Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, 2nd Edition

Ross Conrad

Chelsea Green Publishing, Mar 8, 2013 - Technology & Engineering - 304 pages

Whether you are a novice looking to get started with bees, an experienced apiculturist looking for ideas to develop an integrated pest-management approach, or someone who wants to sell honey at a premium price, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.

Now revised and updated with new resources and including full-color photos throughout, Natural Beekeeping offers all the latest information in a book that has already proven invaluable for organic beekeepers. The new edition offers the same holistic, sensible alternative to conventional chemical practices with a program of natural hive management, but offers new sections on a wide range of subjects, including:

• The basics of bee biology and anatomy
• Urban beekeeping
• Identifying and working with queens
• Parasitic mite control
• Hive diseases

Also, a completely new chapter on marketing provides valuable advice for anyone who intends to sell a wide range of hive products.

Other chapters include:

• Hive Management
• Genetics and Breeding
• The Honey Harvest
• The Future of Organic Beekeeping

Ross Conrad brings together the best “do no harm” strategies for keeping honeybees healthy and productive with nontoxic methods of controlling mites; eliminating American foulbrood disease without the use of antibiotics; selective breeding for naturally resistant bees; and many other detailed management techniques, which are covered in a thoughtful, matter-of-fact way.

Contents

• CONteNtS: 157
• Foreword to the First Edition ix CHAPTER: 170
• Preface to the First Edition xi Skunks and Raccoons and Bears Oh My Mice: 180
• CHAPTER: 192
• Some Basics of Bee Biology and Anatomy Suggestions American Foulbrood Chalkbrood Nosema Viruses: 208
• The Honey Harvest: 218
• Hive Management 36 Honey Processing Honey Inventories: 243
• Transitioning to Organic Apiculture The State: 257
• Insect Pests 157 Glossary: 265
• Wax Moths Small Hive Beetles Spiders and Resources: 272

About the author

Ross Conrad learned his craft from the late Charles Mraz, world-renowned beekeeper and founder of Champlain Valley Apiaries in Vermont. Former president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, Conrad is a regular contributor to Bee Culture—The Magazine of American Beekeeping. He has led bee-related presentations and taught organic beekeeping workshops and classes throughout North America for many years. His small beekeeping business, Dancing Bee Gardens, supplies friends, neighbors, and local stores with honey and candles, among other bee related products, and provides bees for Vermont apple-pollination in spring.

Gary Paul Nabhan is an internationally celebrated nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He holds the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, where he works with students, faculty, and non-profits to build a more just, nutritious, sustainable, and climate-resilient foodshed spanning the US/Mexico border. He’s also the author of numerous books, including Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land, Renewing America’s Food Traditions, and Chasing Chiles. He lives in southern Arizona.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, 2nd Edition
• Author: Ross Conrad
• Contributor: Gary Paul Nabhan
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013
• ISBN: 1603583637, 9781603583633
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Gardening / Organic; House & Home / Sustainable Living; Nature / Animals / Butterflies & Moths; Nature / Animals / Insects & Spiders; Self-Help / Green Lifestyle; Technology & Engineering / Agriculture / Animal Husbandry; Technology & Engineering / Agriculture / Beekeeping