Keep your own bees and enjoy delicious golden honey from your own backyard. With his respect and admiration for bees evident on every page, Richard E. Bonney describes how to acquire bees, manage a hive, prevent and treat diseases, and extract a crop of honey. Enthusiastic beekeepers of every stripe and experience level will benefit from Bonney's astonishing knowledge of the craft – from beekeeping history and honeybee biology to the complex social structure of the hive.
INTRODUCTION
1. BEFORE WE START
The Beekeeper's Commitment
Dimensions of Beekeeping
Stings
Legal Considerations
History of Beekeeping
How to Get Started
2. THE BEES
What Is a Honey Bee?
Occupants of the Hive
Development
Activities and Behavior
Life of a Worker Bee
Cycle of the Year
Colony Reproduction: Swarming
Nutrition and Feeding
Communications
3. GETTING STARTED
Hive Location
Equipment and Supplies
Acquiring Bees
Working with Bees
Installing Bees
Initial Management
4. ONGOING MANAGEMENT
The First Summer
Fall Management
The Coming Year
5. REMOVING THE CROP
Methods for Clearing Bees and Removing Supers
Extracting and Handling Honey
Comb Honey
Other Hive Products
6. DISEASES, PESTS, AND PREDATORS
Diseases of Honey Bees
Parasitic Mites
Nonproblem Creatures for Honey Bees
Problem Creatures for Honey Bees
The Africanized Bee
Pesticides
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Publications about Beekeeping
Appendix B: Sources
Appendix C: Glossary
Veteran beekeeper Richard E. Bonney, author of Hive Management, Beekeeping, and co-author of Storey's Guide to Keeping Honey Bees, was the longtime owner of Charlemont Apiaries in Charlemont, Massachusetts.