Howland Blackiston has been keeping bees for almost 40 years. He has appeared as an expert on CNBC, CNN, NPR, The Discovery Channel, Sirius Satellite Radio, and other broadcast outlets, and has written numerous articles on beekeeping. Howland has been a keynote speaker at conferences in more than 40 countries.

Foreword xvii

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 5

Part 1: Taking Flight with Beekeeping 7

Chapter 1: To Bee, or Not to Bee? 9

Discovering the Benefits of Beekeeping 10

Harvesting liquid gold: Honey 11

Bees as pollinators: Their vital role to our food supply 11

Being part of the bigger picture: Save the bees! 13

Getting an education: And passing it on! 13

Improving your health: Bee therapies and stress relief 15

Determining Your Beekeeping Potential 16

Environmental considerations 16

Zoning and legal restrictions 16

Costs and equipment 17

Time and commitment 18

Beekeeper personality traits 18

Allergies 19

Deciding Which Beekeeping Approach to Follow 19

Medicated beekeeping 20

Natural beekeeping 20

Organic beekeeping 21

Combining approaches 21

Chapter 2: Getting to Know Your Honey Bees 23

Basic Body Parts 24

Skeleton 24

Head 25

Thorax 26

Abdomen 27

The Amazing Language of Bees 27

Pheromones 27

Shall we dance? 28

Getting to Know the Male and the Two Female Castes 29

Her majesty, the queen 29

The industrious little worker bee 32

House bees 33

Field bees 36

The woeful drone 37

The Honey Bee Life Cycle 39

Egg 39

Larva 41

Pupa 42

Other Stinging Insects 43

Bumblebee 44

Carpenter bee 44

Mason bee 45

Wasp 45

Yellow jacket 46

Bald-faced hornet 47

Part 2: Starting Your Adventure 49

Chapter 3: Alleviating Apprehensions and Making Decisions 51

Overcoming Sting Phobia 52

Knowing what to do if you're stung 53

Watching for allergic reactions 54

Building up a tolerance 54

Understanding Local Laws and Ordinances 55

Easing the Minds of Family and Neighbors 55

Location, Location, Location: Where to Keep Your Hives 57

Knowing what makes a perfect bee yard 57

Urban considerations 59

Understanding the correlation between geographical area and honey flavors 64

Knowing When to Start Your Adventure 64

Chapter 4: Selecting a Hive That's Perfect for You 67

The Langstroth Hive 68

The Kenyan Top Bar Hive 70

The Apimaye Insulated Hive 73

The Flow Hive 75

The Warré (People's) Hive 78

The Five-Frame Nuc Hive 81

The Observation Hive 83

Make a Beeline to the Best Beehive 86

Hives for harvesting honey 87

Hives for pollinating your garden 87

A hive for learning and teaching 88

Chapter 5: Basic Equipment for Beekeepers 91

Starting Out with the Langstroth Hive 92

Knowing the Basic Woodenware Parts of the Langstroth Hive 92

Hive stand 93

Bottom board 93

Entrance reducer 95

Deep-hive body 96

Queen excluder 97

Shallow or medium honey super 98

Frames 100

Foundation 103

Inner cover 106

Outer cover 106

Knowing the Basic Parts of a Top Bar Hive 108

The top bar 108

Everything else 109

Ordering Hive Parts 110

Startup hive kits 110

Setting up shop 111

Adding on Feeders 112

Hive-top feeder 112

Entrance feeder 114

Pail feeder 115

Baggie feeder 116

Frame feeder 117

Top Bar hive feeders 118

Fundamental Tools 118

Smoker 119

Hive tool and frame lifter 119

Bee-Proof Clothing 120

Veils 120

Gloves 122

Really Helpful Accessories 123

Elevated hive stand 123

Frame rest 125

Bee brush 125

Slatted rack 126

Screened bottom board 126

Beekeeper's toolbox 128

Chapter 6: Obtaining and Installing Your Bees 131

Determining the Kind of Bee You Want 132

Deciding How to Obtain Your Initial Bee Colony 135

Ordering package bees 135

Buying a "nuc" colony 136

Purchasing an established colony 138

Capturing a wild swarm of bees 138

Picking a Reputable Bee Supplier 139

Deciding When to Place Your Order 141

The Day Your Girls Arrive 142

Bringing home your bees 142

Recipe for sugar syrup 143

Putting Your Bees into the Hive 144

Hiving steps for Langstroth type hives and Steps 1-7 for Top Bar hives 144

Hiving Steps 8-14 for Top Bar hives 150

Watching your bees come and go from their new home 151

Part 3: Time for a Peek 153

Chapter 7: Opening Your Hive 155

Establishing Visiting Hours 156

Setting an Inspection Schedule 156

Preparing to Visit Your Langstroth or Top Bar Hive 157

Making "non-scents" a part of personal hygiene 157

Getting dressed up and ready to go 158

Lighting Your Smoker 159

Opening a Langstroth Hive 161

Removing the hive-top feeder 164

Removing the inner cover 165

Opening a Top Bar Hive 166

The Hive's Open! Now What? 168

Chapter 8: What to Expect When You're Inspecting 169

Keeping a Journal 170

Inspecting a Langstroth Hive 171

Removing the first frame of your Langstroth hive 171

Working your way through the Langstroth hive 173

Holding up frames for inspection 174

Knowing when it's time for more smoke 175

Replacing Langstroth frames 175

Closing the Langstroth hive 176

Inspecting a Top Bar Hive 177

Working your way through the Top Bar hive 177

Top Bar comb management 179

Looking into Top Bar cells 180

Replacing the top bars and closing the hive 181

Understanding What to Always Look For 181

Checking for your queen 181

Storing food; raising brood 182

Inspecting the brood pattern 182

Recognizing foodstuffs 183

Your New Colony's First Eight Weeks 183

Checking in: A week after hiving your bees 183

The second and third weeks 186

Weeks four through eight 188

Chapter 9: Different Seasons, Different Activities 193

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer 194

Your summer to-do list 195

Your summertime commitment 195

Falling Leaves Point to Autumn Chores 196

Your autumn to-do list 196

Your autumn time commitment 200

Clustering in a Winter Wonderland 201

Your winter to-do list 202

Your wintertime commitment 203

Spring is in the Air (Starting Your Second Season) 203

Your spring to-do list 204

Your springtime commitment 205

Administering spring medication 205

Reversing hive bodies 207

Managing Top Bar Hives in the Spring 208

Finding the cluster 208

Preventing the urge to swarm 209

Expanding the brood nest 209

The Beekeeper's Calendar 210

Part 4: Common Problems and Simple Solutions 213

Chapter 10: Anticipating and Preventing Potential Problems 215

Running Away (to Join the Circus?) 216

Swarming 216

Absconding 227

Where Did the Queen Go? 227

Letting nature take its course 228

Ordering a replacement queen 228

Introducing a new queen to the hive 229

Avoiding Chilled Brood 230

Dealing with the Dreaded Robbing Frenzies 231

Knowing the difference between normal and abnormal (robbing) behavior 231

Putting a stop to a robbing attack 232

Preventing robbing in the first place 232

Ridding Your Hive of the Laying Worker Phenomenon 234

How to know if you have laying workers 234

Getting rid of laying workers 235

Preventing Pesticide Poisoning 237

The "Killer Bee" Phenomenon 237

What are "killer bees"? 238

Bee prepared! 239

Chapter 11: Colony Collapse Disorder 241

What is CCD? 242

What to Do If You Suspect CCD 243

Why All the Fuss? 243

What's Causing CCD? 244

The cellphone theory 244

It may be the perfect storm 244

Answers to FAQs 248

What You Can Do to Help 248

Chapter 12: Keeping Your Bees Healthy 251

Understanding the Importance of Good Nutrition 252

What bees eat 252

The need for good gut health 253

Taking steps to ensure good nutrition 253

Medicating or Not? 254

Knowing the Big-Six Bee Diseases 254

American foulbrood (AFB) 255

European foulbrood (EFB) 256

Chalkbrood 257

Sacbrood 258

Stonebrood 258

Nosema 259

A handy chart 260

Chapter 13: Heading Off Honey-Bee Pests 263

Parasitic Problems 263

Varroa mites 264

Tracheal mites 271

Zombie (Phonid) flies 276

Other Unwelcome Pests 276

Wax moths 277

Small hive beetle 278

Ants, ants, and more ants 279

Bear alert! 280

Raccoons and skunks 281

Keeping out Mrs Mouse 282

Some birds have a taste for bees 283

Pest Control at a Glance 283

Chapter 14: Raising Your Own Queens 285

Why Raising Queens is the Bee's Knees 286

Understanding Genetics 287

Dominant and recessive genes 287

Inbreeding versus outcrossing 288

Accentuate the positive 289

What Makes a Queen a Queen 291

Talking about the Birds and Bees for Honey Bees 292

Creating Demand: Making a Queenless Nuc 293

Queen-Rearing Method 1: Go with the Flow 294

If the queen cells are capped 294

If the queen cells are open 294

Mind the timeline 295

Queen-Rearing Method 2: The Miller Method 296

Queen-Rearing Method 3: The...