrations. The book introduces the reader to beekeeping, including such areas as the workings of the colony, the structure of a hive, how to acquire bees and keep them healthy and what happens in each month in a beekeeping year. Each chapter is accompanied by anecdotes, answers to frequently asked questions and fascinating facts about bees and honey. The new edition includes new step-by-step sequences to illustrate procedures such as containing a swarm, identifying the queen, using a smoker and cleaning a hive as well as more information on different kinds of hives, disease management and many other key areas.