The Illustrated Australasian Bee Manual And Complete Guide to Modern Bee Culture in the Southern Hemisphere

by Isaac Hopkins, Michael Bush (Compiled by)

Overview

I chose to reprint this book because it is one of the most practical beekeeping books I know of. Isaac Hopkins obviously had a lot of real life experience and not just a lot of book knowledge. This book was probably the most influential book on beekeeping in Australia and New Zealand. I also chose this because Hopkins presents in this version of the book one of the simplest ways of getting a lot of queens that also does not require a lot of special equipment known as "the Hopkins method of queen rearing". This is a great book on beekeeping in any location in any age. Also includes Hopkin's "Forty-two years of bee-keeping in New Zealand" as an appendix as well as Pellet's version of the Hopkins method and, since it was quite different and quite useful, the 1886 Australasian Bee Manual's chapter on queen rearing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614760580
Publisher:	X-STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY
Publication date:	09/12/2011
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Isaac Hopkins's writing is eminently practical. Hopkins obviously had a lot of actual commercial scale experience and not just a lot of book knowledge.
Hopkins was first of all a beekeeper. In 1877 he was a big promoter of the use of the Langstroth hive in New Zealand. He was the Chief Apiarist to the New Zealand Government from 1905 until 1909 however he stayed working for the New Zealand government until 1913.
Through his position and especially through this book, he was instrumental in shaping apiculture in New Zealand and Australia; as a promoter of the use of the Langstroth hive, long before becoming Chief Apiarist and pushing for bee associations and laws to update beekeeping and control AFB. He remained active in the associations and the politics of beekeeping until his death in 1925.

Table of Contents

XII. Queen Rearing 1911 Version 1
IMPORTANCE OF REARING QUEENS. 1
DEVELOPMENT OF QUEENS 1
CHOICE OF BREEDING QUEENS. 2
RAISING QUEEN CELLS. 3
THE DOOLITTLE PLAN. 4
THE ALLEY PLAN. 5
SEASON FOR QUEEN RAISING. 5
SECURING DRONE-COMB. 6
SECURING SELECTED EGGS. 6
CUTTING THE COMB. 7
PREPARING A COLONY FOR QUEEN CELL BUILDING. 7
RETURNING THE QUEEN AND BROOD. 8
NUCLEUS HIVES. 8
FORMING NUCLEI. 9
THE EMERGING AND MATING OF YOUNG QUEENS. 10
QUEEN NURSERIES. 11
INTRODUCING QUEENS. 11
INTRODUCING CAGES. 13
CANDY. 14
DRONE TRAPS. 14
ITALIANISING AN APIARY. 15
CLIPPING QUEEN'S WINGS. 15
HOW TO CLIP. 16
SUPERSEDING QUEENS. 17
SWARMING CELLS. 17
WOOD BASES FOR QUEEN CELLS. 17
FEEDING IN QUEEN REARING. 18
ANOTHER METHOD OF RAISING CELLS. 1
CAUTION. 1
Frank Pellets presentation of the Hopkins Method 3
Big Batches of Natural Cells by the Hopkins or Case Method. 3
Chapter XII. Queen Rearing 1886 Version 7
NECESSITY OF THE PRACTICE. 7
A WORD CONCERNING DRONES. 8
ENTRANCE GUARDS. 8
HOW TO SECURE CHOICE QUEEN CELLS. 9
FORMING NUCLEI. 14
HOW TO INSERT QUEEN CELLS. 15
MY METHOD OF FORMING NUCLEI AND INSERTING QUEEN CELLS. 16
MATING YOUNG QUEENS. 17
NECESSARY DISTANCE APART OF DIFFERENT RACES TO ENSURE PURE MATING. 18
About the Author 19