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
