Recommendations
As has been mentioned in other places on this website, Our primary purpose is the conservation and perpetuation of honeybees in Nebraska.
We believe the best way to accomplish that is to never stop learning about them.
On this page, we will be sharing recommended books, videos and other media that might be interesting to beekeepers.
Recommended Beekeeping Software:
BiData Hivenote : This is a locally installable application that allows you to track all of your bee yards, hives and inspections for you on your computer. I have installed this app on Linux running under Wine and it performs exactly as it is supposed to. This is very customizable and able to be used with any type of hive, be it Warre, Langstroth, TBH and more ( although it is geared mostly to langstroth style use.)
Beetight : This site offers free accounts for up to 6 hives in your beeyards in a completely online website with many features for a variety of hive types and methods.
Recommended Reading:
Web Based
Wikipedia Beekeeping
Beekeeping This is a general overview of beekeeping.
Building A Better Beehive by Robert Gerard, June 2004. Interview with Les Crowder
Bioneers Interview with Les Crowder by R.D Managain, May 2009
Glossary of Beekeeping This is an extensive list of words and terms used in beekeeping that are links to much more detailed pages of information specific to the word or term selected. Very informative.
Diseases of the Honey Bee A breakdown of the pests, predators and parasites of the Honey Bee.
Studies on bee evolution an article on honey bee evolution at Science Daily
Books and PDF format Books (PDF files are in blue and link to the file for download)
“At the Hive Entrance” H. Storch. Translated from German. 1985. Have you ever had someone tell you all you need to do is ‘observe the hive entrance’ and almost all you need to know is there, but no one ever tells you what it all means? This book sets out to answer that. Season by season. in a clearly laid out format of ‘Observation’ and ‘Explanation’ in a two column layout. The author wastes no time in spelling out what it is you see and hear at the hive entrance and relates it specifically to what is happening inside the hive. Find it at BetterBee.com If anyone can provide accurate information as to the copyright status of this book, please let us know so we can determine if it is legal to provide a link to the PDF download for this work.
“The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture“ This is literally an encyclopedia of Beekeeping information. This book dates as far back as 1877 and Google has digitized a version printed in 1917 that is a free .pdf download as well. This is a good book to read to see how much bee knowledge has changed and how so much of it has stayed the same.
“Beekeeping For All” Abbe Emile Warre, translation from French in 2007. This is the book that was written by the Abbe Warre which documents his own experiences and theories about beekeeping and how he came about the design and management practices of his “People’s Hive” and his effort to teach people how to be self sufficient by beekeeping. an inspirational book as well as very informative. Available online in .pdf format with a Google search.
Advanced Bee Culture, W.Z. Hutchinson. A book written to help one learn to become a full time bee business person. published in 1918, this is still a very good resource on taking beekeeping to the next level.
“Letters from the Hive” Stephen Buchmann, Circa 2005. A ‘journal’ of sorts, or a free flowing presentation of history, thoughts and information about beekeeping and being a beekeeper.
“The Backyard Beekeeper” Kim Flottum, Circa 2005. A ‘beginning to beekeeping’ book, complete with color photos and detailed information on all the basic information in regard to the techniques and methodology of being a beekeeper.
Recommended Videos;
Brushy Mountain Bee Farms offers a number of free videos based on live online meetings with several notable bee researchers and beekeepers
Backwards Beekeepers, Kirk Anderson aka ‘Kirkobeeo’.
Corwin Bell and Kelly on “Organic Beekeeping”
A good method of starting a Hive from a package:
Top Bar Hive Inspection/Management:
