The Backyard Beekeeper - Revised and Updated: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

The Backyard Beekeeper - Revised and Updated: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

by Kim Flottum
The Backyard Beekeeper - Revised and Updated: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

The Backyard Beekeeper - Revised and Updated: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

by Kim Flottum

eBook

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Overview

The Backyard Beekeeper, now revised and expanded, makes the time-honored and complex tradition of beekeeping an enjoyable and accessible backyard pastime that will appeal to gardeners, crafters, and cooks everywhere. This expanded edition gives you even more information on "greening" your beekeeping with sustainable practices, pesticide-resistant bees, and urban and suburban beekeeping. More than a guide to beekeeping, it is a handbook for harvesting the products of a beehive and a honey cookbook--all in one lively, beautifully illustrated reference. This complete honey bee resource contains general information on bees; a how-to guide to the art of bee keeping and how to set up, care for, and harvest honey from your own colonies; as well as tons of bee-related facts and projects. You'll learn the best place to locate your new bee colonies for their safety and yours, and you'll study the best organic and nontoxic ways to care for your bees, from providing fresh water and protection from the elements to keeping them healthy, happy, and productive. Recipes of delicious treats, and instructions on how to use honey and beeswax to make candles and beauty treatments are also included.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781616738600
Publisher: Quarry Books
Publication date: 02/01/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 20 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Kim Flottum brings a background of twelve years of plant science, honey bee research,  and basic farming to his thirty years as the editor of Bee Culture magazine where his main occupation is finding the answers to the multitude of questions that beginning, intermediate, and even advanced and experienced beekeepers bring to the table. He teaches beginning and advanced beekeeping courses, travels extensively to educate and lecture, and contributes to a variety of other publications on the basics of honey bees and beekeeping biology, the business of bees and pollination, producing and using varietal honeys, and a host of other subjects. His books, magazine articles, interviews, and blogs are widely read for both their fundamental and advanced contribution to beekeeping knowledge. His magazine platform gives voice to his social commentary on topics ranging from genetically modified foods to pesticide abuse to both good and bad government regulations in the industry. He is beekeeping’s leading advocate for fundamental honey bee safety including insuring excellent honey bee health, providing extraordinary forage, and minimizing the use of agricultural pesticides.

Table of Contents

Preface ....................................................8
Introduction .......................................... 10
In the Beginning ....................................... 11
A New Concept ..........................................14
 
Chapter 1 : Starting Right ...................... 16
First Steps: Where Will You Put Your Hive? ...16
Beeyards Other Than Backyards ................ 20
Extreme Urban Beekeeping ........................21
Equipment: Tools of the Trade ....................27
Frame Assembly ....................................... 34
Box Assembly........................................... 36
Other Boxes
The Bees .................................................. 40
 
Chapter 2 : About Bees .........................50
Overview ................................................. 50
The Queen ................................................51
The Workers .............................................61
Foragers .................................................. 69
Drones .................................................... 76
Seasonal Changes ......................................77
Review and Preparation ............................ 82
 
Chapter 3 : About Beekeeping ...............84
Lighting Your Smoker ............................... 84
Package Management ............................... 86
Honey Flow Time ..................................... 94
Keeping Records ...................................... 96
Opening a Colony ..................................... 97
Honeycomb and Brood Combs .................100
Integrated Pest Management .................... 101
Maladies ................................................102
Comb Honey and Cut-Comb Honey .......... 123
Summertime Chores ............................... 127
Late Summer Harvest ..............................130
Fall and Winter Management .................... 136
Early Spring Inspections .........................140
 
Chapter 4 : About Beeswax .................. 144
Melting Beeswax .....................................146
Waxing Plastic Foundation ....................... 147
Dealing with Cappings Wax ......................149
Making Candles ......................................150
Making Cosmetic Creams......................... 153
Other Beauty Benefits from
Your Hive and Garden ........................... 158
Making Soap ...........................................160
Encaustic Painting...................................168
 
Chapter 5: 25 Rules of Modern Beekeeping
Queen’s Rules
Bee’s Rules
Beekeeping Rules
Varroa Rules
Beekeeper Rules
 
 
 
Conclusion .......................................190
Glossary ........................................... 192
Resources ......................................... 197
Photographer Credits ....................... 206
About the Author ..............................207
Acknowledgments .............................208
Index .............................................. 200
 
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