Backwards Beekeeper Erik of Homegrown Evolution has posted a review of the new book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping:
Finally, there's a book that gets beekeepers off the treadmill of more and more drug treatments with ever diminishing returns. I heard that when the Idiot's Guide publishers approached beekeepers Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer they said they'd write the book but only if they could base it on no-treatment beekeeping. The result is the excellent Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping which contains everything you need to know to get started keeping bees. It's the first book to describe no-treatment beekeeping and it also clearly explains the basic biology of the hive, no easy task. The book's approach is summed up on page 139, "We keep a bunch of bees, don't use treatments on them, and we don't breed from the ones that die." While not the only cause, standard commercial beekeeping practices probably play a big role in recent bee colony losses. Funny how the kind of common sense delivered in this book can seem so radical.
(Full review at Homegrown Evolution)
