Wednesday, 13 January 2016

New book - Balanced Beekeeping II: Managing the Top Bar Hive

The long-awaited "top bar hive workshop manual" that I have been promising for at least two years has finally been published.

At 380 pages, this is my heaviest book to date, and unless I finish that novel I have been writing on and off for a decade, it will probably remain so.

I have tried to make it as comprehensive as possible and to cover most of the situations that the TBH beekeeper is likely to encounter.

You can buy the printed book here on Lulu.com

There is also an ebook version on Lulu, which you can find by searching on my name.

You can read a free extract, with the title An Introduction to Balanced Beekeeping

CONTENTS

THE NATURE OF HONEYBEES 17
The Honeybee Family 18
Natural History 19
The Swarm 20
The Mating Flight 27
The Seasonal Cycle 31
The Energy Cycle 33
Pollination 38
Planting For Bees 41
HONEYBEES AND HUMANS 44
Types of Bee Keeping 45
The Origins of 'Balanced Beekeeping' 50
A Mutually Beneficial Relationship 53
Protecting Biodiversity 56
Backyard Beekeeping 57
Principles of Balanced Beekeeping 59
Learning From Bees 64
Bee Watching 68
PRACTICAL BEE CARE 73
Preparations 74
Why Keep Bees? 74
Stings 76
Selecting a Site 77
Choosing a Hive 81
Vertical Top Bar Hives 85
Horizontal Top Bar Hives 89
Other Hives 94
Bees and Other People 99
Bees and the Law 101
The Beekeeping Year 103
Expansion and Growth 103
Plateau 107
Consolidation 109
Dormancy 111
Getting Started 113
Populating Your Hive 116
Bees For Free: Starting With Swarms 117
Baiting a Swarm 120
Taking a Swarm 124
Swarm Catching Kit 130
Advertising for Swarms 131
Buying Bees: Nucs and Packages 134
Bee Removals: Cut-outs and Trap-outs 138
Installing Bees In Your Hive 144
Installing a Swarm: Direct Method 144
Installing a Swarm: Indirect Method 146
Installing a Nucleus Colony 154
Crop and Chop 155
Conversion Hive 160
Shake-down 162
Hive Substitution 165
Installing a Package of Bees 173
Handling Bees 176
Moving Among Bees 177
Finding the Queen 183
Safe Handling of Queen Cells 185
Your First Season 187
Routine Inspections 189
Detailed Inspections 192
Problem Solving 200
Cross-Combing 201
Side Attachments 205
Robbing 206
Management Plans 208
Managing Space 209
Management Plan A 211
Management Plan B 213
Other Useful Layouts 216
A Two-Queen System 217
Using the TBH as a Mating Hive 218
Over-wintering Nucs 218
Managing Swarming 219
Why Bees Swarm 220
swarm triggers 227
Swarm Preparations 229
swarm calendar 231
Demaree 241
Making More Bees 245
Simple Split 246
Using Swarming to Increase Stocks 249
Post-Swarm Nucs 254
Simple Queen Rearing 255
Using The Emergency Response 255
Simplified Miller Method 258
Using the Supersedure Response 260
Grafting 262
Nicot/Cupkit, Jenter and Ezi-Queen 265
Queen Mating 270
Combining Colonies 277
Re-combining 278
Direct Combining 280
Indirect Combining 281
Combining Cast Swarms 283
Balanced Beekeeping in Conventional Hives 284
KEEPING HEALTHY BEES 291
The Natural Balance 292
Feeding Bees 297
The Sugar Problem 301
Fondant 304
Dry Sugar 305
Spring and Summer Feeding 306
Pre-Winter Feeding 307
Climate and Temperature 309
Prevention vs Cure 312
Station Feeding 313
Pests and Diseases 315
Varroa Mites 318
Agricultural Chemicals 337
The Future of Beekeeping 339
TBH FAQs 343
APPENDIX 351
Glossary 351
Recipes 365
Products of the Hive 369
Ten Things You Can Do 376

Further Reading 381

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