The Bee-friendly Beekeeper

Book excerpt: In recent years, beekeepers on several continents have been suffering heavy loss of colonies. If we systematically investigate factors causing the losses, we can justifiably ask whether the way in which honey bees are kept is part of the problem. Could hive design, frames, foundation, intrusion, artificial queen breeding, drone suppression, queen excluders, artificial feeding, medication, transhumance and overstocking - all elements of modern beekeeping - be reducing the vitality of bees? This book examines the issues surrounding these practices, drawing where possible on the primary literature in bee biology and apiculture, in order to identify an approach to keeping bees that is more bee-appropriate. It also analyses the fundamental attitudes underlying the different ways in which we choose to keep bees.