"In that glistening dollop, I could taste the sun and the water, the metallic minerals of the soil, the tang of the goldenrod and the wildflowers blooming around the meadow" Essential to the food, drink, religion, economics , medicine and arts of every civilisation since the Egyptians, honey - and the bees that make it - have been a vital part of the human record for millennia, appearing on cave paintings, wax tablets and papyrus scrolls. From the temples of the Nile to the hives behind the author's house, men and women have had a long, rapturous love affair with the beehive. ROBBING THE BEES is a biography, history, celebration and love letter to bees and their magical produce. Holley Bishop follows beekeeper Donald Smiley on his daily tasks then explores the lively science, culture and lore that surround each step of the process and each stage of lives of the bees and their honey. Throughout are the author's lyrical reflections on her own beekeeping experiences, the business and gastronomical world of honey, the myriad varieties of honey (as distinct as the provenance of wine), as well as recipes, illustrations and historical quotes. Combining passionate research, rich detail, and fascinating anecdote, ROBBING THE BEES is a sumptuous look at the oldest, most delectable food in the world.

The updated bestselling guide to laid-back beekeeping for all, naturally! Are you a beginner beekeeper curious about bees or a practicing beekeeper looking for natural alternatives that work? Then this book is for you! In the second edition of the bestselling beekeeping guide Keeping Bees with a Smile , Fedor Lazutin, one of Europe's most successful natural beekeepers, shares the bee-friendly approach to apiculture that is fun, healthful, rewarding, and accessible to all. This new edition includes dozens of color photographs, new hive management techniques, and an updated version of "Lazutin hive" plans. Additional coverage includes: Keeping bees naturally without interfering in their lives Starting an apiary for free by attracting local bee swarms Building low-maintenance hives that mimic how bees live in nature Keeping colonies healthy and strong without any drugs, sugar, or gimmickry Helping bees to overwinter successfully even in harsh climates Enhancing local nectar plant resources Producing truly natural honey without robbing the bees Reversing the global bee decline... right in your backyard! Keeping Bees with a Smile is an invaluable resource for apiculture beginners and professionals alike, complete with plans for making bee-friendly, well-insulated horizontal hives with extra-deep frames, plus other fascinating beekeeping advice you won't find anywhere else.

A how-to book on an exhilarating outdoor activity and a unique meditation on the pleasures of the natural world Following the Wild Bees is a delightful foray into the pastime of bee hunting, an exhilarating outdoor activity that used to be practiced widely but which few people know about today. Weaving informative discussions of bee biology with colorful anecdotes, personal insights, and beautiful photos, Thomas Seeley describes the history and science behind this lost pastime and how anyone can do it. The bee hunter’s reward is a thrilling encounter with nature that challenges mind and body while also giving insights into the remarkable behavior of honey bees living in the wild. Whether you’re a bee enthusiast or just curious about the natural world, this book is the ideal companion for newcomers to bee hunting and a rare treat for armchair naturalists.

A comprehensive cookbook and guide to honey “packed with good recipes [from] one of the absolute best food writers around” (Mollie Katzen, author of Moosewood Cookbook). Honey is a lot like olive oil: How do you know what type to select at the farmers’ market or store? Are all honey bears created equal? What makes one variety different from another? Which is better for baking or best for savory dishes? Why is one darker than another, and what does that mean? These questions and more are answered in Taste of Honey. Marie Simmons reveals the life of a bee, and how the terroir of its habitat influences both the color and flavor of the honey it produces. Then she explains how these flavor profiles are best paired with certain ingredients in over sixty sweet and savory recipes including: Snacks and Breakfast: Flatbread with Melted Manchego, Rosemary and Honey; Honey, Scallion and Cheddar Scones; Honey French Toast with Peaches with Honey and Mint Main Dishes: Crispy Coconut Shrimp with Tangy Honey Dipping Sauce; Salmon with Honey, Miso and Ginger Glaze; Baby Back Ribs with Chipotle Honey Barbecue Sauce Salads and Vegetable Side Dishes: Pear, Stilton and Bacon Salad with Honey Dressing and Honey Glazed Pecans; Mango and Celery Salad with Honey and Lime Dressing; Roasted Eggplant Slices with Warmed Feta and Honey Drizzle Sweets: Honey Pear Tart with Honey Butter Sauce; Chunky Peanut Butter and Honey Cookies; Honey Zabaglione; Honey Panna Cotta; Micki’s Special Honey Fudge Brownies Each recipe includes a guide for the type of honey that will work best with it, and ideas to experiment with. In addition, there are fast, simple things to do with honey at the end of each recipe chapter; a glossary covering forty different varietals of honey; information about its healing properties; and tidbits about bees and honey through history. Photos by Meg Smith capture the intimate life of the bee and its activity producing honey—along with the gorgeous food you can make with it. “Holy honey! Taste of Honey, with its lush photos and delectable recipes, not only teaches how to best use single-origin honey in the kitchen, it reminds us that honey is an almost magical substance, connecting us to our landscape, and to the hardworking honey bee. Marie Simmons’s book has made robbing the hive even sweeter.” —Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City “I’m a honey collector, too, but unlike Marie, I tend to stick to a drizzle of honey over cheese, toast, or hot cereal and the occasional dessert. There are so many more ideas here for using honey . . . And I do hope that the appeal of honey itself with lead us to care more for our struggling bee populations.” —Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors

One of Europe's most successful natural beekeepers shares an approach that is fun, healthful, rewarding, and accessible to all. In this richly illustrated volume, he provides instruction in making bee-friendly, well-insulated horizontal hives.

“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

As seen on PBS's American Spring LIVE, the award-winning author of The Triumph of Seeds and Feathers presents a natural and cultural history of bees: the buzzing wee beasties that make the world go round. Bees are like oxygen: ubiquitous, essential, and, for the most part, unseen. While we might overlook them, they lie at the heart of relationships that bind the human and natural worlds. In Buzz, the beloved Thor Hanson takes us on a journey that begins 125 million years ago, when a wasp first dared to feed pollen to its young. From honeybees and bumbles to lesser-known diggers, miners, leafcutters, and masons, bees have long been central to our harvests, our mythologies, and our very existence. They've given us sweetness and light, the beauty of flowers, and as much as a third of the foodstuffs we eat. And, alarmingly, they are at risk of disappearing. As informative and enchanting as the waggle dance of a honeybee, Buzz shows us why all bees are wonders to celebrate and protect. Read this book and you'll never overlook them again.

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.

The Barefoot Beekeeper is a book about chemical-free beekeeping, showing how it can be made accessible for all including those with disabilities. No heavy lifting is required. The author advocates small-scale, low-impact beekeeping with minimal disturbance to the bees and more time spent observing and learning from them. He shows how to make everything you need to keep bees yourself using recycled materials and simple tools.

The impact of bees on our world is immeasurable. Bees are responsible for the evolution of the vast array of brightly colored flowers and for engineering the niches of multitudes of plants, animals, and microbes. They've painted our landscapes with flowers through their pollination activities, and they have evolved the most complex societies to aid their exploitation of the environment. The parallels between human and insect societies have been explored by countless sociobiologists. Traditional texts present stratified layers of knowledge where the reader excavates levels of biological organization, each building on the last. In this book, Robert E. Page, Jr., delves deep into the evolutionary history and the sociality of bees. He presents fundamental biology-not in layers, but wrapped around interesting themes and concepts, and in ways designed to explore and understand each concept. Page uses the social contract as a way to examine the complex social system of bee societies, a contract that has been written over millions of years of social evolution on the fabric of DNA. The book examines the coevolution of bees and flowering plants, bees as engineers of the environment, the evolution of sociality, the honey bee as a superorganism and how it evolves, and the mating behavior of the queen. The resulting book explores the ways human societies and bee colonies are similar-not from a common ancestry with shared genes for sociality, but from shared fundamentals of political philosophy.