I haven't seen the final copy yet, so I don't know if there were any edits after this was submitted...but here, to give a sense of the book and our approach, is the introduction to "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping."
deknow (who is preempting the inevitable ribbing by claiming the title of "complete idiot")
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(c)Introduction
One can imagine the progression of humans’ relationship with the honeybee. Curiosity led to stinging, which drove us away. More curiosity led to the discovery of honey and, suddenly, the fear of being stung was no longer an effective deterrent. Humanity had never experienced such sweetness before, and the taste of liquid sunlight changed the world. It’s quite literally a version of the oldest story in the book (think: Adam, Eve, and a sweet, forbidden apple).
Honeybees are the most studied creature on the planet, second only to humans. Someone was the first to discover that smoke would drive bees out of their cavity and minimize alarm, what time of year there was likely to be the most honey, and that breathing on bees tends to rile them up. Such knowledge is, of course, the result of observation and study. But the bees don’t make our research easy.
Gregor Mendel, whose discoveries described the genetic crossings of virtually every life form on the planet, was baffled by the honeybee. Even today, we are just beginning to understand certain aspects of the hive, such as the importance of the microbial components.
No matter the accumulated knowledge, no matter the sophistication of the tools, every answer we get yields countless questions. The closer we look, the deeper we go, and it never seems to end. This is the nature of the honeybee.
Working with them, studying them, trying to unlock their secrets, is both satisfying and engaging. This is the big secret: bees are more interesting than honey.
“The bee’s life is like a magic well: the more you draw from it, the more it fills with water” –Karl Von Frisch
Don’t get us wrong, honey is great stuff, and there is nothing like sticking your finger into warm honeycomb and having a taste while bees fly around you. Not even a cherry tomato warmed by the sun and right off the vine compares. However, we love the bees most of all, and “bee fever” is a constantly recurring theme in the history of humankind. We know we are not alone. Welcome.
Unfortunately, beekeeping has suffered along with all of agriculture with the introduction of modern high-yield techniques and industrial-scale approaches. Think about monocrop farming, feedlot cattle, chickens with their beaks removed, and excessive and improper application of pesticides. Similarly, many of our attempts to manipulate the natural processes of the bees have been careless and misguided and we have treated Mother Nature’s generosity with greed. We should know better.
Modern beekeeping practices have delivered significant challenges and this book attempts to address them. Beekeeping by recipe doesn’t really work unless you employ artificial controls such as frequent feeding, chemical applications, and constant re-queening. Even with these interventions, it’s not unheard of for 90 percent of a beekeeper’s hives to die over the winter. Such solutions do not solve anything.
This is likely the first time you’ve ever heard that most beekeepers actually put chemicals in their beehives, or that beekeepers (yes, even the sweet old man at the end of the dirt road who sells honey out of his garage) feed their bees sugar or high fructose corn syrup. It’s shocking that beekeepers don’t question these practices, and that some treatments are so common that beekeepers don’t even consider them treatments anymore[md] they’ve become baseline beekeeping.
In addition to serving as an introduction to beekeeping, this book is intended for beekeepers of all levels of experience who want to keep bees on a system that is different than how most people are taught today. What we offer here is a treatment free approach. We say “treatment free” because even “organic” and “natural” beekeeping (as they have come to be defined) allow for chemical treatments and management practices that are detrimental to the long term health and vitality of the honeybee.
We don’t pretend to present a recipe. What we hope to convey is an understanding of how bees live, some overall management techniques and goals, and an overview of how bees function in the natural world so you can develop a mutually beneficial relationship with them.
A beekeeping recipe is the fish that one gives a man instead of teaching him to catch his own. We endeavor to impart to you the knowledge you need to create your own management approaches based on what the bees need at any given time. We encourage you to draw on the resources we point to in the appendixes, as other perspectives, other ideas, and other goals can do nothing but allow you to yield a greater understanding of the whole.
To help you assimilate such a complex assembly of information, ideas and practices, this book is divided into four parts.
Part One will introduce you to the bees, their fascinating lives, both as individuals and members of the dynamic colony, and the microbes they can’t live without. You’ll learn a lot of new words, some bee biology, tour a hive and figure out what equipment and supplies you’ll need to get started with your own bees.
In Part Two, you’ll find out where to find bees, how to get them and what to do with them when they arrive. You’ll learn how to select locations, make sure the bees get the food they need and what to do as the colony begins to expand.
Part Three explores a treatment free management approach. We’ll look at the importance of cell size and unlimited broodnest and how microbes impact the hive in both sickness and in health. You’ll get a crash course in honeybee sex, understand how breeding can make or break honeybee populations and learn how to replace a queen when circumstance demands it.
In Part Four you’ll learn when and how to harvest honey, get some ideas for satisfying your bee cravings during the off-season and start to make plans for growing your beekeeping operation. Opportunities for expanding your bee knowledge abound and before you know it, it will be spring again[md]time for you to share what you’ve learned, and your bees, with others.
Last but not least, we have created a website to support our readers.
http://www.TheCompleteIdiotsGuideToBeekeeping.com contains additional information, updates, clarifications, educational videos, commentary from other beekeepers and an interactive forum so that readers can communicate with one another[md]and with us. We hope to see you there!
