NORTHERN BEE BOOKS

The COLOSS BEEBOOK (Prevention of Honey Bee Colony LOSSes) is a unique venture that aims to standardise methods for studying the honey bee. It is a practical manual intended for scientists and beekeepers compiling standard methods in all fields of research on the honey bee, Apis mellifera, and is the definitive research manual, composed of 32 peer-reviewed chapters authored by more than 234 of the world’s leading honey bee experts from 34 different countries. Volumes 1 and 2 were published in 2013 and are now available again by popular demand. The COLOSS BEEBOOK, Volume II: “Standard methods for Apis mellifera pest and pathogen research” describes methods for studying all of the major honey bee pests and pathogens.

Now in its 34rd year of publication, the Annual is the longest running Annual in the history of British beekeeping. It serves as a reference source, a diary, a hive record resource which will prove invaluable throughout the year and a set of articles guaranteed to entertain and amuse. The perfect stocking filler for the enthusiastic beekeeper.

Mead is believed to be the oldest known alcoholic beverage” and that “The earliest archaeological evidence of honey wine comes from 9000 BC in northern China.” Whilst researching my previous work on heather honey, Professor William (Bill) Sutherland reinforced a view extolled by the late Dr Oliver Rackham (former research fellow at the Botany Department, Cambridge) that man’s liking for a honey-based beverage may so easily have arisen through early mankind (as a hunter-gatherer) finding discarded honeycomb from marauding bears lying on saucer-type leaves on the jungle floor. Regular rainfall combined with the naturally high temperature turned the vestiges of honey into a fermented liquid that he readily imbibed: the liquid to his liking was probably sought. Such a theory, albeit not legend, can be taken uncritically as more than feasible. The increased interest in honeybees by the general public has seen a renaissance in Mead and Honey Wine production. The book is a manual of all aspects of mead making from the ingredients used; methods and practices; mead and honey wine production problems; bottling and cellar craft; requirements for producing meads and honey wines; recipes for meads, honey wines and honey based vinegar; kegging systems; floral and honey varietals; exhibition and judging of mead and honey wines; historical with various appendices.

Noël Sweeney is a practising barrister who specialises in criminal, human rights and animal law. This volume deals with all aspects of the law concerning bees and beekeepers, drawing upon case history from both UK and American judgements. Bees-at-Law considers the role of bees gauged by the duty and responsibility their owners and beekeepers owe to other people. He lists over sixty case histories which could be useful to beekeepers should they find themselves in court or needing to follow this course of action.

The accidental introduction of the Asian hornet or more accurately the yellow-legged hornet into France and South Korea over ten years ago and its subsequent spread to neighbouring countries has been worrying both governments and beekeepers alike. Many people are now seeking more information on this new threat to our beloved honey bees. Hornet biology is very different to that of honey bees and this can lead to misunderstandings and false assumptions. So, this book is aimed at anyone wanting to learn more about hornets, why the Asian hornet possesses such a threat, and what you can do about it.

While the natural history of hornets makes their eradication impossible, it is important that all interested parties are well informed about their biology and potential impact. The Asian hornet will continue to expand its range into new countries irrespective of the measures taken, so education is the best way to lessen their impact.

This book aims to cover all the key aspects of the hornets’ biology including the impact they have on both people and honey bees. The information presented is gained from various sources during the many years I studied hornets in Asia (mainly Japan), and more recently via the ever-expanding scientic literature on the spread and impact of the Asian hornet both in France and South Korea.

• Honey – harvesting and extracting by Doug Somerville and Bill Winner is the latest volume in a Practical Handbook series from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
• Dr. Somerville is Technical Specialist for the NSW Department and Bill Winner Relations Officer for Capitano Honey – the major commercial Australian exporter.
• The book deals in depth with removing and extracting honey under the best possible conditions and may be seen as a reference manual for all serious beekeepers.
• It covers extraction premises and their design, the process and maintaining honey quality throughout.
• A4: 122 pages fully illustrated throughout in full colour.
• This is a very important volume for those who are considering to or presently sell their honey.

The importance of the role played by honey bee pests in the world is becoming more recognised each year, not only because of attention given to the pest species, such as the varroa mite and small hive beetle, but also because of the increasing realisation that honey bees are extremely valuable to nature and humanity.

The most up to date and recent book about the Small Hive Beetle highlighting the danger that they pose to honeybees and suggesting some control methods.

Management methods and beekeeping technique are featured in this volume, emphasizing those in Italy and France as the European Union was forming. The content focuses on the development of apiculture in both the New and Old World, reflecting on similarities and differences, and based on the principle that “all beekeeping is local.” It features conversations with unique personalities, as well as reports of various scientific and beekeepers’ meetings. Descriptions of visits to research laboratories and distinctive European beekeeping settings round out this unique contribution to the apicultural literature.

Dorothy Hodges was a trained artist with an artist’s acute powers of observation as well as being a beekeeper. In 1946 she had the idea of making a colour chat of pollen loads. It took several years for her ideas to gestate but the glorious outcome was the publication, by the then Bee Research Association, of The Pollen Loads of the Honeybee in 1952.

Designed as a very practical guide for beekeepers, the importance of the book was immense and it has long since risen from being a humble textbook and guide to a much sort after collectors’ item. Its rarity and importance mean that it is no longer easily obtainable and so difficult for the ordinary beekeeper to appreciate its contents. For this very reason IBRA has decided to reproduce Mrs Hodges’s delicate drawings of pollen grains as a separate publication and in so doh1g hopefully make her work known to other generations of beekeepers.
Although the painstakingly produced colour charts of the original book still have their value it would.not be possible to reproduce them with sufficient accuracy to do justice to the original work. However, the drawings lend them-selves to reasonable reproduction. They are of outstanding artistic merit and offer the possibility of identifying the pollen forms which are most frequently collected by bees. For beginners these drawings will do good service as an introduction to the pollen analysis of honey.
The drawings need no explanation other than a name – the family group, the Latin scientific name and the common English name – thus making the book independent of language barriers. This means it can be appreciated in many countries where the original work was unknown or is now out of reach because of rarity and cost.

The cover is taken from Dorothy Hodges own watercolour painting that she suggested might adorn the dust jacket of the original publication. The artwork was not used and so this booklet allows it to be seen publicly for the first time in almost sixty years.
Finally, for the convenience of the reader, the actual pollen drawings retain the same page numbers as the plates in the original book.

Richard Jones
IBRA

In 2005, beekeepers in the United States began observing a mysterious and disturbing phenomenon: once-healthy colonies of bees were suddenly collapsing, leaving behind empty hives full of honey and pollen. Over the following decade, widespread honeybee deaths -some of which have come to be called Colony Collapse Disorder {CCD) -have continued to bedevil beekeepers and threaten the agricultural industries that rely on bees for pollination. Scientists continue to debate the causes of CCD, yet there is no clear consensus on how to best solve the problem.