The Complete Guide To Beekeeping

The buzz on beekeeping. The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Beekeeping has all the information a begin­ning beekeeper needs to know to start a hive and keep it buzzing. Expert beekeepers Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer, owners of Golden Rule Honey, take readers step by step through the entire process-from information on the inhabitants of a hive and how it works to collecting bees, keeping them healthy, raising a queen, harvesting honey and wax, and stor­ing hives for the off-season.

Beekeepers and those interested in beekeeping An introduction and guide to the complex subject of beekeeping, an ancient pastime which has seen a recent revival in interest. Whether the reader is a novice or a professional beekeeper, this book will be a valuable addition to existing literature. The book is fully comprehensive, starting with the novice and ending with the semi-expert It tells you all you need to know about taking up beekeeping on a small scale. Starting Beekeeping When and where; hives and beekeeping equipment; buying secondhand; understanding honeybees. Siting Your Bees Selecting a site; hiving your bees; feeding your bees; looking through the hive; avoiding bee stings. A Thriving Colony Adding supers; using a queen excluder; how bees forage; the honey flow; taking off honey. Wintering Down Preparing and feeding the hive for winter; mice, damp, wax moth and other enemies. The Second Year Spring cleaning; getting a second hive; oil seed rape; the 'June gap'; problems with a poor harvest. Planning Ahead Keeping the queen in charge; requeening; making a nuc. warming Why bees swarm; swarms in action; catching and hiving a swarm; drone laying queens and other problems. beekeeping; migratory hives. Honeybee Products Honey for sale; honey for show; honey recipes; making mead; wax extracting; beeswax polish and candles; propolis' and medicinal properties. Honeybee Problems Killer bees; bee pests and diseases. Bees in History Beekeeping from BC to the present century. Glossary of beekeeping terms and information packed appendices.

The Backyard Beekeeper, now in its 4th edition, makes the time-honored and complex tradition of beekeeping an enjoyable and accessible backyard pastime that will appeal to urban and rural beekeepers of all skill levels. More than a guide to beekeeping, this handbook features expert advice for: Setting up and caring for your own colonies Selecting the best location to place your new bee colonies for their safety and yours The most practical and nontoxic ways to care for your bees Swarm control Using top bar hives Harvesting the products of a beehive and collecting and using honey Bee problems and treatments What's New? Information for urban bees and beekeepers Using your smoker the right way Better pest management Providing consistent and abundant good food Keeping your hives healthy With this complete resource and the expert advice of Bee Culture editor Kim Flottum, your bees will be healthy, happy, and more productive.

This comprehensive guide will give beginners all they need to start and maintain a healthy bee colony, while experienced beekeepers will find advice on expanding into new areas of the business and how to refine their skills. Subjects covered include: . Buying a colony of bees . Managing bees throughout the seasons . Selecting equipment and a good apiary site . Preventing swarming . Extracting, processing, and selling honey . Controlling pests, predators, and diseases . Rearing queen honey bees Photographs and technical drawings illustrate the text, and appendixes define technical terms, list sources of supplies, and tell you where to go to find more information.

Whether you are a novice looking to get started with bees, an experienced apiculturist looking for ideas to develop an integrated pest-management approach, or someone who wants to sell honey at a premium price, this is the book you’ve been waiting for. Now revised and updated with new resources and including full-color photos throughout, Natural Beekeeping offers all the latest information in a book that has already proven invaluable for organic beekeepers. The new edition offers the same holistic, sensible alternative to conventional chemical practices with a program of natural hive management, but offers new sections on a wide range of subjects, including: The basics of bee biology and anatomy Urban beekeeping Identifying and working with queens Parasitic mite control Hive diseases Also, a completely new chapter on marketing provides valuable advice for anyone who intends to sell a wide range of hive products. Other chapters include: Hive Management Genetics and Breeding The Honey Harvest The Future of Organic Beekeeping Ross Conrad brings together the best “do no harm” strategies for keeping honeybees healthy and productive with nontoxic methods of controlling mites; eliminating American foulbrood disease without the use of antibiotics; selective breeding for naturally resistant bees; and many other detailed management techniques, which are covered in a thoughtful, matter-of-fact way.

This expanded version of the Future Farmers of America (FFA)–licensed Beginner's Guide to Beekeepingâ?? is the complete DIY guide for budding beekeepers. Raising bees is becoming increasingly popular in backyards and on farms large and small—and it’s easy to see why. These resourceful insects produce organic honey and beeswax, all while constantly providing natural aid to the health of your yard and garden. And even better, bees are easy to keep, especially with the expert instruction of the FFA-licensed The Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping, now expanded with 16 more pages of information and redesigned to appeal even more to middle- and high-school-age enthusiasts. Beginning with the basics, seasoned beekeepers Daniel and Samantha Johnson answer all of a prospective beekeeper’s questions on how to set up, care for, and harvest their very own bee colonies. With the help of this comprehensive DIY guide, raising bees can be an enjoyable and accessible backyard pastime for gardeners, crafters, and cooks everywhere. Beautifully designed and authoritatively written, The Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping is a trusted source of information to new beekeepers of all ages, sure to inspire further investigation of beekeeping.

“The most lucid call to action ever written about land-based beekeeping” from the author of The Backyard Beekeeper (Tammy Horn, author of Bees in America and Beeconomy). Backyard beekeepers everywhere agree: a successful colony is a thing of beauty. Thousands of beekeepers have started beekeeping thanks to Kim Flottum’s first book, The Backyard Beekeeper, and they have added to their repertoire of skills with The Backyard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook. Now, Better Beekeeping answers the question, “What do I do now that I’m a beekeeper?” This book takes serious beekeepers past the beginning stages and learning curves and offers solutions and rewards for keeping bees a better way. Better queens, better winters, better food, and better bees await any beekeeper willing to take on the challenge of having the right number of bees, of the right age, in the right place, in the right condition, at the right time. “There are numerous beekeeping books on the shelves that instruct on ‘how to,’ but Better Beekeeping is a book that explores ‘why to,’ which is essential for this ever-changing world of beekeeping today.” —Jennifer Berry, research coordinator at the University of Georgia’s Honey Bee Research Lab, commercial queen, and columnist for Bee Culture magazine

The complete book of beekeeping, from setting up a colony to hive management and harvesting the honey, shown in more than 400 photographs.