Scientific Queen Rearing by Gilbert M. Doolittle (free download)

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beekeeping authors, beekeeping books, book review, famous beekeepers

Scientific Queen Rearing by Gilbert M. Doolittle

I’ve been very busy lately preparing for the upcoming nectar flow and have been neglectful of Beekeeping365. For that I apologize. But after daily work in the barn and the bee yard I have had a few moments to read some each day. This week  I’ve spent my free moments reading Scientific Queen Rearing by Gilbert M. Doolittle. Written in 1889, it’s subtitle reads:

“Scientific queen-rearing as practically applied; being a method by which the best of queen-bees are reared in perfect accord with nature’s ways. For the amateur and veteran in bee-keeping.”

As I have read the book I can’t help but be impressed with the tenacity of Mr. Doolittle. It appears as though he rarely allowed himself to wallow in defeat. One instance of frustration is mentioned in the book whereby he goes home without success in a particular endeavor, the bees behavior having defeated him it would seem. But he rallies and in the next paragraph explains how he awoke the next morning with a new and fresh idea ready to try again.

Relentlessly he overcame difficulties and in the end gave us the product of his efforts which serve queen breeders to this day. I  recommend reading his short book, Scientific Queen Rearing, to increase one’s knowledge on the subject but also as a lesson in perseverance.

The book can be found in its entirety here: Scientific Queen Rearing by Gilbert M. Doolittle

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The Hive and the Honey Bee by Langstroth and His Bees

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beekeeping authors, book review, famous beekeepers, The Hive and the Honey Bee

L.L. Langstroth’s the Hive and the Honey Bee is valued as an extremely important text in the world of bee keeping. Beekeeper enthusiasts and those just wanting to gain a little more information on the small creature buzzing around outside your window. While the book has been updated and revised many times, the original written work is now available completely online,  and extremely easy for all those who are interested to access it.  Langstroth changed the beekeeping world drastically, and his views and advances are laid out in this book.

The text is broken up into different sections, which are all previewed in the summary section of the book. This creates an almost dictionary like appeal, where the reader is able to look up, by section, specific things that they are interested in. This book changed the course of beekeeping, for the first time novice beekeepers were able to have beekeeping at their fingertips- learning more about what used to be a foreign topic. In 1853, when The Hive and the Honey Bee was first published, the Internet was not a factor in the Americans lifestyle.  With the book’s publication the general American public was able to envision themselves as a beekeeper, and easily make their dream a reality.

Read full article here: The Hive and the Honey Bee

Above test edited for clarity.  SBF

Anger of Bees

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A.I. Root, author, beekeeping, beekeeping books, opinion

“I confess I do not like the term ‘anger,’ when applied to bees, and it almost makes me angry when I hear people speak of their being ‘mad,’ as if they were always in a towering rage, and delight in inflicting exquisite pain on everything and everybody coming near them. Bees are, on the contrary, the pleasantest, most sociable, genial and good natured little fellows one meets in all animated creation, when one understands them. Why, we can tear their beautiful comb all to bits right before their very eyes, and, without a particle of resentment, but with all the patience in the world, they will at once set to work to repair it, and that, too, without a word of remonstrance. If you pinch them, they will sting, and any body that has energy enough to take care of himself, would I do as much had he the weapon.” A.I. Root, 1882.

Source (free online download): The ABC of Bee Culture

First Lessons in Beekeeping – C.P. Dadant, Published 1917

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beekeeping books, book review, C.P. Dadant

A review of First Lessons in Beekeeping by C.P. Dadant. The current edition is written by Keith Delaplane and is widely available in hardcopy. The original is available via download here: First Lessons in Beekeeping by C.P Dadant

“Camille Pierre Dadant (1851–1938) was the son of Charles Dadant, one of the fathers of modern beekeeping techniques, inventor of the Dadant beehive, and founder of one of the first beekeeping equipment manufacturers. The business is still extant and run by the family, as is their publication, American Bee Journal” – publisher review. I’ve chosen this […]

The full article can be read here: First Lessons in Beekeeping – C.P. Dadant, Published 1917 — Gastronomy Monk

Reading Materials – Preparations for Winter

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beekeeping books, beekeeping winter activities, education

It’s still early and we have lots of time to make preparations to obtain reading matter for the long winter haul. A time when beekeepers spend time wondering what the bees are doing and how they are faring inside their hives. But for those so inclined to prepare ahead of time and capture the best prices, now is the time to search Amazon and Ebay and your favorite used book sellers for good deals. I recently got both of these non US titles for a fraction of their going rate. Just waiting for the cold weather to set in now.

Pictured above:

Beekeeping – A Seasonal Guide by Ron Brown

The Honey Bee – A Guide for Beekeepers by V.R. Vickery

 

Winter, a time for beekeepers to read

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beekeeping, beekeeping books

Winter really is the only break for beekeepers. Even then, there is preparation for the coming spring. But now and then the beekeeper gets a chance to sit down and read a little. The books described below are readily available at many public libraries. Hopefully you can find one to hunker down with during cold days while the bees are snug in their hives.

The following excerpt was taken from another blog on Word Press, “Friends of Montclair Library. Find the original post in its entirety here: https://montclairfriends.org/2016/07/12/the-buzz-about-bees/

The Beekeeper’s Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America by Hannah Nordhaus (638.13097 NORDHAUS) – Recounts the experiences of John Miller, one of the foremost migratory beekeepers, who, despite mysterious epidemics that threaten American honey populations–and the nation’s agribusiness–forges on and moves ahead in a new natural world.

Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey, the Sweet Liquid Gold That Seduced the World by Holley Bishop (638.16 BISHOP) – A comprehensive exploration of the life of bees and the process by which they make honey follows the daily life of a Florida panhandle beekeeper, traces each step of a bee’s honey-making process and offers insight into the product’s key role in business, food and culture.

Letters From the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind by Stephen Buchmann with Banning Repplier (638.1 BUCHMANN) – A glimpse inside the world of the honeybee records the traditional practices of beekeeping around the world, the contribution of bees to the pollination of plants and the culinary and medicinal uses of honey.

Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis by Rowan Jacobsen (638.15 JACOBSEN) – Traces the significant 2007 and 2008 reductions in honeybee populations, identifying the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder to explain the link between bee pollination and industrial agriculture and predict dangerous reductions in food output.

A Book of Bees…and How to Keep Them by Sue Hubbell (638.1 HUBBELL) – Chronicles a year in the lives of beekeeper and bees, describing and explaining the activities of both and the rewards of having bees of one’s own.

Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley (595.79915 SEELEY) – Honeybees make decisions collectively—and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate and consensus building. These incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making.

Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation by Tammy Horn (638.10973 HORN) – Explores the connection between the honeybee and the cultural, national and economic development of the United States. “During every major period in the country’s history, bees and beekeepers have represented order and stability in a country without a national religion, political party or language.” (GoodReads)

Sweetness & Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee by Hattie Ellis (595.799 ELLIS) – Integrating popular science and social history, an intriguing global history of honeybees examines the hive society of the bee, as well as the influence of bees and honey on diverse cultures around the world and throughout history. The story of bees and honey from the Stone Age to the contemporary cutting edge; from Napalese honey hunters to urban hives on the rooftops of New York City.

The Queen Must Die and Other Affairs of Bees and Men by William Longgood (638.1 Longgood) – “Longgood’s quiet little thirty-year-old book…is a kind of meditation on beeness: an exploration of the motivations, desires and attitudes of the simple honeybee as she goes about her business.” – Stephen on GoodReads

The Beekeeper’s Lament: Must-read book on bee life, and death by Maggie Koerth-Baker

Tags

beekeeping books, book review

What’s killing the bees? After reading The Beekeeper’s Lament

—Hannah Nordhaus’ lyrical, haunting book about the complicated lives and deaths of America’s honeybees—my question has shifted more towards, “Good lord, what doesn’t kill bees?”

Domesticated bees turn out to be some amazingly fragile creatures. In fact, Nordhaus writes, bees were delicate even before the modern age of industrial farming. It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century that humans were able to reliably domesticate bees. Even then, beekeeping was anything but a stable business to be in. But in the last decade, the job has gotten harder, and the bee deaths have piled up faster. Bees are killed by moths and mites, bacteria and viruses, heat and cold. They’re killed by the pesticides used on the plants they pollinate, and by the other pesticides used to protect them from murderous insects. And they’re killed by the almond crop, which draws millions of bees from all over the nation to one small region of California, where they join in an orgy of pollination and another of disease sharing.

Read the complete book review here: The Beekeeper’s Lament: Must-read book on bee life, and death — Boing Boing

Wintering (Bees) : Sylvia Plath

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beekeeping authors, bees in literature, lierature

Bees in Literature. SassafrasBeeFarm

Little Green Bees

To be honest, Sylvia Plath’s poetry has always made me slightly uncomfortable.  I find it hard to think of her without a creepy feeling.  I know, she was a tormented young woman but I feel the way I feel.  Imagine, then, my cringe when I opened an email from James in which he excitedly shared with me a poem by a beekeeper named Sylvia Plath.  I had no idea she ever kept bees.  Here is a link to her beekeeping poetry and a well-written article about this time in her life: Sylvia Plath and the Bees

Wintering

This is the easy time,  there is nothing doing.
I have whirled the midwife’s extractor,
I have my honey,
Six jars of it,
Six cat’s eyes in the wine cellar,

Wintering in a dark without window
At the heart of the house
Next to the last tenant’s rancid jam
And the bottles of…

View original post 246 more words

Diagnosis of Honey Bee Diseases – Free E-Book

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beekeeping books, diseases, E-book, honey bee diseases

Diagnosis of Honey Bee Diseases

by Hachiro Shimanuki and David A. Knox

Apiary inspectors and beekeepers must be able to recognize bee diseases and parasites and to differentiate the serious diseases from the less important ones. This handbook describes laboratory techniques (particularly those of the USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory) used to diagnose diseases and other abnormalities of the honey bee and to identify parasites and pests. Includes directions for sending diseased brood and adult honey bees for diagnosis of bee disease. (The directions on p. 50 for submitting Africanized honey bees for identification are no longer correct; for current information on Africanized submissions click here.)

Click here for free Ebook: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Agriculture Handbook 690. B&W, 61 pp. April 1991; revised July 2000

Book Review: The Incomparable Honeybee by Dr. Reese Halter

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beekeeping, beekeeping books, book review, Honey bee

Article by: GeoKs

This title interested me for a few reasons. I remember being shocked when I saw documentary a few years ago about a region in China where pesticides and other toxins have wiped out the local honeybees and labourers have to pollinate pear blossoms by hand! Over the past year or two, it’s been almost impossible to miss the relatively regular media reports about Colony Collapse Disorder and the fact that researchers really haven’t figured out why more than 30% of our bee population is dying out every year. So when we had to re-plant our yard after last year’s whole home renovation project, I kept thinking I wanted to plant flowers and other plants that were friendly to bees, butterflies and birds. After reading The Incomparable Honeybee this morning, I realize I need to tweak a few things.

But I’m getting ahead of myself… First, here are a few especially fascinating facts from the book:

Continued here: Book Review: The Incomparable Honeybee by Dr. Reese Halter

Letters to a Beekeeper by Honey Hunter

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beekeeping books, book review, pollinator gardening

Letters to a Beekeeper is a delightful book for anyone interested in beekeeping, bees, gardening or indeed letters.

The book follows the journey of two people over the course of a year and the sharing of their passions.  

Alys learns how to keep bees and Steve learns how to plant a pollinator-friendly garden.  Steve Benbow is the founder of the London Honey Company and Alys Fowler is the Guardian gardening writer.

Read the entire review at:  Letters to a Beekeeper — Honey Hunter

The Life of The Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck

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art, beekeeping, beekeeping books, beekeeping history, book review, education, Maurice Maeterlinck, print art, The Life of the Bee

Below is a nice enticement to appreciating the art in The Life of the Bee by Maurice Maeterlink and illustrated by E.J. Detmold. The text can be read online here: The Life of the Bee by Maurice Maeterlink. And more on the illustrator at: Edward Julius Detmold

via Art Book of the Month, July 2016 — Books & the City:

The Life of The Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck
(Translated by Alfred Sutro)
Illustrated by E J Detmold
George Allen & Co Ltd
Illustrated edition 1911

---

The Life of The Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck is a wonderfully eccentric book written in a variety of genres. It is informed by the author’s years of experience studying the complex behaviour of bees. Yet this intricate factual account is suffused with epic drama and wildly poetic philosophical digressions.

Maeterlinck, in telling the story of the bee, explores the subjects of life, death, truth, nature, humanity, and everything in between.

The story of the bee becomes almost a mystic parable to describe all human experience. It has the added charm of being one of the most beautifully illustrated books in our collection. Edward Detmold’s paintings perfectly reflect the sentiment and beauty of the writing.

Below I have gathered together some of Detmold’s illustrations and selected a few memorable passages from the chapter entitled, ‘ The Nuptial Flight’ which presents the tragic sex life of the heroic male bee. I hope you enjoy them.

‘Most creatures have a vague belief that a very precarious hazard, a kind of transparent membrane, divides death from love and that the profound idea of Nature demands that the giver of life should die at the point of giving. Here this idea, whose memory lingers still over the kisses of man, is realised in its primal simplicity. No sooner has the union been accomplished than the male’s abdomen opens, the organ detaches itself, dragging with it the mass of the entrail, the wings relax, and, as though struck by lightning , the emptied body turns on itself and sinks into the abyss.’
(Part V THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT 87 –page 166)

‘Nor does the new bride , indeed, show more concern than her people, (for the poor male Bee ) there being no room for many emotions in her narrow, barbarous, practical brain. She has but one thought, which is to rid herself of as quickly as possible of the embarrassing souveniers her consort has left her,…She seats herself on the threshold, and carefully strips off the useless organs…’
(Part V THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT 89 –page 173)

‘Prodigious nuptials these, the most fairy-like that can be conceived, azure and tragic , raised high above life by the impetus of desire; imperishable and terrible, unique and bewildering, solitary and infinite. An admirable ecstasy, wherein death, supervening in all that our sphere has of most limpid and loveliest, in virginal, limitless space, stamps the instant of happiness on the sublime transparence of the great sky;…’
(Part V THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT 90 –page 174)

Source:  Art Book of the Month, July 2016 — Books & the City

The Book is Out! Bee Time by Mark L. Winston

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author, Bee Time, beekeeping authors, beekeeping books, book review, Mark L. Winston

Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive is more or less officially out. Hard copies have arrived in most bookstores and can be found for sale on the usual websites; the e-book will be available 6 October from Amazon and Harvard Press.

Read full article here: The Book is Out! — Mark L. Winston

Bee Book Season by Ron Miksha

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beekeeping, beekeeping authors, beekeeping books, beekeeping winter activities, famous beekeepers

It’s holiday season. And if you’re normal, you’re thinking about beekeeping books for everyone you know. Even the non-beekeeps. I spent a few minutes today scanning the Amazon.com site to see what was bee hot. Not that the best sellers are always the best books. (My own book fell from the best seller ranks back in 2008, but I think Bad Beekeeping is still an OK gift for your friends.)  But there are some good ideas to get you started.

Read entire article here with booklist for winter reading: Bee Book Season — Bad Beekeeping Blog