- Crowder, Les (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 192 Pages – 08/31/2012 (Publication Date) – Chelsea Green Publishing (Publisher)
Title: Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health
Authors: Les Crowder and Heather Harrell
Publication Details: Published by Chelsea Green Publishing on August 31, 2012
Book Overview:
Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health” is a comprehensive guide that encourages beekeepers around the world to adopt natural and organic beekeeping practices. The book is written in English and spans 192 pages.
Content and Purpose:
The book provides a wealth of information on beekeeping basics and hive management, with a particular focus on the use of top-bar hives. The authors address the challenges faced by beekeepers, including pests such as varroa and tracheal mites, and the mysterious but devastating phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
The authors promote the use of top-bar hives, which allow bees to build comb naturally. This is in contrast to the prefabricated foundation frames used in a typical box hive. Top-bar hives are long-lasting and completely biodegradable, resembling a hollow log in their interior shape.
Target Audience:
The book is an invaluable resource for home and hobbyist beekeepers who have the time and interest in keeping bees intensively. It also appeals to home orchardists, gardeners, and permaculture practitioners who look to bees for pollination as well as honey or beeswax.
Physical Details:
The book’s dimensions are 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches. It carries the ISBN-10 number 1603584617 and the ISBN-13 number 978-1603584616. The book is available in a paperback format.
Conclusion:
“Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health” is a must-have guide for anyone interested in natural and organic beekeeping practices. It provides a wealth of practical information and insights, making it an essential addition to any beekeeper’s library.
- Crowder, Les (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 192 Pages – 08/31/2012 (Publication Date) – Chelsea Green Publishing (Publisher)
My Opinion
Top bar beekeeping is known for its vacillating fortunes and popularity in the beekeeping world. Central to this phenomenon is that there is a constant debate between those who champion its organic and nature-mimicking elements and those who lament the lower yields that it produces.
Nevertheless, top bar beekeeping has much to recommend it. Indeed, with the most contentious issues in modern apiculture involving the use of the artificial remedies to disease, pesticides, and artificial feeding, the top bar hive is probably enjoying renewed popularity at the present moment. Top bar beekeeping also benefits from the specter of the colony collapse disorder, as it is seen as a viable means of preventing that catastrophe.
Almost certainly a product of this surge in top bar popularity is this book from apiculture experts Les Crowder and Heather Harrell. The book all but states that “more and more organically minded beekeepers are now using Top Bar hives,” implying that it is riding some kind of wave.
If you are – or would like to be – part of this top bar revolution, then this is a fine book to start with. Functioning as an introduction and a great general guide, it covers many of the top bar specific aspects of beekeeping. This involves topics like the height the hive is placed off the ground, the location of the entrance, how to harvest honey and beeswax, how to build the bars from which the comb hangs, and the ill-advisedness of using a queen excluder in a top bar.
It is important not to misidentify the shortcomings of the top bar hive as any shortcomings of this book. A top bar is a lot of work and does produce less honey. But with the benefits of top bar beekeeping manifold, this book is an ideal introduction.
For more of the best beekeeping books, just click on the link.
Last update on 2023-09-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
