Table of Contents
Volume I Beginning........................................... 1
BLUF.................................................................. 3
Learn from the bees....................................................... 3
Trust the Bees............................................................... 3
Resources...................................................................... 3
Panacea......................................................................... 4
Why this book?.................................................. 6
Unsustainable beekeeping system.................................. 6
Beekeeping Pests........................................................... 6
Shallow Gene Pool.......................................................... 7
Contamination................................................................ 7
Wrong Gene Pool............................................................ 7
Upset Ecology of the Bee Colony....................................... 8
Beekeeping House of Cards.............................................. 8
How do we get a sustainable beekeeping system?.......... 8
Stop Treating................................................................. 8
Clean Wax.................................................................... 9
Natural Cell Size............................................................. 9
Natural Food................................................................ 10
Learning.......................................................... 11
Bee Basics....................................................... 14
Life cycle of a bee........................................................ 14
Queen........................................................................ 14
Queenlessness............................................................. 15
Supersedure................................................................ 16
Swarming.................................................................... 16
Worker....................................................................... 17
Drone......................................................................... 18
Yearly cycle of the colony............................................. 19
Winter........................................................................ 19
Spring........................................................................ 20
Summer..................................................................... 20
Fall............................................................................ 21
Products of the hive..................................................... 21
Bees.......................................................................... 21
Larvae........................................................................ 21
Propolis....................................................................... 21
Wax........................................................................... 22
Pollen......................................................................... 22
Pollination.................................................................... 23
Honey......................................................................... 24
Royal Jelly................................................................... 25
Four Simple Steps to Healthy Bees................... 26
Comb........................................................................... 26
Choices....................................................................... 27
Natural Cell Size........................................................... 27
Why not let them build what they want?............................ 27
Combs in frames?......................................................... 28
Draw comb without foundation?....................................... 28
Wire?......................................................................... 28
How do you do foundationless?........................................ 29
Less work................................................................... 29
Downside?................................................................... 30
Timeline...................................................................... 30
Worst case scenario...................................................... 30
Best case scenario........................................................ 31
No Treatments............................................................. 31
Ecology of the hive....................................................... 31
Downside of not treating................................................ 32
Upside of not treating.................................................... 33
Breeding locally adapted queens.................................. 33
What about AHB?.......................................................... 35
Natural Food................................................................ 36
Looking more into pH..................................................... 37
Chalkbrood as example.................................................. 37
Pollen......................................................................... 37
Pollen trapping............................................................. 38
Different Profit Formula................................................. 38
Choices............................................................ 39
Too Many Choices?...................................................... 39
Beekeeping Philosophy................................................ 39
Time and Energy......................................................... 39
Feeding Bees............................................................... 40
Take your time............................................................. 40
Important Decisions..................................................... 40
Easy Things to Change in Beekeeping:.............................. 41
Difficult Things to Change in Beekeeping:.......................... 41
Choices I recommend.................................................. 42
Frame depth................................................................ 42
Number of Frames....................................................... 44
Style of Frames and Cell Size of Foundation...................... 44
Eight Frame Mediums.................................................... 45
Plastic Small Cell Frames................................................ 45
If you don't like the idea of plastic................................... 46
Bottom Board Feeders................................................... 46
Essential Equipment.................................................... 47
Here are some essentials for the beekeeper:..................... 47
Nice to Have Beekeeping Equipment:................................ 48
Avoid Gadgets.............................................................. 50
Useful Gadgets............................................................. 50
Getting Started................................................ 51
Recommended Beginning Beekeeping Sequence.................. 51
How Many Hives?.......................................................... 51
Package or Nuc?........................................................... 52
Race of Bees............................................................... 52
More Sequence............................................................ 53
Observation Hive.......................................................... 54
Nucleus Hive................................................................ 54
Putting Bees in the Observation Hive................................. 55
Making a Split into the Nucleus Box.................................. 56
Managing Growth.......................................................... 57
Starting With More Hives................................................ 57
Foundation and Frames.................................... 58
Brood foundation......................................................... 58
Foundation for supers.................................................. 59
Kinds of frames........................................................... 59
Locating hives?................................................ 61
Safety......................................................................... 61
Convenient access....................................................... 61
Good forage................................................................ 61
Not in your way........................................................... 62
Full sun....................................................................... 62
Not in a low-lying area................................................. 62
Out of the wind........................................................... 62
Water.......................................................................... 63
Conclusion................................................................... 63
Installing Packages......................................... 64
Not to do:.................................................................... 64
Don't spray them with syrup........................................... 64
Don't leave them in the shipping box................................ 65
Don't hang the queen between the frames........................ 65
Don't use an excluder as an includer too long..................... 66
Don't spray the queen with syrup.................................... 66
Don't install bees without protective equipment................... 66
Don't smoke a package................................................. 66
Don't postpone............................................................. 67
Don't feed in a way that makes excessive space................ 67
Don't leave frames out.................................................. 67
Don't dump bees on top of a baggie feeder....................... 68
Don't close up a newly hived package............................... 68
Don't leave empty queen cages around............................. 68
Don't let messed up comb lead to more messed up comb.... 68
Don't destroy supersedure cells....................................... 69
Don't panic if the queen in the cage is dead....................... 69
Don't freak out if the queen doesn't lay right away............. 69
Don't freak out if one hive is doing better than the other..... 70
Don't get just one hive.................................................. 70
Don't feed constantly.................................................... 70
Don't mess with them everyday...................................... 70
Don't leave them on their own for too long........................ 70
Don't smoke them too much........................................... 70
Things to do:............................................................... 71
Always install them in the minimum amount of space.......... 71
Have your equipment ready............................................ 71
Wear your protective equipment...................................... 72
How to install:............................................................. 72
Frames tightly together.................................................. 72
Do feed them.............................................................. 73
Enemies of the Bees........................................ 74
Traditional Enemies of Bees......................................... 74
Bears......................................................................... 74
Bees Robbing............................................................... 74
Skunks....................................................................... 77
Opossums................................................................... 78
Mice........................................................................... 78
Wax moths.................................................................. 79
Nosema...................................................................... 83
Stonebrood.................................................................. 87
Chalkbrood.................................................................. 87
European Foulbrood (EFB).............................................. 88
American Foulbrood (AFB).............................................. 89
Parafoulbrood.............................................................. 91
Sacbrood.................................................................... 91
Neighbors.................................................................... 92
Recent enemies........................................................... 92
Varroa Mites................................................................ 92
Physical methods.......................................................... 96
Tracheal Mites.............................................................. 98
Small Hive Beetles....................................................... 100
Are treatments necessary?........................................... 101
Queen Spotting.............................................. 103
Do You Really Need to Find Her?................................ 103
Use Minimal Smoke.................................................... 103
Look for the Most Bees............................................... 103
Calm Bees................................................................. 103
Larger and Longer..................................................... 103
Don't count on her being marked............................... 103
Bees around the queen act differently....................... 104
The Queen Moves Differently..................................... 104
Different Coloring...................................................... 104
Believe there is a Queen............................................ 104
Practice..................................................................... 105
Fallacies........................................................ 110
Myth: Drones are bad............................................... 110
Myth: Drone comb is bad.......................................... 110
Myth: Queen Cells are bad........................................ 110
Myth: Home grown queens are bad........................... 111
Myth: Feral bees are bad.......................................... 112
Myth: Feral swarms are disease ridden..................... 112
Myth: Feeding can't hurt anything............................ 112
Myth: Adding supers will prevent swarming.............. 113
Myth: Destroying queen cells will prevent swarming. 113
Myth: Swarm cells are always on the bottom............. 113
Myth: Clipping the queen will prevent swarming....... 114
Myth: 2 Feet or 2 miles............................................. 114
Myth: You have to extract......................................... 114
Myth: 16 pounds of honey = 1 pound of wax............ 114
Myth: You can't raise honey and bees....................... 115
Myth: Two queens can't coexist in the same hive...... 115
Myth: Queens will never lay double eggs.................. 115
Myth: If there is no brood there is no queen............. 115
Myth: Bees only like to work up................................ 116
Myth: A laying worker hive has one pseudo queen.... 117
Myth: Shaking out a laying worker hive works.......... 117
Myth: Bees need a landing board.............................. 117
Myth: Bees need a lot of ventilation.......................... 117
Myth: Bees need beekeepers.................................... 118
Myth: You have to requeen yearly............................ 118
Myth: A marginal colony should always be requeened. 118
Myth: You need to feed pollen substitute.................. 119
Myth: You should feed syrup in the winter................ 119
Myth: You can’t mix plastic and wax......................... 119
Myth: Dead bees headfirst in cells have starved....... 120
Realistic Expectations.................................... 121
Honey Crop................................................................ 121
Plastic Foundation..................................................... 121
Wax Foundation........................................................ 122
Foundationless.......................................................... 122
Losses....................................................................... 123
Splits......................................................................... 124
Harvest.......................................................... 125
Comb Honey.............................................................. 125
Expense of making wax............................................. 125
Crush and Strain....................................................... 127
Extracting.................................................................. 129
Abandonment............................................................. 133
Brushing and/or shaking............................................... 133
Bee Escapes............................................................... 133
Blowing..................................................................... 134
Butyric...................................................................... 134
Fischer Bee Quick........................................................ 134
Frequently Asked Questions........................... 135
Can queens sting?..................................................... 135
What if my queen flies off?........................................ 135
Dead bees in front of the hive?.................................. 136
Frame spacing in supers and brood nests?................. 136
Why do the bees mess up the combs?........................ 137
How do I clean up used equipment?........................... 138
How do I prepare the hive for winter?......................... 139
How far do foragers fly?............................................. 140
How far do drones fly to mate?.................................. 141
How far do queens fly to mate?.................................. 141
How many hives can I have on one acre?................... 141
How many hives can I have in one place?................... 141
How many hives to start with?................................... 142
Planting for bees........................................................ 142
Queen excluders?...................................................... 143
The reasoning for using them:....................................... 143
If you want to use them............................................... 144
Queenless bees?........................................................ 144
Requeening............................................................... 146
Push In Cage............................................................. 147
Making a Push-In-Cage................................................. 147
Using a Push-in-Cage................................................... 149
How do I keep queens for a few days?....................... 150
What's an inner cover for?......................................... 150
Can I not use an inner cover?........................................ 151
What's that smell?..................................................... 151
What's the best beekeeping book?............................. 152
What's the best breed of bees?.................................. 152
Why are there all these bees in the air?...................... 152
Why are there bees on the outside of my hive?.......... 153
Why are they dancing at the entrance in unison?....... 153
Why not use an electric fan for ventilation?................ 154
Why did my bees die?................................................ 154
Why do bees make different colors of wax?................ 155
How often should I inspect?....................................... 155
Should I drill a hole?.................................................. 155
How do you brush bees?............................................ 156
How many cells on a frame?....................................... 157
Burr comb?................................................................ 157
Appendix to Volume I: Glossary...................... 159
Appendix to Volume I: Acronyms.................... 228
Volume II Intermediate................................. 259
A System of Beekeeping................................. 261
Context..................................................................... 261
Examples................................................................... 261
Locale....................................................................... 262
Why a system?........................................................... 262
Integration and related issues........................................ 263
Why this system?........................................................ 263
Sustainable................................................................ 263
Workable................................................................... 263
Efficient.................................................................... 263
Decisions, Decisions….................................... 264
Kinds of beekeeping.................................................. 264
Commercial................................................................ 264
Migratory................................................................... 264
Fixed........................................................................ 264
Sideliner.................................................................... 264
Hobbyist.................................................................... 265
Personal Beekeeping Philosophy................................. 265
Organic..................................................................... 265
Chemical................................................................... 265
Science vs. Art........................................................... 266
Scale........................................................................ 266
Reasons for beekeeping............................................... 266
Locality.......................................................... 267
All Beekeeping is Local............................................... 267
Lazy Beekeeping............................................ 269
Top Entrances............................................................ 269
Uniform frame size..................................................... 271
Lighter boxes............................................................. 274
Horizontal hives......................................................... 278
Top Bar Hive.............................................................. 279
Foundationless frames............................................... 280
Making foundationless frames....................................... 280
No chemicals/no artificial feed................................... 282
Leave honey for winter food....................................... 283
Natural cell size......................................................... 284
Carts......................................................................... 285
Leave the burr comb between boxes........................... 285
Stop cutting out swarm cells...................................... 287
Stop fighting your bees.............................................. 288
Stop wrapping your hive............................................ 288
Stop scraping all the propolis off of everything........... 289
Stop painting your equipment.................................... 290
Stop switching hive bodies......................................... 291
Don't look for the queen............................................ 291
Don't wait.................................................................. 292
Feed dry sugar.......................................................... 293
Split by the box.......................................................... 293
Stop Requeening....................................................... 294
Feeding Bees................................................. 295
First, when do you feed?............................................ 295
Stimulative feeding.................................................... 296
My experiences with stimulative feeding.................... 298
Down sides to success:................................................ 299
Variable outcomes:...................................................... 299
Dry Sugar:................................................................ 300
Type of feeder:.......................................................... 300
Second, what do you feed?........................................ 301
Pollen........................................................................ 301
Third, how much do you feed?................................... 301
Fourth, how do you feed?.......................................... 301
Issues when considering the type of feeder:.............. 302
Basic types of feeders................................................ 303
Frame feeders........................................................... 303
Boardman feeder........................................................ 304
Jar feeder................................................................. 304
Miller feeder............................................................... 306
Bottom board feeder................................................... 308
Jay Smith Bottom Board Feeder..................................... 308
My version................................................................. 310
Baggie feeder............................................................. 315
Open feeder............................................................... 315
Candy board.............................................................. 316
Fondant..................................................................... 316
Dry Sugar.................................................................. 316
What kind of sugar?.................................................... 320
Pollen........................................................................ 321
Measuring ratios for syrup............................................ 321
Weight or Volume?...................................................... 321
How to measure......................................................... 322
How to make syrup..................................................... 322
Moldy syrup............................................................... 322
Top Entrances................................................ 323
Reasons for top entrances.......................................... 323
How to make top entrances........................................ 325
Top Entrance Frequently Asked Questions:................ 328
Carts.............................................................. 331
Swarm Control............................................... 335
Causes of swarming.................................................... 337
Overcrowding swarm................................................... 337
Reproductive swarm.................................................... 338
Preventing swarming................................................. 339
Opening the broodnest................................................. 339
Checkerboarding aka Nectar Management....................... 340
Splits............................................................. 341
What is the desired outcome?.................................... 341
Timing for doing a split:............................................. 341
The concepts of splits are:......................................... 342
Kinds of splits............................................................ 343
An even split.............................................................. 343
A walk away split........................................................ 343
Swarm control split...................................................... 343
A cut down split......................................................... 343
Concepts of a cut down:............................................... 343
Confining the queen..................................................... 344
Cut down Split/Combine................................................ 344
Frequently Asked Questions about splits.................... 345
How early can I do a split?............................................ 345
How many times can I split?.......................................... 345
How late can I do a split?.............................................. 346
How far?................................................................... 347
Natural Cell Size............................................ 348
And its implications to beekeeping and Varroa mites... 348
Does Small Cell = Natural Cell?.................................. 348
Baudoux 1893............................................................ 348
Sevareid's Law........................................................... 348
Foundation Today........................................................ 349
Chart of Cell Sizes..................................................... 355
Volume of cells.......................................................... 356
Things that affect cell size......................................... 356
What is Regression?................................................... 357
How do I regress them?............................................. 357
Observations on Natural Cell Size............................... 358
Observations on Natural Frame Spacing..................... 359
11/4” spacing agrees with Huber's observations.................. 359
Comb Width (thickness) by Cell Size............................... 359
Pre and Post Capping Times and Varroa..................... 362
Huber’s Observations................................................. 362
My Observations........................................................ 363
Why would I want natural sized cells?........................ 363
How to get natural sized cells..................................... 363
How to get small cells................................................ 364
So what Are natural sized cells?................................. 364
Conclusions:.............................................................. 364
Frequently asked questions:...................................... 364
So let's do the math:................................................. 368
Rationalizations on Small Cell Success........... 371
AHB........................................................................... 371
Survivor stock............................................................ 372
Blind faith.................................................................. 372
Resistance................................................................. 373
Small Cell Studies...................................................... 374
Foundationless............................................... 376
Why would one want to go foundationless?................ 376
How do you go foundationless?.................................. 377
Foundationless frames............................................... 381
Historic References.................................................... 381
FAQs......................................................................... 383
Box of empty frames?................................................. 383
What is a guide?......................................................... 383
Best guide?................................................................ 384
Extract?.................................................................... 384
Wire?........................................................................ 385
Wax them?................................................................ 385
Whole box?................................................................ 385
Will they mess up?...................................................... 386
Slower?..................................................................... 387
Beginners.................................................................. 387
If they mess up?......................................................... 387
Dimensions................................................................ 388
Narrow Frames.............................................. 389
Observations on Natural Frame Spacing..................... 389
1 1/4” spacing agrees with Huber's observations................ 389
Comb Width by Cell Size............................................... 390
Historic references to narrower frame spacing............ 390
Spacing frames 11/4” has advantages......................... 394
Frequent misconceptions:.......................................... 394
Ways to get narrow frames........................................ 394
FAQs......................................................................... 395
Yearly Cycles................................................. 397
Winter....................................................................... 397
Bees......................................................................... 397
Stores....................................................................... 397
Setup for winter......................................................... 398
Spring....................................................................... 398
Summer..................................................................... 398
Fall............................................................................ 399
Wintering Bees.............................................. 400
Mouse Guards........................................................... 400
Queen Excluders....................................................... 401
Screened bottom boards (SBB).................................. 401
Wrapping................................................................... 401
Clustering hives together........................................... 401
Feeding Bees............................................................. 402
Insulation.................................................................. 403
Top Entrances............................................................ 404
Where the cluster is................................................... 404
How strong?.............................................................. 404
Entrance reducers..................................................... 405
Pollen........................................................................ 405
Windbreak................................................................. 405
Eight frame boxes...................................................... 406
Medium boxes........................................................... 406
Narrow frames........................................................... 406
Wintering Nucs.......................................................... 406
Banking queens......................................................... 407
Indoor wintering........................................................ 408
Wintering observation hives....................................... 408
Spring Management........................................ 409
Tied to climate........................................................... 409
Feeding Bees............................................................. 409
Swarm Control........................................................... 410
Splits......................................................................... 411
Supering.................................................................... 411
Laying Workers.............................................. 412
Cause........................................................................ 412
Symptoms................................................................. 412
Solutions................................................................... 412
Simplest, least trips to the beeyard................................ 412
Shakeout and forget.................................................... 412
Most successful but more trips to the beeyard.................. 413
Give them open brood.................................................. 413
Other less successful or more tedious methods................. 413
More info on laying workers....................................... 414
Brood pheromones...................................................... 414
More than Bees.............................................. 416
Macro and Microfauna................................................ 416
Microflora.................................................................. 416
Pathogens?................................................................ 416
Upsetting the Balance................................................ 417
For More Reading........................................................ 417
Beekeeping Math............................................ 418
Races of Bees................................................ 420
Italian........................................................................ 420
Starline...................................................................... 420
Cordovan................................................................... 420
Caucasian.................................................................. 420
Carniolan................................................................... 421
Midnite...................................................................... 421
Russian..................................................................... 421
Buckfast.................................................................... 422
German or English native bees................................... 422
LUS........................................................................... 422
Africanized Honey Bees (AHB).................................... 422
Moving Bees................................................... 424
Moving hives two feet................................................ 424
Moving hives two miles.............................................. 424
More than 2 feet and less than 2 miles...................... 425
Moving hives 100 yards or less by yourself................ 426
Concepts................................................................... 426
Materials:.................................................................. 428
Method...................................................................... 428
Treatments for Varroa not working................. 431
A Few Good Queens....................................... 433
Simple Queen Rearing for a Hobbyist.......................... 433
Labor and Resources.................................................. 433
Quality of Emergency Queens.................................... 433
The experts on emergency queens:........................... 434
Jay Smith:................................................................. 434
C.C. Miller:................................................................. 434
Equipment................................................................. 435
Method:.................................................................... 435
Make sure they are well fed.......................................... 435
Make them Queenless.................................................. 435
Make up Mating Nucs................................................... 435
Transfer Queen Cells................................................... 436
Check for Eggs........................................................... 436
Volume III Advanced..................................... 459
Genetics......................................................... 461
The Need for Genetic Diversity................................... 461
Feral Bees Have Maintained This.................................... 462
What can we do?........................................................ 462
Feral Bees...................................................... 463
Swarms..................................................................... 466
Capturing a swarm..................................................... 467
Removal.................................................................... 468
Cone Method............................................................. 469
Bee Vacuum.............................................................. 471
Transplanting Bees.................................................... 472
Bait hives.................................................................. 473
Queen Rearing............................................... 475
Why rear your own queens?....................................... 475
Cost......................................................................... 475
Time......................................................................... 475
Availability................................................................. 475
AHB.......................................................................... 475
Acclimatized bees........................................................ 476
Mite and disease resistance........................................... 476
Quality...................................................................... 476
Concepts of Queen Rearing........................................ 477
Reasons to rear queens............................................. 477
Emergency................................................................ 477
Supersedure.............................................................. 477
Reproductive swarming................................................ 477
Overcrowding swarm................................................... 477
Most Queens with Least Resources............................. 477
Where queens come from.......................................... 478
Methods of getting larvae into “queen cups”.............. 478
The Doolittle Method.................................................... 478
The Jenter method...................................................... 479
Advantages to Jenter................................................... 482
Advantages to grafting................................................. 482
The Hopkins Method..................................................... 483
Cell Starter................................................................ 486
Beekeeping Math....................................................... 487
Queen Rearing Calendar:........................................... 488
Mating Nucs.............................................................. 490
A note on mating nucs................................................. 491
Queen marking colors:................................................. 492
Queen Catching and marking.................................... 493
Queen longevity:......................................................... 494
Queen Banks............................................................. 494
FWOF........................................................................ 495
Nucs.............................................................. 498
Optimal Space............................................................ 498
Various Sized Nucs...................................................... 498
Overwintering Nucs................................................... 499
Feeding dry sugar....................................................... 506
What Nucs are Good For:........................................... 507
Splits........................................................................ 507
Artificial swarm........................................................... 507
Making queens from swarm cells................................... 507
Keeping a backup queen............................................... 508
Foolproof requeening................................................... 508
Queen bank............................................................... 508
Comb building............................................................. 508
Swarm catching.......................................................... 508
Bait hives.................................................................. 508
Shaken swarms.......................................................... 509
Transporting honey...................................................... 509
Lighter Equipment.......................................... 510
Mediums instead of deeps......................................... 510
Eight frame instead of ten frame............................... 511
Wax Dipping Equipment................................. 520
Colony Decisions............................................ 524
Two Queen Hives........................................... 526
Top Bar Hives................................................. 528
Kenya Top Bar Hive.................................................... 528
Comb Measurements................................................... 538
FAQs......................................................................... 539
Wintering................................................................... 539
Tropical?.................................................................... 540
Excluder?................................................................... 540
Harvest..................................................................... 541
Top Entrance?............................................................ 541
Sloped Sides?............................................................. 541
Varroa?..................................................................... 541
Feeding?.................................................................... 542
Management?............................................................. 542
Production?................................................................ 543
SBB?........................................................................ 544
Cross Ventilation......................................................... 544
Landing board?........................................................... 545
Length?..................................................................... 545
Bar Width.................................................................. 545
Comb Guide............................................................... 545
Waxing Guides............................................................ 546
Slatted Rack............................................................... 546
Horizontal Hives............................................. 547
Management............................................................. 549
Observation Hives.......................................... 550
Why an observation hive?.......................................... 550
Pictures of Different Kinds of Observation Hives......... 550
Getting an Observation Hive...................................... 557
You Can Build One or Buy One....................................... 557
Glass or Plexiglas........................................................ 558
Other Nice Features..................................................... 558
Exit.......................................................................... 558
Privacy...................................................................... 558
Observation Hive Issues............................................. 559
Frame Size................................................................ 559
Overall Size................................................................ 559
Space Between the Glass.............................................. 559
Feeder...................................................................... 560
Ventilation.................................................................. 560
Robbing..................................................................... 560
Disconnecting............................................................. 561
Working the Hive......................................................... 561
Box Jig........................................................... 563
Miscellaneous Equipment............................... 569
Top Clip..................................................................... 569
Hive Stand................................................................. 570
Plantain..................................................................... 571
Bucket Float.............................................................. 572
Smoker Insert............................................................ 573
Wiring Tools............................................................... 574
Things I did not invent................................... 576
Beespace................................................................... 576
Using All Mediums..................................................... 577
Using 8 frame boxes.................................................. 578
Top Bar Hives............................................................. 578
Foundationless Frames.............................................. 579
Narrow Frames........................................................... 580
Long Hives................................................................. 581
Smoker Insert............................................................ 581
Not Painting Hives..................................................... 583
Small Cell Beekeeping................................................ 584
Top Entrances............................................................ 584
Opening the Brood Nest............................................. 585
Unnatural Things in Beekeeping..................... 587
Scientific Studies............................................ 590
Quotes...................................................................... 590
Not Proven Scientifically............................................. 596
Differences in observations in general and as an example, differences in cell size observations.................................................................................. 597
Discounting scientific studies..................................... 600
Worldview.................................................................. 601
Empirical Vs Statistical.................................................. 602
Natural Things............................................................ 604
Paradigms................................................................. 606
Scientific numerics in complex systems...................... 609
It's not that simple...................................................... 609
Weight as an example................................................ 609
Overwintering as another example............................. 610
Requeening a Hot Hive................................... 615
Divide and conquer................................................... 615
CCD............................................................... 618
About the Author............................................ 621
Index............................................................. 623
