NORTHERN BEE BOOKS

Create Natural beeswax products – candles, soap, balms, salves and home decor for health and home.

‘THIS IS THE BOOK I’ve been waiting thirty years for. Excellent instructions. Bountiful information. Beautifully done’. – Kim Flotsam, Editor Bee Culture Magazine.

The three generations of the Jefferson family, widely known for their famous production of Heather Honey, base their beekeeping on an annual cycle of activities leading up to the anticipation of two weeks decent August weather. Tony fully describes their methods and this small volume is an investment for those who wish to produce this premium quality honey.

This volume is a guide for new beekeepers and for all beekeepers who have acquired the increasingly popular Warré and Top Bar Hives and anyone who wishes to stop the use of chemicals in their beekeeping. It gives practical guidance, with clear instructions, line drawings, and photographs.

Joe is a retired  systems engineer and has kept bees for over 30 years in the counties of Hampshire and Somerset. In retirement he has acted as a volunteer gardener for the National Trust at Stourhead but now spends his time propagating a strain of varroa-tolerant hygienic bees with fellow members of the Somerset Beekeeping Association.

This handbook is helpful for those taking the Practical Examination of the BBKA. It includes introductory advice on the setting and procedure of the Examination and deals with both the practical and oral requirements of the syllabus.

This is the only single volume that covers all aspects of the syllabus for this examination. This Third Edition published in 2014 has a contents list which is based upon the existing syllabus. As such it is a very necessary text for all those interested in sitting the examination and will also prove helpful for all  interested in microscopy.

As a simple birdwatcher I have always been a bit scared by the bewildering world of insects. Bumblebees provide an inviting introduction to this world, and this book is an excellent gateway into the fascinating life of bumblebees.

Found right across the Uk, including in my back garden, bumblebees are familiar as a group, but this book provides the means to identify those species and to understand much more about their variety of behaviour, ecology and lifestyles.

The threats to bumblebees are very similar to those to birds – changes in agricultural practice are of great importance. Recognition of this provides opportunities for the promotion of practices that should benefit the survival of healthy populations of both groups.

I’m delighted that this excellent book has been revised, enlarged, updated and republished. So delighted that, as I write these few words with snow on the ground outside my home, I am waiting with some impatience for the first sunny days of spring when I resolve to banish my fears and start getting to grips with these wonderful little beasts. Why don’t you too?

Dr Mark A very

Conservation Director, RSPB

January 2011

Using his extensive portfolio of beautiful photographs, Lindtner tells the story of the important relationship between pollinators and plants. Lindtner’s life work is the cataloging of plants that serve as important resources to honey bees, arguably our most important pollinator in the agricultural arena. He couples his photographs with ecological and taxonomic information about each plant, and provides a rating system that reflects the importance of each plant to honey bee nutrition. Pictures of pollen and descriptions of the morphology of the pollen grains set this work apart from other guides to pollen plants.

This book, which could be considered a “coffee table” book due to the beautiful images throughout, will become a beekeepers and gardeners handbook. The search for planting options for honey bees and other pollinators is arguably one of the most understudied and anecdotal pursuits in the art and science of beekeeping. The valuable information provided in this book allows us to see the plant’s value from the honey bee’s perspective.

This is a reprint by Northern Bee Books of the manual originally published by P. W. Stanley, F.R.E.S. of Badgerdell Apiaries UK by courtesy of the Division of Bee Culture, United States Department of Agriculture.

In 1895 there was, in the American Bee Journal, a department of “Questions and Answers,” with Doctor C. C. Miller in charge, the object being to give information to readers on special subjects, perplexing to the beekeeper, and not specifically covered by the different bee literature. In the twenty-two years that Doctor Miller has answered these queries of subscribers … almost every subject in beekeeping has been touched. His wide experience, his inimitable style, and the clearness with which he writes have made these answers invaluable. The present volume is a compilation of a thousand questions, culled out of many thousands and arranged in alphabetical order for convenience. Its object is not to supplant existing text-books on beekeeping, but rather to supplement them.

These notes cover Modules 5 – 8 of the BBKA Examinations. John & Dawn Yates  have provided within one cover, all the details required in the syllabus of each module for examination purposes, in order to minimise the cost of purchasing the many books required to seek out the necessary information. Hopefully everything that is likely to appear in an examination has been covered, thereby preventing any surprises to the candidate on examination day.