Keeping Bees with a Smile


Book Description

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.




The Modified Golden Hive (Einraumbeute)


Book Description

Horizontal hives with frames are becoming increasingly popular in Europe and North America. One of these is the golden hive or Einraumbeute, developed at Mellifera Association in Germany, based on Dadant-size frames rotated ninety degrees. The resulting deep format allows for a vertically uninterrupted brood nest and a deep honey crown that is good for wintering. This book describes modifications to the golden hive to buffer the colony against heat/cold extremes as does a tree cavity. With the help of many pictures, details are given of how to make the hive, followed by highlights of running it untreated for varroa over six seasons. A few other modified golden hive projects are also mentioned. About the author After retiring from research biochemistry to north-west Wales, David Heaf took up hobby beekeeping in 2003. He runs about 10 colonies in Warré hives and several in other hive types. In 2010, Northern Bee Books published his book The Bee Friendly Beekeeper and again invited him to write two other books, Natural Beekeeping with the Warré Hive - A Manual and Treatment-Free Beekeeping, (IBRA & NBB) which they published in 2013 and 2021 respectively.




The Barefoot Beekeeper


Book Description

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.




Building Beehives For Dummies


Book Description

The easy way to build your own beehives and beekeeping equipment Building Beehives For Dummies is the follow-up book to the bestselling Beekeeping For Dummies. It provides everything you need to learn how to build some of the world's most popular hives and beekeeping accessories. For each design the book includes a detailed materials list (what lumber, hardware and fasteners you'll need), step-by-step building instructions, and illustrative drawings that show how the components all fit together. There are over a dozen plans in all, including the traditional Langstroth hive, the eight frame garden hive, designs for elevated hive stands, the Warre hive, screened bottom board, the Kenya top-bar hive, four-frame observation hive, hive top feeders, and more. The book contains introductory chapters that teach you the basic carpentry skills necessary to build any of the plans in the book. Whether you are a new beekeeper or a seasoned ol’timer, Building Beehives for Dummies provides you with the information you need to plan and succeed at building beehives (and other cool accessories). You'll discover what type of hive to build, hints on how to maintain your equipment, what bees need to stay happy and healthy, where to locate your hive, and much more. Covers "bee space," the critical technical measurement within a beehive that's crucial for easy inspection of your colonies Offers guidance on keeping both urban and suburban neighbors happy, getting proper permissions, and understanding regional laws and regulations Provides creative ideas for dressing up hives for fun and profit In today’s world of self-sufficiency, back-to-basics and sustainability, building beehives is a fun hobby that both you and your bees will appreciate and benefit from.




Top-Bar Beekeeping


Book Description

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.




How to Build a Horizontal Langstroth Beehive


Book Description

In this 'Homesteading How To' book, you will learn how to build an elegant, simple and well-designed Horizontal Langstroth beehive that will serve you and your bees for years to come. The materials are inexpensive, the skills required are novice-level, and in the end, you will have something beautiful that your bees will flourish in.




Beekeeping for All


Book Description




The Tears of Re


Book Description

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.




Balanced Beekeeping I: Building a Top Bar Hive


Book Description

Top bar beekeeping really is 'beekeeping for everyone' - including people with mobility problems, bad backs, or a general reluctance to lift boxes: there is no heavy lifting once your hive is in place, as honey is harvested by the comb rather than by the box. Top bar hives are good for bees, good for the beekeeper and good for the environment. In this book, I will show you how easy it can be to build your own hive from scratch, using new or reclaimed timber and a few simple tools. If you can make a decent job of putting up a shelf, you can build yourself a fully functioning hive that bees will be proud to call home. By the author of The Barefoot Beekeeper.