This is however, a long term project!
I expect to re-read a few bee books that I already have
(about 350) and I expect I will purchase One or two in the future.
My Bee Book... William Charles Cotton M.A.
Written 1842
(Read December
2000)
A collection of two or three page essays on various bee subjects.
Some unusual old woodcuts. An oddity in many ways, difficult reading
due to "floury" language. (Not recommended for beginners.)
A Living From Bees... Frank C. Pellet
Written 1944(Read March
2001)
A rather old fashioned book dealing with American beekeeping.
Interesting for experianced beekeepers, but not recommended reading
for beginners.
Beekeeping in the swarming season... by George Davis
This book was originally written in 1976 after 50 years beekeeping
experiance.(Read March
2001)
Some of the methods in it may appear novell, but all of those that he
considers are his ideas were in fact written about between the years
1860 and 1900 by Samual Simmins. No mention is made of this author in
the list of books that he says that he has read and been influenced
by.
The net nursery cage is merely his name for a queen isolation cage
which has been an item of beekeeping equipment since frames were
invented.
He displays an inability "read a colony" and to plan his swarm control
and substitutes the very labour intensive method of watching the hives
daily. This may be pleasant for the perpetrator, but is not very
practical.
His advice on queen rearing is a mixture of good practice, poor
planning and bad management, that stems from a general lack of
understanding and certainly not what he should have understood by
reading Snelgrove's, Wedmore's and Bro. Adam's books (which he
alludes to). For instance... He goes to great lengths to prepare
larvae for raising queens then spoils the effort by delaying the
insertion of the prepared frame and placing the frame between other
frames that contain sealed brood. This means that his nicely prepared
larvae are disadvantaged and inadequately fed.
Not a book I would recommend to beginners. Having been so negative
about it, I enjoyed reading it, it is typical of many books written
around 1950.
Beeswax... William Cogshall & Roger Morse
Written 1984(Read May
2001)
An interesting book, but more for the large commercial operator or
beekeeping equipment manufacturer. There is not much in it that is
of direct use by the small or hobby beekeeper. There are good
descriptions of large scale wax filtration, but I doubt if the methods
could be scaled down for private use. Not the book to read if you are
looking for information on how to clean up a few cakes of wax.
Written... April 2000
Revised... 28 January 2002
