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THE CONSCIOUS BEEKEEPER
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THE CONSCIOUS BEEKEEPER
Dettagli
INTRODUCTION
Never doubt that a small group
of conscious and resolute citizens can change
the world. Ultimately, that's how it's always been.
«Margaret Mead»
Welcome to the world of Christy Hemenway...
This book is the result of my first year as a DIY beekeeper — with two classic Langstroth cube hives containing waxy sheets and my subsequent transition to beekeeping with top-bar hives.
Here I illustrate the how and why of this choice. And here my personal experiences as a beekeeper come together with the writings, experience, research, and bee stories of many extraordinary people — beekeepers, farmers, gardeners, activists, researchers, authors — who I have met since I began beekeeping. take care of my first two hives.
This book tries to alleviate as best as possible the disorientation that I remember feeling when I decided that I wanted to start breeding bees, or when I discovered that if you asked the same question to 10 beekeepers, you could be sure of receiving 11 answers, many of which expressed vehemently and “in no uncertain terms”. As a novice you always hope to receive just one answer... the right answer! Only in the end it turns out that there are a hundred ways to raise bees. Difficult to find your way in this confusion! So I tried to simplify the research phase for you with the parts of the book dedicated to the "how".
In the parts of the book dedicated to the "why" I dedicate space to the change in model that I have seen take hold since the Hive Depopulation Syndrome made its debut in 2006, and the subsequent foundation of my beekeeping company Gold Star Honeybees® in 2007.
It is quite clear that the Beehive Depopulation Syndrome crisis in the world of beekeeping is a symptom of larger problems in our environmental and food systems and therefore cannot be solved by bee farmers alone...
… As we slowly became aware of the intricate connections between beekeeping, the altered food system, government corruption and our health and well-being, some people began to use their brains and ask… how did we get to this point?
How can we make the changes necessary to solve these problems?
These changes are a matter of life and death — for us and our children...
From the introduction by Christy Hemenway
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From the presentation by Paolo Fontana (President of WBA Onlus)
… The book tells us about beekeeping in North America and shows us not only its distance from that of Europe but also its richness and cultural fertility. The language with which it is written has a freshness that in Italy is rarely found in a manual and is also aimed at those who know almost nothing about bees and beekeeping. From every page the author's love for bees and the idea that beekeepers are in a certain sense a big family shines through. But above all, The Conscious Beekeeper, as we have translated the title in agreement with the author, gives us a complex and unitary vision of the bee problem and makes us meditate on our personal choices, starting from our diet, on the choices of politics and on the responsibilities of every person and even more of every beekeeper, to save this species and therefore guarantee a prosperous and happy future for our species too. This book proposes that we help bees help us, that we give well-being to bees to cultivate the well-being of our society.
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Reviews for The Thinking Beekeeper
( original version published by New Society Publishers, 2013 )
In this volume you will find the information you need and that you will not find anywhere else. Both you and your bees will benefit from Christy's approach, as well as her advice and philosophy.
— KIM FLOTTUM, editor of Bee Culture magazine
A unique and exceptional resource for novice beekeepers.
— MARTY HARDISON, top bar beekeeper, trainer and international consultant on beekeeping development
By emphasizing the profound connection between the food system, bees and the well-being of the planet, The Conscious Beekeeper will win over the new generation of beekeepers less interested in maximizing the honey harvest at all costs, and more concerned with ensuring long life for the bee population. bees now and in the years to come.
Christy's passion shines through on every page of this enchanting book, which I'm sure will inspire many more people to take up beekeeping in top bar hives.
—PHIL CHANDLER, author, The Barefoot Beekeeper
It doesn't matter what type of hive you keep your bees in, if you are a novice beekeeper you will need complete, practical and above all accurate information to begin with. And you will find them in this book. And if you keep your bees in a Top Bar hive, here you will find the information you need that you won't find anywhere else. Both you and your bees will benefit from Christy's approach, as well as her advice and philosophy.
— Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine
The Thinking Beekeeper by Christy Hemenway is a very good book. It provides a combination of the author's radical philosophy (regarding the use of chemicals in beekeeping) and clear practical advice regarding keeping honey bees, particularly in Top Bar hives. Little has been written about the details of keeping honey bees in Top Bar hives. The bees are still the same, of course, but the Top Bar hive is quite different from the traditional Langstroth hive. At the University of Maine we had a lot of questions when we first stumbled upon using Top Bar hives. NOW there is a good guide. This book is not only informative, being accessible to all with its clear and concise prose, as well as the abundant use of photos and tables, but it is also very pleasant to read.
— Dr. Frank Drummond, pollination ecology expert, University of Maine
Christy's passion shines through on every page of this enchanting book, which I'm sure will inspire many more people to take up beekeeping in Top Bar hives. I'm particularly pleased to see that she has developed her own style, whilst remaining true to the principles of simplicity and of minimal interference with the life of bees. Having seen its progress so far, I am confident that Gold Star Honeybees will have a great future!
— Phil Chandler, author, The Barefoot Beekeeper
It's great to see how Top Bar hive beekeeping has spread to Maine and that Christy Hemenway is excited about it. The Top Bar hive is the future!
— Les Crowder, co-author, Top-Bar Beekeeping
Whether you're looking for more to start keeping bees or you're already convinced, The Thinking Beekeeper is an excellent resource. Christy knows her stuff and shares her experience and passion on every single page.
— Roger Doiron, founder, Kitchen Gardeners International
The Thinking Beekeeper is a unique and exceptional resource for novice beekeepers. It will enable even the most inexperienced novice to begin this profession on the right foot and as he grows all this information will offer him the opportunity to challenge something Christy recommends. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what distinguishes an independent professional and an aware and mature beekeeper.
— Marty Hardison, beekeeper with Top Bar hives, trainer and international consultant on beekeeping development The conscious beekeeper
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Christy Hemenway — the Bee Lady. - Credit: Chris Hendricks.
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But… what did bees do before beekeepers arrived?
Seeking an answer to what seems like a very simple question, Christy Hemenway embarked on an investigation into what's really behind the growing problems in beekeeping. She soon came to the conclusion that the less done the better, in other words the less man intervenes, the better off the bees are.
This insight led Christy to found Gold Star Honeybees® in 2007 to promote a low-tech natural beekeeping system known as Top Bar hives. The most important feature in a Top Bar hive is that it allows bees to produce their own wax honeycombs in accordance with natural systems and in a non-toxic environment. A Gold Star Honeybees® hive is clean, healthy, eco-friendly, and supports the production of natural beeswax — beeswax produced by bees for bees!
In her 2011 TEDxDirigo talk, “Making the Connection: Bees, Food, and Us,” Christy highlighted the important connection between our agricultural system, bees, and health. Spreading this same message through interventions as a true preacher, the Lady of the Bees, Christy supports and fights for the use of more organic food, less industrial agriculture and of course a more natural and less invasive beekeeping.
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CHRISTY HEMENWAY is the owner and founder of Gold Star Honeybees, a one-stop resource for all things top bar beekeeping. Not only a passionate apevangelist and champion of natural, chemical-free beekeeping, Christy is also a highly sought-after speaker who can guide any audience to understand the profound connections between bees, food, human health, and the future of the planet.