Highways and Byways of Beekeeping

About this book

Alan Wade is a research scientist and has kept bees for well over forty years. In Highways and Byways of Beekeeping he ventures down some of the many back roads beekeepers have taken. He explores the limits of our knowledge and understanding of honey bees while introducing us to some of the lost arts of beekeeping practice. He also explores the world of bees not amenable to being kept in hives.

Highways focuses on the overarching life cycle of bees: the queen in the hive and the colony's mission to reproductively swarm, elements of bee proclivity that the beekeeper needs to master. It then segues to hive management and hive construction practices that have enhanced their keep. Byways courses a broader view of what we know about the twelve or so species of honey bee and their many opportunistic foes. It also sketches the contributions of lesser-known but exemplary beekeepers who have so fundamentally influenced the way Alan keeps bees.

Highways and Byways of Beekeeping is a discursive take on the social life of bees and the way we interact with them. It calls for progressive beekeeping practice while avoiding a prescriptive approach to setting up and operating bee hives. This book scopes the biology of honey bees and the very remarkable ways that beekeepers have kept them.

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