With over 100 color photographs and illustrations, Raising Resilient Bees is the comprehensive source for new and experienced beekeepers, offering a sustainable, natural, and repeatable model of care for hive health and production. Global pests and diseases present an unprecedented challenge for the modern honey bee. Hobby and commercial beekeepers alike continue to experience troubling rates of mortality for their colonies, with potentially deleterious consequences for the stability of our wider ecosystems and overall food security. It is time for a global focus on restoring the health of the shared apiary through naturally reared, genetically diverse, and resilient lines of bees. Raising Resilient Bees establishes these parameters and provides guidance for new and experienced beekeepers alike to translate these goals into real practice, thereby safeguarding the honey bee from the unknown threats of the future. Authors Eric and Joy McEwen take two decades worth of beekeeping experience, experiments, and professional production to deliver groundbreaking methods in queen-rearing, varroa mite management, and Natural Nest hive design. Inside, you’ll discover: • Revived and adapted heritage Integrated Pest Management techniques • How to naturally rear queens and select for resilient, mite-resistant genetic lines without relying on swarming or grafting • Key tenets of apicentric beekeeping • Advice for establishing a flourishing and sustainable business with beekeeping at the center • How to naturally rear bees with distinctive characteristics suitable to their locale As in large-scale agriculture, the trend toward genetic homogenization is having long-term implications for bees’ capacity to withstand diverse environmental stressors. With expert advice, enthusiasm, and easy-to-follow instructions, Raising Resilient Bees delivers important and timely information for every beekeeper to create a healthier future.

"Right from the start, this book takes you on a journey that is fascinating and thought-provoking. . . The McEwens demonstrate creative, out-of-the-box thinking and challenge traditional ways of keeping bees."—American Bee Journal With over 100 color photographs and illustrations, Raising Resilient Bees is the comprehensive source for new and experienced beekeepers, offering a sustainable, natural, and repeatable model of care for hive health and production. Global pests and diseases present an unprecedented challenge for the modern honey bee. Hobby and commercial beekeepers alike continue to experience troubling rates of mortality for their colonies, with potentially deleterious consequences for the stability of our wider ecosystems and overall food security. It is time for a global focus on restoring the health of the shared apiary through naturally reared, genetically diverse, and resilient lines of bees. Raising Resilient Bees establishes these parameters and provides guidance for new and experienced beekeepers alike to translate these goals into real practice, thereby safeguarding the honey bee from the unknown threats of the future. Authors Eric and Joy McEwen take two decades worth of beekeeping experience, experiments, and professional production to deliver groundbreaking methods in queen-rearing, varroa mite management, and Natural Nest hive design. Inside, you’ll discover: Revived and adapted heritage Integrated Pest Management techniques How to naturally rear queens and select for resilient, mite-resistant genetic lines without relying on swarming or grafting Key tenets of apicentric beekeeping Advice for establishing a flourishing and sustainable business with beekeeping at the center How to naturally rear bees with distinctive characteristics suitable to their locale As in large-scale agriculture, the trend toward genetic homogenization is having long-term implications for bees’ capacity to withstand diverse environmental stressors. With expert advice, enthusiasm, and easy-to-follow instructions, Raising Resilient Bees delivers important and timely information for every beekeeper to create a healthier future. “Vivid, practical, evidence-based . . . . Biodynamic and organic beekeepers will applaud the authors’ use of ‘natural nest hives’ with single-size boxes and vertically uninterrupted brood nests, populated with locally adapted bees and naturally reared queens.”—David Heaf, author of The Bee-Friendly Beekeeper; bee-friendly.co.uk “The McEwens look at every aspect of a honey bee’s life in this book—pest and disease issues, living space, the genetics of resistance and tolerance, qualities of successful queens, optimal feeding, and seasonal management that fits the bee above the beekeeper.”—Kim Flottum, author of The Backyard Beekeeper; podcast producer, Growing Planet Media

Common Sense Natural Beekeeping teaches aspiring as well as experienced beekeepers how to keep their bees healthy and productive without depending on unnatural chemical or human intervention.

“This is one of the most practical, down-to-earth, dirt-under-the-fingernails, comprehensive explanations of all things homesteading and small farming. Whether you’re just dreaming or an old hand, Ben Falk’s longer experience horizon is invaluable.”—Joel Salatin, cofounder, Polyface Farm; author of Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal Informed by twenty years of successful land management and the professional design experience of his pioneering firm Whole Systems Design, LLC, author Ben Falk updates his classic text and delivers the definitive twenty-first century systems thinking manual in self-reliance—sure to empower readers to prioritize projects, make positive lifestyle decisions, and take strategic steps toward a regenerative future. In The Resilient Farm and Homestead, Revised and Expanded Edition Falk describes how he has transformed a degraded hillside in the frigid Vermont climate into a thriving, biodiverse Eden that now provides year-round abundance for his family and community. First published in 2013, The Resilient Farm and Homestead is a comprehensive how-to guide for building durable and productive land-based systems through the reciprocal interplay of humans and the natural world. In the ten years since he first published this seminal work, Falk has deepened his wisdom in harnessing nature-based solutions for increasingly challenging times, including addressing severe climate disruptions like drought and flood conditions. The book covers every strategy Falk and his team have tested on the Whole Systems Research Farms over the past two decades and includes detailed information on earthworks, gravity-fed water systems, soil fertility management, growing nutrient-dense food and medicine, fuelwood production, agroforestry, managed grazing, and much more. Complete with full-color photography and detailed design drawings, The Resilient Farm and Homestead, Revised and Expanded Edition includes new information on: Designing greenhouses and microclimates Reinvigorating human health and embodying a vigorous lifestyle Raising children on a homestead Creating failure-proof and resilient energy systems Focusing on permaculture beekeeping Cultivating proven cold climate plants Overcoming analysis paralysis and mastering the art of knowing where to start and when to take strategic risks And much, much more! In an age that feels defined by disconnection, disease, and decline, The Resilient Farm and Homestead, Revised and Expanded Edition offers a roadmap to conquering uncertainty, maximizing efficiency, and creating a bountiful, manageable landscape that will endure. “Essential reading for the serious prepper as well as for everyone interested in creating a more resilient lifestyle.”—Carol Deppe, author of The Resilient Gardener “This intelligent, challenging book, rooted somewhere between back-to-the-land idealism and radical survivalism, sees resilience as both planting and building for the use of future generations, but also as preparing food, water, shelter, and the human body and psyche for the onset of any imaginable extreme emergency. . . . The result is a comprehensive, open-ended, theoretical and practical system for a post-carbon-dependent life.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review of first edition)

Today's beekeepers face unprecedented challenges, a fact that is now front-page news with the spread of "colony collapse disorder." Newly introduced pests like varroa and tracheal mites have made chemical treatment of hives standard practice, but pest resistance is building, which in turn creates demand for new and even more toxic chemicals. In fact, there is evidence that chemical treatments are making matters worse. It's time for a new approach. Now revised and updated with new resources and including full-color photos throughout, Natural Beekeeping offers all the latest information in a book that has already proven invaluable for organic beekeepers. The new edition offers the same holistic, sensible alternative to conventional chemical practices with a program of natural hive management, but offers new sections on a wide range of subjects, including: The basics of bee biology and anatomy Urban beekeeping Identifying and working with queens Parasitic mite control Hive diseases Also, a completely new chapter on marketing provides valuable advice for anyone who intends to sell a wide range of hive products.Ross Conrad brings together the best "do no harm" strategies for keeping honeybees healthy and productive with nontoxic methods of controlling mites; eliminating American foulbrood disease without the use of antibiotics; selective breeding for naturally resistant bees; and many other detailed management techniques, which are covered in a thoughtful, matter-of-fact way. Whether you are a novice looking to get started with bees, an experienced apiculturist looking for ideas to develop an integrated pest-management approach, or someone who wants to sell honey at a premium price, this is the book you've been waiting for.

Joe Conti, a Bronx NY, USA native, has lived in the state of Georgia in the USA for 35 years. He has a MS degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Florida and worked as a Wildlife Biologist specializing in wildlife diseases at both the Universities of Florida and Georgia. He has published on a variety of issues related to wildlife, including articles in the American Bee Journal. He also taught Biology and Environmental Science in Middle and High School. A beekeeper for 26 years, Joe has served as President of the Oglethorpe County (GA) Bee Club, and in various positions for it and the Eastern Piedmont Beekeepers Association (Athens GA). He currently is enjoying retired life (and his bees!) on his 6-acre parcel in rural Oglethorpe County.

Raise your own superior queens and you¿ll never have to buy bees again! ¿I was told this is the best queen-rearing book in the world, so I spent two years preparing the English edition, and it turned out awesome. I was able to triple the size of my apiaries in one season by following Fert¿s invaluable guidance.¿ - Dr. Leo Sharashkin, Editor. Detailed, easy to understand practical advice. Simple techniques clearly explained and illustrated. Multiple methods to choose from, whether you raise one queen or a thousand. Successful breeding, mating, and introduction. Multiply your honeybee colonies and overwinter them successfully in any climate. Make bee packages, and produce royal jelly. Over 150 full-color photos, drawings, and diagrams. Internationally renowned author with over 30 years experience. Your beekeeping will never be the same after reading this book.