Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Lovely example of this book. Gift message in front. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Beekeeping is an ancient art that has fascinated its devotees since earliest times. Honey robbed from wild colonies in trees or caves was early people’s main source of sweet food. Dominance of honey as the major sweetener continued until cane and beet sugar became generally available in comparatively recent times. Honey with its unique flavors and aromas and natural origin still has wide appeal. World production was estimated at 1446 million pounds in 1976 and more than 1415 million pounds in 1977. In the United States about 200000 people keep almost 5 million colonies and produce 200 million to 250 million pounds of honey annually. Bee- keepers can be classified as full-time sideline or hobbyist with the number of colonies operated by individual owners varying from one to 30000. Beekeepers derive income from the sale of honey renting of colonies for crop pollination production and sale of queen bees and packaged bees and to a minor extent from the sale of beeswax pollen bee venom propolis and royal jelly. Problems and dangers confront the long-time survival of beekeeping as a profitable agricultural enterprise and changing agricultural and land-use practices threaten the survival of adequate numbers of bees required to pollinate some 90 crops or more. As human population increases houses factories and highways replace open fields of honey and pollen plants. Clean cultivation of farmland and large-scale monoculture reduce the sequence of wild plants needed to provide bee food throughout the season. (LL)