Product Description

We all know that bees make honey. They mystery for most of us is what happens between the time when those bees are buzzing around our garden and when we stick our knife in the jar. Based on careful observation and years of experience, Michael Weiler reveals the secret life of bees. He looks at all aspects of a bee’s life and work and vividly describes their remarkable world.

Did you know, for example, that it takes approximately 12,000 bee hours to produce a single jar of honey? If bees earned minimum wages, one jar would cost almost $100,000 (plus retail markup).

Here is a fascinating book for anyone interested in the intricacies of nature and the life of these fascinating insects.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149303 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 120 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780863155758
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
'The author is not only an experienced beekeeper who looks after fifty colonies but also a committed teacher who possesses a great passion for bees and a deep understanding of their behaviour and nature...The text conveys the reader smoothly through this refreshing insight into the bees' world, the photographs, various biological illustrations, line drawings and tables are all designed to enhance the learning process from this book. On a literary note, there are also two delightful poems...to add to the reader's pleasure...Good value for money at GBP8.99.' --Bee Keeping, Dec. 2006 'Michael Weiler is an experienced beekeeper who looks after fifty colonies. He is a teacher with a great passion for bees and deep understanding of their nature. I had already begun to apply organic principles within my own beekeeping and I am now convinced that the biodynamic route is the one I shall take.' -- Philip Chandler of the Wholesome Food Association, in Star and Furrow Winter 2005, after participating in a day-course on 'The Nature of Bees and Biodynamic Beekeeping' with Michael Weiler organised by the BDAA 'Informed by a Goethean perspective, this fascinating book about the life cycle of a bee tells the reader all they need to know about the subject.' --The Scientific and Medical Network Review 'This delightful and detailed little book takes us on a wonderful journey through the beekeeping year...The outline of the Demeter Beekeeping Guidelines at the back of the book will be especially useful to beekeepers considering how they can best work with their bees.' -- Sue Peat, The Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain Newsletter, Oct 2006 'If you're an experienced bee-keeper wishing to know your bees better, and more so if you're one that likes to share the art of bee keeping with fellow human beings, then this little book shows how!! The writer, Co-director of the Demeter association in Germany, takes us by the hand on a wonderful journey through the beekeeping year.' --Star and Furrow, Winter 2006 'From poetic opening lines to a royal jelly finale this wonderful book has been written from the heart-mind of a man who truly loves his bees. Readers may feel themselves transported to stand beside the beekeeper, accompanying him as he tends to his hive. Which is of course the book's defining strength.' -- Harvests Magazine, August 2007

About the Author
Michael Weiler has lived in Kassel since 1985 and is the father of five. In 1982, he began beekeeping while studying agriculture. After working as an agricultural consultant, he attended the teacher training at the free Rudolf Steiner School in Kassel and taught at the Jean Paul School until 1996. He currently does research in biodynamics. He is editor of the magazine Lebendige Erde. Since 1992, he has helped to develop guidelines for approaches to ecological beekeeping and leads seminars on the life of bees and healthy beekeeping.

Customer Reviews

Best recommendation for an understanding of bees
New to beekeeping, I have found bees interesting since I was a kid sitting in front of an observation hive at the county fair.

Though I've read this book through several times already, I keep coming back to it. It's a fascinating read, entertaining and lively. Most of the other beginner beekeeping books focus on manipulating the hive, treating diseases and harvesting honey. They usually fill out the last two chapters with candlemaking and recipes for muffins using honey instead of sugar that would be better suited to a cookbook than a beekeeping book.

Michiel Weiler's book instead explains the activities and life stages of both individual bees and the bee colony as a whole organism.

The book was originally written in German and titled 'Der Mensch und die Bienen-Betrachtungen zu den Lebensäußerungen des Bien'. For those who find the German language challenging, it translates 'The Man and the Bees-Reflections on the Living Manifestations of the Bien', which describes it much better. In German, 'Bien' (pronounced bee-en) can describe the individual bee and/or the bee colony as a whole.

A great reference book for anyone interested in bees and beekeeping, much of the book is written as if by a third person watching a visitor and a master beekeeper as they together observe and inspect the bees and hive. The bees' actions and the observations are carefully and thoroughly described and explained.

There are many line drawings and a profusion of black-and-white pictures.

The observer is taken through the different stages in the colony's development as the seasons change and the colony adapts. Queen development has it's own chapter, as does the parasitic Varroa mite. The book also has a chapter on the honey harvest and ends with analysis of honey and it's properties.

An appendix written by Günther Friedmann explains the German Demeter certification as it applies to apiculture, very interesting for anyone exploring an organic or biodynamic approach to beekeeping.

This book would be the first one I recommend to anyone interested in bees or beekeeping, without hesitiation.

Billiantly translated by David Heaf, who also translated 'L'Apiculture por Tous' by Abbé Emile Warré from the French. Incidentally, Mr. Heaf has made his translation of 'L'Apiculture por Tous' available at no cost, titled 'Beekeeping for All'. It is no replacement for this book, but mentioned here as a courtesy for anyone seriously interested in a better understanding of bees.