“At the Hive Entrance” free ebook

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beekeeping, beekeeping history, beeswax, book review, honey bee behavior

It’s time to start enjoying your bees!

Do you like to watch behavior? Are you itching for more during this “leave ’em alone” period of time after package installation? Okay here’s your treat. Recently a friend, posted a positive review about a book link she had read titled, “At the Hive Entrance” by H. Storch. It was one of my favorites when I started beekeeping. And it’s something you can do now – watch the hive entrance. Just place your chair off to the side of the front entrance about 6 or 8 ft. away and watch. After a few days you’ll start to see the routine of the bees. You’ll notice different pollens coming in on different days. Some days they’ll almost jump into the air on takeoff and zoom in on landings. Other days they’re a little slow. You’ll start to relate this to the temperatures, the flow, the season, and other things. You’ll get a feeling for the range of normal behavior (which also varies depending on seasons). In time, you’ll also notice behavior that’s not their norm which may necessitate an inspection. Which brings up the single warning about enjoying this book – it is only one factor in your assessment – entrance observation. If it looks like something unusual you may have to open them up to take a look. Enjoy.

https://breconandradnorbka.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/at-the-hive-entrance.pdf

Ebook is available via: Brecknock and Radnor Beekeeping Association

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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

Book Review: The Bee-keeper’s Manual, Henry Taylor

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beekeeping, beekeeping authors, book review

Source:

Bookish Chronicles

bookishchronicles.wordpress.com

 

The Bee-keeper’s Manual, Henry Taylor

The Bee-keeper’s Manual,

Or

Practical Hints On The Management And Complete Preservation Of The Honey-Bee;

With A Description Of The Most Approved Hives, And Other Appurtenances Of The Apiary.

This review was long due. “Review” would be a misplaced word here. How do you do a critical appraisal of a beekeeping manual written 166 years ago? A technical know-how book is hardly a thing of leisure reading, unless you have an inherent interest in the particular field. I don’t even do beekeeping; neither do I fancy myself taking up this occupation in the future. But this is precisely what is appealing about Henry Taylor’s The Bee-keeper’s Manual. To read the book, you don’t need to have an interest in beekeeping, just a healthy appetite for curiosity.

My curiosity in the subject of beekeeping was sparked when I read Neil Gaiman’s The Case of Death and Honey. Right after reading Gaiman’s Sherlock Holmes short story, I found The Bee-keeper’s Manual while browsing Project Gutenberg on a dull day at work. Enticed by the book’s fine Victorian woodblock illustrations (illustrator unknown) of beehives, I thought “Why the hell not?”

The Beekeeper’s Manual is about the art of beekeeping and not just the technicalities of the apiary—an occupation that needs a Zen-like dedication, for when dealing with bees, as the author says, “Entire quietness is the main requisite.”

Henry Taylor was an amateur bee-keeper extraordinaire. In his words, he took up bee-keeping to seek “occasional relaxation from weightier matters in watching over and protecting these interesting and valuable insects.” Following a friend’s request, he wrote the book as a brief practical handbook on the management of bees. The book must have been quite a success considering it went for six reprints.

Taylor starts off by introducing the poetic sounding Apis mellifica, the domesticate honeybee found in his native country, England. Although outdated to be adapted to modern times, the book covers every aspect of starting an apiary including, but not restricted to, how to deal with bee stings (in case you are attacked by a swarm of bees, stick your head into a nearby shrub). Clear and concise descriptions along with beautiful illustrations show how to construct different hives, protect the hives, manage the hives in different seasons, protect the bees from disease and predators and aid the bees in their work without annoying them.

Bees are sensible creatures. They follow a clockwork precision, yet adapt themselves to changing circumstances. Each bee has its function in the hive spelled out: build cells for the hive, nurse the larvae, lay eggs, and bring farina to make wax and honey, or impregnate the queen.

The last category of bees—the drone—is the most interesting one. The only job of the drone bee is to fertilize the queen bee. Once this is done, the drone bees are kicked out of the hive or killed. Although drastic, this is quite a practical measure from the perspective of space conservation. Additional cells are required in the hive for the larvae that the queen will lay. Also, the drone bees are pretty much useless after the breeding season, unlike the worker bee that works throughout the year. So, it is only prudent to do away with the unwanted drones than to construct new cells. Why carry the extra baggage?

During the swarming season (similar to migration session of birds), the combs in the hive are occupied by larvae. It is also the season when honey is in abundant. However, there is no room to store the collected honey. The bees can’t wait for the young ones to hatch and leave the hive. The flowers will wither and there will no honey to make. Te young bees can’t kick out too early, the brood will diminish. So how do to work around this dilemma? Although, preprogrammed by nature to work and live by a set schedule of weather, bees are clever little fellows. This is what Henry Taylor observes:

Mark the resources of the industrious bees. They search in the neighbourhood for a place where they may deposit their honey, until the young shall have left the combs in which they were hatched. If they fail in this object, they crowd together in the front of their habitation, forming prodigious clusters. It is not uncommon to see them building combs on the outside.

And they quite attached to their brood as well, especially the queen. As the queen moves around the hive, the bees show their affection by bringing their antennas in contact with the queens. She returns this gesture likewise.

She is the mother of the entire community, her office being to lay the eggs from which all proceed, whether future queens, drones, or workers. Separate her from the family, and she instinctively resents the injury, refuses food, pines and dies.

Henry Taylor’s humane perspective towards the bees makes the book a delight to read. The technicalities of beekeeping are quite extensive throughout the book. However, they are easily absorbed due to the author’s empathy towards his subject. Bees are just not the means to obtain an end product—honey and wax. They are “wonderful creatures” that teach “perfect organization and faultless adaption of means to an end, a lesson of humility; and finally, by the contemplation of their beautiful works.”

…How oft, when

wandering for

and erring

long,

Man might learn

Truth and

Virtue from

the Bee!

-Bowring

Source: The Bee-keeper’s Manual, Henry Taylor

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

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

Book Review – The Sting of the Wild by Justin O. Schmidt by Vishy’s Blog

Tags

book review, entomology, stinging insects

‘The Sting of the Wild‘ is about stinging insects. In the first part of the book which runs into five chapters, Schmidt gives us an introduction to stinging insects and talks about how their stinging capability might have evolved from an evolutionary perspective. In the second part of the book, Schmidt focuses on individual insects, talks about their life histories and their lifestyles, their relationships with humans and other animals from the animal kingdom, how they use their sting and how sharp and painful their sting can be. He creates a four-level sting-pain scale and tries to rate each insect’s sting using this scale. Some of the insects which are featured in the second part of the book are sweat bees, ants of different types including fireants, harvester ants and bullet ants, wasps of different types including yellow jackets, tarantula hawks, mud daubers and velvet ants, and of course everyone’s favourite, the honey bee.

(cont.)

Read the full article here: Book Review – The Sting of the Wild by Justin O. Schmidt — Vishy’s Blog

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

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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

Book Review: The Humane Gardener by EARTHeim

Tags

book review, ecology, environmental ecology, plants for pollinators, The Humane Gardener

“The book has six chapters and covers topics like native plants, letting nature guide your garden, gardening for pollinators and birds, our relationship with wildlife and how are gardens are a meeting ground, and the life cycle of nature relating to our garden.

Throughout the book are also 6 interviews with ecological gardeners who have turned their property into a ‘living landscape’. It is interesting to see how their garden transformed from its original purchased state. One lady in Florida even found a threatened native lily growing on her property after allowing her garden to become more natural.

There are nice color photos on nearly every set of pages as examples of the topic discussed. In the back of the book is a list of online learning resources and a native plant list, to continue your endeavor on creating an ecological garden.”

cont.

Read full article here: https://wp.me/p4dO9X-1zx

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

Tags

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

The Secrets of Royal Jelly – Roald Dahl’s version by wiggledanceforme

Tags

biology, book review, fiction

I have always thought this story is an unsettling mix between fact and fiction. Is the crazy beekeeper Albert Taylor for real? Is he serious about feeding his malnourished daughter tons and tons of royal jelly to make her nice and plump?

Eccentric character Albert Tayler refers to beekeeping magazines and scientific research discussing the great benefits of the magical royal substance. He tries to convince his wife with the “scientific facts”. For a long time I have wondered whether these scientific articles were real, or whether the amazing imagination of Roald Dahl had exceeded to the next level. Today, I want to find out.

Read the full article at: The Secrets of Royal Jelly – Roald Dahl’s version. — wiggledanceforme

And if this bit of fiction spurs an interest in science:

Secret of royal jelly’s super-sizing effect on queen bees appears to be special protein royalactin. 27 April 2011, by Bob Yirka. (PhysOrg.com) — In a paper published in Nature,. Japanese researcher Masaki Kamakura describes a process he used to determine that the protein royalactin, is at least one of the components. of fiction spurs an interest in science: [PDF] Secret of royal jelly’s super-sizing effect on queen bees … – Phys.org 

and

in royal jelly that enables the larvae to develop into queens, but rather the optimally balanced composition of the diet – and the fact that the nurse bees feed the queen bee larvae up to 10 times more frequently. The secret of the caste system in honeybee colonies evidently lies in specific genetic programming of the larva … [PDF]Jelly Fit for a Queen – Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

A Beekeeper’s Book Review of More Than Honey: The Survival of Bees and the Future of Our World by casula mellita

Tags

apiculture, beekeeping, book review

Markus Imhoof outlines many of the problems facing beekeepers today in his book More Than Honey: The Survival of Bees and the Future of Our World, which Imhoof had originally produced as a documentary. His slant is strongly pro-bees and anti-pesticides and, in conjunction, anti-commercial agriculture. In particular, I found his interviews with a large almond farmer and with a migratory beekeeper fascinating both for their own awareness about the problems that their businesses engendered while still maintaining their capitalistic outlook.

Imhoof includes information that is of an introductory nature to a backyard beekeeper, e.g., the breakdown of the various responsibilities by which bees in the hive, before discussing in detail some of the research that is being conducted in laboratories on how bees behave. This chapter was filled with engaging experiments and tidbits. For example, I learned that a particular bee, dubbed Red-23, had observed another’s waggle dance for a food source but had decided to return to its own previous food source, which the researchers had removed. Rather than return to the hive or search for another nearby food source as had been expected, Red-23 flew off to the location described by the other bee in its waggle dance, which Red-23 had observed at the hive. Not only did the bee preserve the memory of the directions in the waggle dance, but Red-23 had sufficient locational memory to fly from its location to the described location without returning to the hive first. Wow!

Read full article here: A Beekeeper’s Book Review of More Than Honey: The Survival of Bees and the Future of Our World — casula mellita

How should we train the newbees? by Rusty

Tags

beekeepers, book review, equipment, varroa mites

Tis the season. My inbox is flush with “amazing” deals. Unfortunately, many of the hard-sell marketers are heading straight for the wallet of the soon-to-be new beekeeper. I’ve watched wannabees, still unable to tell a honey bee from a cockroach, buying specialty hives, extractors, and vaporizers so they will be ready when their bees arrive.

The marketers are slick, many offering “free” courses with anywhere from a dozen to 150 lessons to help get you started. Of course, this is nothing new. I first complained about the “lesson plan” back in 2010 when I saw poorly structured tutorials, each designed to sell you one more thing.

How much stuff do you really need?

Okay, I’m not a minimalist. I find that tinkering with hive design, equipment, gadgets, and technology is enormously fun and educational. On the other hand, you can be a first-rate beekeeper without breaking the bank. No one should be guilted into buying something he can’t afford or doesn’t need. Your need for equipment will evolve as your hobby expands, but purchasing should not be rushed or haphazard.

And all those lessons? How discouraging! A hundred lessons on any subject would make me run. Instead, I recommend that beginners read two good books: one that covers basic beekeeping practices and one dedicated to honey bee biology. My recommendation for the basics is either Simple, Smart Beekeeping by Kirsten and Michael Traynor or The Beekeeper’s Handbook by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile. If you are a visual learner, the full-color photos in the Traynor book could not be better. For honey bee biology, nothing comes close to Honey-Maker by Rosanna Mattingly. I refer to it constantly.

Read full article here: How should we train the newbees? — Honey Bee Suite

The History of Bees – a book review in 200 words by ouroborosfreelance

Tags

beekeeping, book review

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde The History of Bees follows three distinct characters in three wildly disparate timelines: The whiny but lovable William, England (1852). A scientist with a large family and a seeds shop – he has been bedridden for an undetermined amount of time. George, a taciturn and stoic beekeeper, […]

Read the full review at:  The History of Bees – a book review in 200 words — ouroborosfreelance

Book review – Bad Beekeeping by Ron Miksha (2004)

Tags

beekeeping, beekeeping history, book review, commercial beekeeping

Ron is the author of the excellent Bad Beekeeping blog, which has recently been selected by Beesker as “the world’s very best website on bees and beekeeping”. Bad Beekeeping by Ron Miksha – available on Amazon Bad Beekeeping is no ordinary beekeeping book. Instead it’s a memoir of Ron’s time as a commercial beekeeper, spending […]

Read more here: Book review – Bad Beekeeping by Ron Miksha (2004) — Adventuresinbeeland’s Blog