Common Sense Natural Beekeeping: Sustainable, Bee-Friendly Techniques to Help Your Hives Survive and Thrive

by Kim Flottum

Stephanie Bruneau (Secondary Author)

With Common Sense Natural Beekeeping, learn to keep bees sustainably with limited chemical or human intervention.

Today's bees face unprecedented challenges. Chemical treatments for pests like the ubiquitous and deadly varroa mite have become standard even as resistance to such treatments grows and evidence suggests the chemical treatments themselves are contributing to the widely discussed Colony Collapse Disorder.

Common Sense Natural Beekeeping offers beekeepers a different choice. Based on expert advice from Kim Flottom, editor emeritus of Bee Culture magazine and best-selling author of The Backyard Beekeeper, this book teaches holistic, sensible alternatives to conventional apiary practices, and includes:

• Lessons from the way bees live in the wild
• Management strategies that respect the natural intelligence of the bee
• Hive design elements that promote colony health and resilience
• Case studies highlighting successful natural beekeepers from around the world

Beekeepers today have myriad choices to make that affect their bees' health and productivity. From housing to nutrition, including pests and diseases, Common Sense Natural Beekeeping introduces sustainable alternatives for natural hive management.

• ISBN13: 9781631599552
• Publish Date: 30 November 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quarry Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Common Sense Natural Beekeeping is a well written easy to understand guide to sustainable beekeeping by Kim Flottum. Released 30th Nov 2021 by Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 128 pages and is available in paperback format.

The author is an experienced beekeeper and former USDA researcher and this book is full of well thought out and sensible advice for sustainable and successful beekeeping. The book is divided into three main sections: an introduction which introduces the main concepts and biological evolution of bees along with the tools & supplies of the apiarist's toolbox,detailed housing needs and possibilities examined with regard to the needs and health of the *bees* and not necessarily prioritizing only the convenience of the beekeeper, a second section covering health and maintenance, and a third and final section covering husbandry practice and procedures.

The photography throughout is in color and is very clear and professionally rendered. The photo captions are easy to understand and relevant.

Beekeeping is such a rewarding and fascinating hobby and improving the health of our own biodiverse environment aids everyone from locally to globally. This is a short but information dense and layman accessible guide. It would make a good selection for public or school library use, home/smallhold library, makers groups, allotment and community garden groups, and similar.

Four and a half stars. Very well done.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.