Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping

SECTION ONE: Intermediate "How-To" techniquesThe top bar hive in its second yearo Managing the successfully overwintered hiveo Starting over - this time with more resourcesSplitting hiveso To increase apiary sizeo To "pay it forward"o To launch a new top bar hive beekeepero As a pre-emptive swarm management techniqueo The walk away splitAvoiding "robbing" behavior late in the seasono How to recognize a deartho How to protect against robbing honeybeeso How to protect against invasive non-honeybeesWhy are my bees so grouchy?o Understanding the seasons from the bees' viewo These are not your original sweet little package of beeso Re-queening - do you really need to?Combining small hives for greater overwintering successo What about the queen(s)?o How to organize the interior of the hive when combiningHarvesting honey - often for the first timeo Getting it out of the hive and away from the beeso Dry cappings / Wet cappingso Getting it off the top baro Is the honey ripe?o Crush & Strain - pros and consThings to do with clean natural waxo Why beeswax is bettero Why clean natural beeswax is better than that!o More wax rendering techniqueso Products that can be made that use beeswaxo RecipesManagement of combo Unidirectional bees/honey storeso Culling old brood combsSECTION TWO: What is really going on with bees?Are we really still putting chemicals in the beehive?o Residuals in the waxo Is plastic really better?o Does Natural Wax do ANYTHING at all?o Shifting virus loads and the varroa mite - what is changing?Systemic pesticides in Agricultureo The concept of painting pesticides on seedso Painting the seed versus spraying the airo Contamination throughout the entire planto Residuals in the soil/air/watero What is ending up in the food???Colony Collapse Disordero Is this still with us?o Mites/Treatments/Viruses - the correlationNeonicotinoidso Effects on the honeybees' navigational GPSo Is THIS CCD?Glyphosate aka Roundupo Benign? NOT.The Misinformation Campaigno Corn - Croplife America (bees don't visit corn?)o Michael Pollan on corn and how it's winningo Bayer - safe chemicals? NOTo Monsanto - patents and lawsuitsEuropean versus US methods of determining safetyo LD-50o The EPA and the Fox in the henhouseo Bans - who has/who hasn't - and whyClimate Changeo Who believes it? / Why is this difficult to prove?o The geographical effecto Trickle down effects for bees