Common Sense Natural Beekeeping

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.

About the Author

Kim Flottum brings a background of twelve years of plant science, honey bee research, and basic farming to his thirty years as the editor of Bee Culture magazine where his main occupation is finding the answers to the multitude of questions that beginning, intermediate, and even advanced and experienced beekeepers bring to the table.

He teaches beginning and advanced beekeeping courses, travels extensively to educate and lecture, and contributes to a variety of other publications on the basics of honey bees and beekeeping biology, the business of bees and pollination, producing and using varietal honeys, and a host of other subjects.

His books, magazine articles, interviews, and blogs are widely read for both their fundamental and advanced contribution to beekeeping knowledge. His magazine platform gives voice to his social commentary on topics ranging from genetically modified foods to pesticide abuse to both good and bad government regulations in the industry.

He is beekeeping's leading advocate for fundamental honey bee safety including insuring excellent honey bee health, providing extraordinary forage, and minimizing the use of agricultural pesticides.