Natural Beekeeping Resources: Books and Magazine

In 2013, I started my research into honey bees with Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees, by Malcolm T Sanford & Richard E. Bonny. Since then, they have updated the book. https://www.storey.com/books/storeys-guide-keeping-honey-bees-2nd-edition/ This was a great introduction to beekeeping! As with most off the shelf beekeeping books, they discuss the Langstroth style hive and conventional beekeeping practices.

The Publishing Group Storey has a large collection of homesteading and agricultural books, which I have resourced most of my life.

One of my favorite beginner Beekeeping books is The Beekeeper’s Handbook, by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile. The print is easy to ready, images are large, easy to see and the book is easy to navigate for references and includes a comprehensive list of citations. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752612/the-beekeepers-handbook/

Once I had land and was ready to start my own apiary, I went to the local beekeeping association, Lawrence/Wayne County Beekeepers Association, beginning beekeepers workshop, in Lawrenceburg, TN. There I was thrilled to be introduced to wonderful people who were as excited about bees as I am. The workshop gave me the confidence to join the bee association and I started going to the monthly meeting. I had planned to wait a year to get my first hive but was granted a beehive through my membership as a new beekeeper. From there I got my first hives. I purchased a second hive and two nucs.

Going to the bee meeting, we were coached month by month on how to care for our bees. Feed the bees, treat the bees, inspect the bees. The schedule can be labor intensive and invasive. Something was not sitting right with me. I don’t feed myself food treated with chemicals and do not feel right feeding my bees “white sugar”. I don’t use chemicals on my farm or in my garden and did not like the idea of treating my bees with chemicals, even naturally-derived chemicals.

Confused, I was too. I had no idea people we regularly treating bees and feeding them sugar. Going back through the books, I must have blocked it out. Long story short, I set out to find another way. I found a gentleman, who I had read about before, Dr Leo. He raised bees without chemicals, allowing the bees to manage their environment naturally, not interfering in the natural co-evolution of insects, pests, viruses, and other diseases. He has facilitated the translation of several books and worked with natural beekeepers around the world to share, tried and true natural beekeeping practices.

Written in 1897, Keeping Bees in Horizontal Hives, A Complete Guide to Apiculture, by Georges de Layens & Gaston Bonnier, translated 2017, by Mark Pettus, PhD, edited by Leo Sharashkin, PhD. This is a lovely comprehensive look at natural beekeeping. https://horizontalhive.com/keeping-bees-with-a-smile/georges-layens-book.shtml

Originally, translated and published in 1978, updated and reprinted in 2013 and again in 2020, Keeping Bees with a smile, Principles and Practices of Natural Beekeeping, by Fedor Lazutin, translated by Mark Pettus, PhD, edited by Leo Sharashkin, PhD, will give you the confidence to keep bees without chemical too! https://horizontalhive.com/keeping-bees-with-a-smile/fedor-lazutin-book.shtml

These are by far the best introduction to beekeeping books I have found.

Understanding the bee. That is what we are all hoping to do. There are no better books to help get up close and personal with bees, and beekeepers around the world than Honey from the Earth and The Beeing, by Eric Tourneret and Sylla De Saint Pierre, both translated by Mark Pettus, PhD, edited by Leo Sharashkin, PhD. https://horizontalhive.com/keeping-bees-with-a-smile/honey-from-the-earth.shtml and https://horizontalhive.com/keeping-bees-with-a-smile/beeing-book.shtml

When Starting out beekeeping, gardening, farming or homesteading I offer this advice. Pick up a Wild Flower ID and a Mushroom ID book for your area. Throughout the year, take pics and or samples of plants and mushrooms, place them in your book and mark the date. My books are bound tightly with rubber bands and I keep a calendar with my books. I now have an ever-growing catalogue of the plants growing naturally in my area.

Why do you ask am I keeping a mushroom ID book for my bees? Well, Paul Stamets has observed bees drinking water, nectar or fluid from mushrooms. https://fungi.com/pages/bees In his observations, he found that those bees may be more resistant to CCD, viruses and diseases. He does not state a clear reason behind this activity or observation as studies are ongoing. It is my belief that the added available mycology contributes to the bee and hive colony biome, in the same way our gut biome is strengthened by diversity. Thus, understanding and observing the mushrooms in our environment may help us to understand the biology of the Bee. Paul is designing a mushroom supplement for bees. However, I am concerned about this practice and the possible implications for bees around the world. Nature is in an ever-changing balance, throughout the seasons and around the world. It may behove us to instead pay attention to what the bees source locally and to promote opportunities for these mushrooms to flourish.

Ready to level up your beekeeping, here are some books to help you on your journey.

Thomas D. Seeley has been studying being since he was a child really. Today he “is the Horace White Professor in Biology in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University” and the author of many papers and books, including these three essential books. Following the Wilds, The Craft and Science of Bee Hunting, Honeybee Democracy, and The Lives of Bees, the Untold Story of the Honey Bees in the Wild. https://press.princeton.edu/our-authors/seeley-thomas-d These books are invaluable when it comes to understanding being in nature and what we can do to mimic their natural environment, habits and behaviors.

In natural beekeeping, our goal is to work with nature to facilitate the healthy development of bee colonies, which will then provide us with high-quality honey.

The first issue of Natural Bee Husbandry was published by the Natural Beekeeping Trust, October 2016 and is published 3 times a year. It can be purchased at https://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/natural-bee-husbandry . This is a great resource for learning about how like-minded natural beekeepers are finding success. The Natural Beekeeping Trust has loads of resources including, tutorials, podcast and projects, such as The Arboreal Apiculture Salon (podcast), Tree Beekeeping (videos and resources) and The Sun Hive - In the Form of the Bee (videos and resources).

I hope you find these resources to be as interesting and helpful as I do!

Happy Beekeeping!