The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping

431 Pages·2010·3.48 MB·English

by  Dean Stiglitz, Laurie Herboldsheimer

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Introduction

Part 1 - What’s All the Buzz About?
Chapter 1 - The World of Bees
Chapter 2 - Inside the Hive: The Caste of Characters
Chapter 3 - Beekeeping Essentials: Gearing Up

Part 2 - A Bee of One’s Own
Chapter 4 - Acquiring Bees
Chapter 5 - Finding a Home for Your Hives
Chapter 6 - Bees Are What They Eat
Chapter 7 - Establishing Your Hives
Chapter 8 - Inspecting Your Hives

Part 3 - Beekeeping the Old-Fashioned Way
Chapter 9 - A Hands-Off Approach to Hive Management
Chapter 10 - The Yin and Yang of Disease
Chapter 11 - The Mating Scene

Part 4 - Harvesting and Beyond
Chapter 12 - Honey, Harvest, and Resources
Chapter 13 - The Offseason
Chapter 14 - Beyond Your Own Backyard: Building a Bigger Operation
Appendix A - Glossary
Appendix B - Suppliers
Index
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Copyright © 2010 by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer
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Like everyone, we have parents, heroes, and mentors who have helped craft who
we are and influence everything we do.

This particular book, however, could only be dedicated to Dee Lusby. The
contributions that she and her late husband Ed have made and shared freely with
many thousands of beekeepers all over the world are the driving force behind the
treatment-free movement, and their value is impossible to overestimate.
Introduction
One can imagine the progression of humans’ relationship with the honeybee.
Curiosity led to stinging, which drove us away. More curiosity led to the
discovery of honey and, suddenly, the fear of being stung was no longer an
effective deterrent. Humanity had never experienced such sweetness before, and
the taste of liquid sunlight changed the world. It’s quite literally a version of the
oldest story in the book (think: Adam, Eve, and a sweet, forbidden apple).

Honeybees are the most studied creatures on the planet, second only to humans.
Someone was the first to discover that smoke would drive bees out of their
cavity and minimize alarm, what time of year there was likely to be the most
honey, and that breathing on bees tends to rile them up. Such knowledge is, of
course, the result of observation and study. But the bees don’t make our research
easy.

Gregor Mendel, whose discoveries described the genetic crossings of virtually
every life form on the planet, was baffled by the honeybee. Even today, we are
just beginning to understand certain aspects of the hive, such as the importance
of the microbial components.

No matter the accumulated knowledge, no matter the sophistication of the tools,
every answer we get yields countless questions. The closer we look, the deeper
we go, and it never seems to end. This is the nature of the honeybee.

Working with them, studying them, trying to unlock their secrets, is both
satisfying and engaging. This is the big secret: bees are more interesting than
honey.
Don’t get us wrong, honey is great stuff, and there is nothing like sticking your
finger into warm honeycomb and having a taste while bees fly around you. Not
even a cherry tomato warmed by the sun and right off the vine compares.
However, we love the bees most of all, and “bee fever” is a constantly recurring
theme in the history of humankind. We know we are not alone. Welcome.

Unfortunately, beekeeping has suffered—along with all of agriculture—from the
introduction of modern high-yield techniques and industrial-scale approaches.
Think about monocrop farming, feedlot cattle, chickens with their beaks
removed, and excessive and improper application of pesticides. Similarly, many
of our attempts to manipulate the natural processes of the bees have been
careless and misguided, and we have treated Mother Nature’s generosity with
greed. We should know better.

Modern beekeeping practices have delivered significant challenges, and this
book attempts to address them. Beekeeping by recipe doesn’t really work unless
you employ artificial controls such as frequent feeding, chemical applications,
and constant requeening. Even with these interventions, it’s not unheard of for
90 percent of a beekeeper’s hives to die over the winter. Such solutions do not
solve anything.

This is likely the first time you’ve ever heard that most beekeepers actually put
chemicals in their beehives, or that beekeepers (yes, even the sweet old man at
the end of the dirt road who sells honey out of his garage) feed their bees sugar
or high-fructose corn syrup. It’s shocking that beekeepers don’t question these
practices, and that some treatments are so common that beekeepers don’t even
consider them treatments anymore—they’ve become baseline beekeeping.

In addition to serving as an introduction to beekeeping, this book is intended for
beekeepers of all levels of experience who want to keep bees on a system that is
different than how most people are taught today. What we offer here is a
treatment-free approach. We say “treatment-free” because even “organic” and
“natural” beekeeping (as they have come to be defined) allow for chemical
treatments and management practices that are detrimental to the long-term health
and vitality of the honeybee.

We don’t pretend to present a recipe. What we hope to convey is an
understanding of how bees live, some overall management techniques and goals,
and an overview of how bees function in the natural world so you can develop a
mutually beneficial relationship with them.

A beekeeping recipe is the fish that one gives a man instead of teaching him to
catch his own. We endeavor to impart to you the knowledge you need to create
your own management approaches based on what the bees need at any given
time. We encourage you to draw on the resources we point to in Appendix B, as
other perspectives, other ideas, and other goals can do nothing but allow you to
yield a greater understanding of the whole.
How This Book Is Organized
To help you assimilate such a complex assembly of information, ideas, and
practices, this book is divided into four parts.

Part 1, “What’s All the Buzz About?” will introduce you to the bees, their
fascinating lives both as individuals and members of the dynamic colony, and the
microbes they can’t live without. You’ll learn a lot of new words, some bee
biology, tour a hive, and figure out what equipment and supplies you’ll need to
get started with your own bees.

In Part 2, “A Bee of One’s Own,” you’ll discover where to find bees, how to
get them, and what to do with them when they arrive. You’ll learn how to select
locations, make sure the bees get the food they need, and what to do as the
colony begins to expand.

Part 3, “Beekeeping the Old-Fashioned Way,” explores a treatment-free
management approach. You’ll learn about the importance of cell size and
unlimited broodnest and how microbes impact the hive both in sickness and in
health. You’ll get a crash course in honeybee sex, understand how breeding can
make or break honeybee populations, and learn how to replace a queen when
circumstance demands it.

In Part 4, “Harvesting and Beyond,” you’ll learn when and how to harvest
honey, get some ideas for satisfying your bee cravings during the offseason, and
start to make plans for growing your beekeeping operation. Opportunities for
expanding your bee knowledge abound. Before you know it, it will be spring
again—time for you to share what you’ve learned, and your bees, with others.