Keeping Bees with a Smile: Principles and Practice of Natural Beekeeping

Front Cover
Praise
Title Page
Rights Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword: The Bee Book That Makes Sense: A Roadmap to Natural Beekeeping
Part One: A Path to Natural Apiculture
	A Brief Introduction
	How It All Got Started
	A Small Side Note
	The Industrial and Natural Approaches
	The Bee Colony’s Intelligence
	The Goals of This Book
	The Tree Hollow as the Bees’ Natural Home
	Some Useful Facts about Comb
	The Bee Colony’s Developmental Cycle
	A Year in the Life of a Bee Colony
	A Word or Two on Wintering
	The Ideal Comb: How Deep is Deep Enough?
	Winter Ventilation of the Beehive
	Bee Races
	The European Dark Bee
	Bee Diseases
	Symbiosis in Nature (A Philosophical Digression)
	Bees and Their Enemies
	A Bit of History
	The History of the Frame
	Modern Systems of Industrial Beekeeping
	Bees in the Industrial Hive
	A Word or Two about Swarming
	“Little to Smile About”
	Is There a Way Out?
	The History of the Horizontal Hive with Extra-Deep Frames
	The Modern Horizontal Hive
	The Horizontal Hive with Extra-Deep Frames
	Using the Extra-Deep Frame
Part Two: The Practice of Natural Apiculture
	A Description of the Horizontal Hive with 25 Extra-Deep Frames
	How to Keep Bees in a Horizontal Hive with Extra-Deep Frames
	The Central Commandments of Natural Beekeeping
	A Beekeeper’s Tasks in Spring and Summer
	Fall Procedures: Pulling Honey and Preparing for Winter
	How to Make Extra-Deep Frames
	Brushstrokes
	How to Capture a Swarm in a Swarm Trap
	Responsibility
	Questions and Answers
	Epilogue to Parts I and II
Part Three: The Finer Points of Natural Beekeeping
	Three Years Later
	Principles of Natural Beekeeping Revisited
	The Recipe for Success in Beekeeping
	Nectar Resources
	Bee Race and Colony Strength
	On the Mean Bees
	The Queen
	The Vital Rhythms of a Bee Colony
	The Death of Bee Colonies
	Various Approaches to Natural Beekeeping
	More on Supersedure
	Swarming
	How to Collect a Swarm
	The Hive Entrance
	Spring Inspection of Bee Colonies
	Spring Buildup of Bee Colonies
	Preparing for the Main Honeyflow
	The Main Honeyflow and the Second Half of Summer
	Pulling Honey and Preparing for Winter
	Questions and Answers
Part Four: How Bee Colonies Winter, and How to Make Wintering as Successful as Possible
	Introduction
	The Facts: What You Must Know about the Wintering Process of an Individual Bee and of the Colony as a Whole
	The Colony’s Main Job During the Winter
	The Thermal Physics of a Wintering Colony
	Bee Respiration in the Winter Cluster
	The Role of Water in the Wintering Process
	The Search for the Ideal Home for a Bee Colony
	The Physiological Condition of a Colony as It Enters the Winter Period
	Winter Reserves
	The Location of Winter Reserves
	The European Dark Bee
	Wintering Indoors
	Conclusions to Part IV
Afterword
Afterword to the Second Edition: Natural Beekeeping Accessible to All
Color Section
Appendix 1: How to Make Swarm Traps and Capture Swarms
Appendix 2: How to Produce, Install, and Unite Your Own Swarms
Appendix 3: Nucs: What to Expect and How to Handle Them
Appendix 4: Operations Throughout the Year
Appendix 5: How to Build a Horizontal Hive with Extra-Deep Frames (Version 1)
Appendix 6: How to Build a Horizontal Hive with Extra-Deep Frames (Version 2)
Appendix 7: Lazutin Hive Plans (US Version 4 — New)
Appendix 8: Summary Handouts
Glossary
Index
About the Author / Editor
About New Society Publishers
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