Learn to differentiate between popular and scholarly sources and use them appropriately in your research:
Here are some example topics for Commercial Beekeeping:
ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture 41st Edition by
The 41st Edition of The ABC & XYZ Of Bee Culture has over 900 pages and more than 1,000 photos. Most photos are color, but many are black and white because of the extensive array of historical topics, people and events that are covered...here and nowhere else. Constructed as an easy to use and comprehensive encyclopedia of honey bees, beekeeping and beekeeping practices and equipment, the alphabetical listings cover absolutely everything in the beekeeping world. From African Honey Bees, to beeswax, to comb honey, to G. M. Doolittle, to essential oils, to Karl von Frisch, to Extracted Honey, to more than 50 of the most popular honey plants to laying workers, to honey bee mites, to nucleus colonies, to Queen piping and Queen rearing, to the A. I. Root Company History, to smoking colonies, to Top Bar Hives, to Varroa, to wintering to worker cells. The 16 page Glossary is easy to use, and contains hundreds of entries to make learning the science, and art of beekeeping easier and faster than you can imagine. And nowhere anywhere is there a more comprehensive listing of the people and events that make up the history of keeping bees. Hundreds of individuals are highlighted, noting their contributions to the beekeeping community...from L. L. Langstroth to modern day queen And, because of the extensive role the A. I. Root Company played in American, and even global beekeeping development, a comprehensive overview of the family, the manufacturing advances, and the contributions made by the family, and the company, are spelled out in detail not before shared. More than 50 authors were pulled in to assist with this work, each contributing the most up-to-date information in their respective fields.
The Bee Book by
The Bee Book shows you step-by-step how to create a bee-friendly garden, get started in beekeeping, and harness the power of honey for well-being. Fully illustrated with full-color photographs throughout, this beautiful guide covers everything you need to know to start your own backyard hive, from setup to harvest. Practical beekeeping techniques are explained with clear step-by-step sequences, photos, and diagrams so you'll be prepared to establish your own colony, deal with diseases, collect a swarm, and much more. A comprehensive gardening chapter features planting plans to fill container and border gardens, bee "hotel" and habitat projects, and an at-a-glance flower gallery of bees' favorite plants. The Bee Book also shows you how to harvest honey, beeswax, and propolis from the hive and use these ingredients in 38 recipes for home remedies, beauty treatments, and candle-making. Discover the wonder of bees in nature, in your garden, and in the hive with The Bee Book, lavishly bound in a beautiful gold-foil and texture cover and perfect for gift giving.
Bee Equipment Essentials by
This How-to-do-it approach to building bee equipment provides a clear plan to make your own bee equipment. Even if you never build bee equipment, this book will help you understand how to assemble and use many useful beekeeping tools. Build your own hive stands, bottom boards, entrance reducers, hive bodies, inner covers, telescoping covers and feeders. Build a variety of nucleus hives. Or build your own top bar hive. Build frames and bars for queen production, and make a Cloake Board. Make your own honey extractor and tools to help you process honey. Capture swarms with devices you build from inexpensive equipment. Build these items from materials you 'recycle' in a dumpster dive; enjoy building things you never dreamed you needed, like jigs, that hold equipment together during assembly. Build a solar wax extractor and harvest the wax found in wax scraps and old combs.
Beekeeper's Problem Solver by
While keeping bees certainly isn't rocket science, doing it properly does involve decent levels of understanding, commitment, and attention to detail. Getting the basics right is essential, and this demands a solid appreciation of important areas such as hives management, breed choice, and health requirements. There is plenty to think about for those getting their first bees, and careful planning is the key to a successful initial experience. One thing that complicates matters is the bees' ability to disguise problems. Although this might seem a useful ability, it actually makes recognizing trouble in the crucial, early stages that much more difficult, even for experienced owners. And although bees are remarkably resilient creatures, they remain vulnerable to predators, disease and climate changes. There is plenty of potential for things to go wrong and, unfortunately, it's always the bees that suffer when problems strike. Whether you're a newcomer or an old hand, The Beekeeper's Problem Solverprovides the information you need to nip probelms in the budâ??and, better still, avoid them in the first place. Let longtime bee keeper and apiary expert James E. Tew guide you thorugh 100 common problems faced by beekeepers, spelling out in clear and simple terms what the underlying cause is and how to solve it. Each one is tackled in depth, with photographs and diagrams, as well as a wide range of practical tips and useful insights. The problems are divided into ten chapters covering the main areas of beekeeping, from health to housing and parasites to predators. A subject-specific index is also included for easy reference.
Bees: A Natural History by
The vital role of bees in human ecology is underlined by the estimate that every third mouthful of human food is dependent on the pollinating services of bees. Only recently have biologists discovered that human survival is inextricably linked to the survival of insects, specifically, bees. Today the 16-20,000 species of bee continue to play vital roles in human ecology. We survive only by grace of the life-sustaining network of bee-plant relationships. Bees immerses readers in the world of a group of insects whose diversity of form and behavior is eloquent testimony to the fine-tuning of natural selection. Written by a world-leading entomologist and specialist in bees, the book's topics include: What are bees? (The Wasp Inheritance) - Bees as foragers, their nesting instinct, on-board computing facility, sun-compass orientation and sense of time The many ways of being a bee -- Solitary versus social, Miners and masons, Leafcutters and carpenters Bees and flowering plants The male of the species -- Mating strategies, patrols, competition, territoriality, the role of scent The enemies of bees -- Cleptoparasites, cuckoo bees Bees and People -- historic and contemporary Bees in Folk and Modern Medicine The Conservation of Bees -- the decline of bees and honeybees, bees in human ecology, bee conservation, urban bees Bee projects -- the backyard bee scientist. Bees can be found throughout history in roles poetic and military, in medicine and agriculture, in the kitchen and in the kit of a traditional healer. They have played a bigger role in human existence than is often recognized. This beautifully illustrated, appreciative tribute will be welcomed by entomologists, students and all naturalist readers.
Bees: Biology, Threats and Colonies by
For students of animal behaviour, honey bees are an intriguing organism, interacting in a complex eusocial colony setting as well as with the environment as they forage over wide areas. Much of that behaviour is moderated by odours, which honey bees can detect at extremely low concentrations. This book presents current research from across the globe in the study of bees, including the importance of odour in learning and behaviour of the honeybee; the role of honeybees in pollination ecology; threats to the stingless bee in the Brazilian Amazon; honeybee viruses and age-related associative and non-associative learning performance in honeybees.
Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language by
Over half a century of brilliant scientific detective work, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist Karl von Frisch learned how the world, looks, smells, and tastes to a bee. More significantly, he discovered their dance language and their ability to use the sun as a compass. Intended to serve as an accessible introduction to one of the most fascinating areas of biology, Bees (first published in 1950 and revised in 1971), reported the startling results of his ingenious and revolutionary experiments with honeybees. In his revisions, von Frisch updated his discussion about the phylogenetic origin of the language of bees and also demonstrated that their color sense is greater than had been thought previously. He also took into consideration the electrophysiological experiments and electromicroscopic observations that have supplied more information on how the bee analyzes polarized light to orient itself and how the olfactory organs on the bee's antennae function. Now back in print after more than two decades, this classic and still-accurate account of the behavior patterns and sensory capacities of the honeybee remains a book "written with a simplicity, directness, and charm which all who know him will recognize as characteristic of its author. Any intelligent reader, without scientific training, can enjoy it." Yale Review"
Bees in Europe and Sustainable Honey Production (BEE SHOP) by
Honey is among the oldest food products of mankind and beekeeping is deeply rooted in every European culture, which is why quality regulation is strict and numerous European and national regulations control honey quality. Yet in an environment with increasing chemical pollution and the wide use of agrochemicals, honey runs high risks of becoming chemically polluted. This is why the BEE SHOP, a network of nine leading European honeybee research groups in honey quality, pathology, genetics and behaviour was established. This book examines these research teams and their shared common interest of promoting Europe's high honey quality standards.
Honey Bees: Colony Collapse Disorder and Pollinator Role in Ecosystems by
In 2006, commercial migratory beekeepers along the East Coast of the United States began reporting sharp declines in their honey bee colonies. Because of the severity and unusual circumstances of these colony declines, scientists have named this phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Reports indicate that beekeepers in 35 states have been affected. Overall, bee colony losses averaged about 30% in 2007. Reports for 2008 show continued declines with estimated average annual losses nation-wide approaching 35%. Honey bees are the most economically valuable pollinators of agricultural crops world-wide. Many scientists at universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) frequently assert that bee pollination is involved in about one-third of the U.S. diet, and contributes to the production of a wide range of fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, forage crops, some field crops, and other speciality crops. The monetary value of honey bees as commercial pollinators in the United States is estimated at about $15 billion annually. Honey bee colony losses are not uncommon. However, current losses seem to differ from past situations in that colony losses are occurring mostly because bees are failing to return to the hive (which is largely uncharacteristic of bee behaviour); bee colony losses have been rapid; colony losses are occurring in large numbers; and the reason(s) for these losses remains largely unknown. The potential causes of CCD, as reported by the scientists who are researching this phenomenon, include but may not be limited to parasites, mites, and disease loads in the bees and brood; emergence of new or newly more virulent pathogens; poor nutrition among adult bees; lack of genetic diversity and lineage of bees; level of stress in adult bees (e.g., transportation and confinement of bees, overcrowding, or other environmental or biological stressors); chemical residue/contamination in the wax, food stores, and/or bees; a combination of these and/or other factors. In 2007, the House held two subcommittee hearings to review the recent honey bee colony declines and to address concerns about pollinator health. In 2008, the Senate hosted a briefing on pollinators and their role in agricultural security. Various policy options were discussed at these hearings and briefings, including increasing federal funding for research and monitoring, providing technical support and assistance for beekeepers, and emphasising the importance of pollinator diversity and sustaining wild and native pollinator species.
The Quest for the Perfect Hive by
Beekeeping is a sixteen-billion-dollar-a-year business. But the invaluable honey bee now faces severe threats from diseases, mites, pesticides, and overwork, not to mention the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder, which causes seemingly healthy bees to abandon their hives en masse, never to return. In The Quest for the Perfect Hive, entomologist Gene Kritsky offers a concise, beautifully illustrated history of beekeeping, tracing the evolution of hive design from ancient Egypt to the present. Not simply a descriptive account, the book suggests that beekeeping's long history may in fact contain clues to help beekeepers fight the decline in honey bee numbers. Kritsky guides us through the progression from early mud-based horizontal hives to the ascent of the simple straw skep (the inverted basket which has been in use for over 1,500 years), from hive design's Golden Age in Victorian England up through the present. He discusses what worked, what did not, and what we have forgotten about past hives that might help counter the menace to beekeeping today. Indeed, while we have sequenced the honey bee genome and advanced our knowledge of the insects themselves, we still keep our bees in hives that have changed little during the past century. If beekeeping is to survive, Kritsky argues, we must start inventing again. We must find the perfect hive for our times. For thousands of years, the honey bee has been a vital part of human culture. The Quest for the Perfect Hive not only offers a colorful account of this long history, but also provides a guide for ensuring its continuation into the future.
Journal of Insect Science (online only) by 
Modern Farmer (print only) by 
Ontario Bee Journal (print only) by 
Permaculture Magazine (print only) by 
Bee People by 
Beetalker: The Secret World of Bees by Death of the Honeybee by Facts about Insects by 
Queen Of The Sun What Are The Bees Telling Us?Saving The Lifekeepers: The New Science of Sustainable Beekeeping by Secrets of the Beehive by TEDTalks: Marla Spivak—Why bees are disappearing by TEDTalks: Noah Wilson-Rich—Every City Needs Healthy Honey Bees by Vanishing of the Bees by What's Killing our Bees? by 
