Hive Management: A Seasonal Guide for Beekeepers (Storey's Down-To-Earth Guides)

Product Description

The beekeeper year begins with a late winter hive inspection and ends with "putting the bees to bed" in the autumn. Richard Bonney believes that each beekeeping activity should be performed with an eye toward the overall well-being of the colony, as part of an integrated year-round program of hive management.

 

Long-term success in beekeeping can only be achieved by understanding the intimate lives, behaviors, and motivations of honey bees -- the factors which govern the life of each colony. Richard Bonney explains the reasons behind common practices that many beekeepers perform without really knowing why. He also stresses when to take timely actions that will prevent problems in future seasons.

Hive Management offers concise, up-to-date information on the whole range of beekeeping tasks, including:

-- How to prevent, control, and capture swarms.

-- What you can tell from an outside inspection of your hives.

-- When and how to "take the crop" and harvest honey.

-- How to successfully requeen -- from handling and marking queens to methods of introducing one into a hive.

-- The problem signs to look for when you open up a hive.

For the practicing beekeeper who needs more information, or for the serious novice who wants to start out right, Hive Management offers sensible advice to help keep your honey bees thriving. 

The Beekeeper's Handbook, Third Edition

Product Description

Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile have revised and expanded their clear and comprehensive guide to cover changes in beekeeping. They discuss the crisis created by the parasitic bee mites. In less than a decade, for example, Varroa mites have saturated the North American honey bee population with disastrous results, devastating both managed and wild populations. The new edition of The Beekeeper Handbook covers mite detection and control as well as the selection and testing of bees that may have some tolerance to mites.

 

*Serves as a comprehensive well-illustrated introduction for beginners and a valuable reference for the experienced beekeeper.

*Outlines options for each operation within beekeeping, listing advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.

*Provides easy-to-follow directions and diagrams.

*Includes glossary and updated bibliography suggesting more detailed information on the topics discussed.

From the Back Cover

"For two decades The Beekeeper Handbook has guided thousands of beginning and advanced beekeepers in the how-to's of this entertaining and profitable pastime. . . . This third edition brings beekeeping to the threshold of the twenty-first century, with all its challenges. . . . Simply put, it is the best of the best of beekeeping books."--Roger A. Morse, from the Foreword

The Complete Guide to Beekeeping for Fun & Profit: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply (Back-To-Basics Farming)

Product Description

Beekeeping is both a hobby and a practical business plan that many individuals have taken up in recent years as a viable way to culture a valuable natural resource and have fun in the process. In any given year, an effectively built beekeeping business can bring profits up to 500 percent of your investment according to numerous private beekeepers. The benefit of growing your own honey and selling it to local customers for between $3 and $6 a pound depending on how you cultivate and whether your honey is completely organic can be a huge boon for anyone with the money and time to invest. This book walks all motivated potential beekeepers through the process of building and operating their beekeeping business from the ground up, ensuring it is both a fun hobby and a great way to make a little extra money on the side. You will learn everything you need to effectively start beekeeping for profit and fun, including what materials you need, what kinds of bees are best for honey or wax production. You will learn all of the fundamental safety equipment you need to effectively handle the bees and where to place your hives on your property to take advantage of natural circumstances. You will learn the basics you need to understand what bees do and how they interact, including details about the queen bee, the worker bees, drones, and foragers. You will learn how seasonal changes affect your colonies, and how to use your smoke to access and gather honey from your bees. The best in home beekeeping professionals have been interviewed and their expertise and insights have been gathered here for you to review, providing additional details about the kinds and methods of honey gathering that you can profit from you. You will learn how to install everything and keep your colonies updated. You will learn how to keep the necessary records and how to sell your honey and what the best prices for that honey is. You will learn what is involved in opening a colony and how to manage pests effectively without endangering the bees or the honey. You will learn how to manage your hives in the winter and fall and what you can do with everything your bees produce. For anyone who has ever considered beekeeping as a hobby or source of side income, this is the book for you.

Honey Bees and Beekeeping: A Year in the Life of an Apiary, 3rd Edition

Product Description

Beekeeping is enjoyable and satisfying, whether you're a professional or a novice. With a bit of ingenuity and a little knowledge, anyone can successfully raise honey bees. Learn how to set up and maintain your own honey bee colony from Keith Delaplane, Ph.D., one of the nation's foremost entomologists as he guides you through each step, from buying tools and selecting healthy bees, to havesting and selling honey.

Honey Bees: Letters from the Hive

Product Description

In Honey Bees: Letters From the Hive, bee expert Stephen Buchmann takes readers on an incredible tour. Enter a beehive--one part nursery, one part honey factory, one part queen bee sanctum--then fly through backyard gardens, open fields, and deserts where wildflowers bloom. It's fascinating--and delicious!

Hailed for their hard work and harmonious society, bees make possible life on earth as we know it. This fundamental link between bees and humans reaches beyond biology to our environment and our culture: bees have long played important roles in art, religion, literature, and medicine--and, of course, in the kitchen.

For honey fanatics and all who have a sweet tooth, this book not only entertains and enlightens but also reminds us of the fragility of humanity's relationship with nature.

About the Author

Stephen Buchmann is a beekeeper and an associate professor of entomology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He served on a National Academy of Sciences committee on the status of pollinators in North America and is a member of the Pollinator Partnership. He coauthored two nonfiction adult titles, The Forgotten Pollinators and Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey and Humankind, and a picture book, The Bee Tree. He is directing and filming a documentary about the Yucatecan Maya and their sacred beecraft. He lives in Tuscon, Arizona

The Biology of the Honey Bee

Product Description

From ancient cave paintings of honey bee nests to modern science's richly diversified investigation of honey bee biology and its applications, the human imagination has long been captivated by the mysterious and highly sophisticated behavior of this paragon among insect societies. In the first broad treatment of honey bee biology to appear in decades, Mark Winston provides rare access to the world of this extraordinary insect.

In a bright and engaging style Winston probes the dynamics of the honey bee's social organization. He recreates for us the complex infrastructure of the nest, describes the highly specialized behavior of workers, queens, and drones, and examines in detail the remarkable ability of the honey bee colony to regulate its functions according to events within and outside the nest. Winston integrates into his discussion the results of recent studies, bringing into sharp focus topics of current bee research.

These include the exquisite architecture of the nest and its relation to bee physiology; the intricate division of labor and the relevance of a temporal caste structure to efficient functioning of the colony; and, finally, the life-death struggles of swarming, supersedure, and mating that mark the reproductive cycle of the honey bee.

The Biology of the Honey Bee not only reviews the basic aspects of social behavior, ecology, anatomy, physiology, and genetics, it also summarizes major controversies in contemporary honey bee research, such as the importance of kin recognition in the evolution of social behavior and the role of the well-known dance language in honey bee communication.

Thorough, well-illustrated, and lucidly written, this book will for many years be a valuable resource for scholars, students, and beekeepers alike.

Review

Masterly...Without hesitation I recommend this book to a wide range of potential readers.
--John B. Free (Science )

Mark Winston offers a comprehensive account, covering aspects of anatomy and physiology as well as systematics, ecology and behavior...A useful overview of the biology of an insect that holds considerable interest for both economic and academic reasons. Rich in descriptive detail and well referenced, it will also serve as a basis for more detailed exploration of particular aspects of honey bee biology.  - Sarah Corbet (Times Higher Education Supplement )

This very readable book brings together the wealth of scattered information on the complex honey bee in a way that will serve as a standard for many years.
--Roger G. Bland (Science Books & Films )

Winston's writing is brisk and enthusiastic and the book's illustrations clear and informative. This is a delightful study of an odd, yet oddly familiar, creature.
--John R. Alden (Wall Street Journal )

Amazing Honey Bee Facts

I think we should get ourselves some honey bee facts, after all so many healing and health-promoting opportunities for the humans begin with this little busy creature.

As you read the following 20 statements about honey's great creator, you will be so intrigued just like me by this teensy-weensy fellow's extraordinary abilities.

1. The honey bee has been around for 30 million years.

2. It is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.

3. Honey bees are environmentally friendly and are vital as pollinators.

4. They are insects with a scientific name - Apis mellifera.

5. They have 6 legs, 2 eyes, and 2 wings, a nectar pouch, and a stomach.

6. The honeybee's wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.

7. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour, hence it would have to fly around 90,000 miles - three times around the globe - to make one pound of honey.

8. The average honey bee will actually make only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

9. It takes about 556 workers to gather 1 pound of honey from about 2 million flowers.

10. It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee's flight around the world.

11. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

12. A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen.

13. Worker honey bees are female, live 6 to 8 weeks and do all the work.

14. The queen bee lives for about 2-3 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. She is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, and lays up to 2500 eggs per day.

15. The male honey bees are called drones, and they do no work at all, have no stinger, all they do is mating.

16. Each honey bee colony has a unique odour for members' identification.

17. Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and they die once they sting. Queens have a stinger, but don't leave the hive to help defend it.

18. It is estimated that 1100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.

19. Honey bees communicate with one another by "dancing".

20. During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.
My most memorable honey bee fact is No 19: Honey bees communicate with one another by "dancing". And the most incredible to me is No 2: It is the only insect that produces edible food for man!

Source: http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/

R. Tan is the owner of the website http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/ which is a rich honey resource community specially built for all the honey lovers and fans in this world. She has packed this website with a wide range of quality contents on honey based on her knowledge and experience with honey, so as to promote its invaluable benefits which she believes could bring many positive spin-offs in everyone's daily life.

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