HOME & GARDEN / SCIENCE & NATURE THE UPDATED BESTSELLING GUIDE TO LAID-BACK K BEEKEEPING FOR ALL, NATURALLY! E This book should be on every beekeeper’s bookshelf. — HANK WILL, author, Plowing with Pigs, Editorial Director, Mother Earth News E Learn about natural methods of beekeeping with minimal work u and no boxes to lift. P w — MICHAEL BUSH, author, The Practical Beekeeper iI t hN IN THE SECOND EDITION of the bestselling beekeeping guide Keeping Bees with a Smile, Fedor Lazutin, one of Europe’s most successful natural beekeepers, shares the a G bee-friendly approach to apiculture that is fun, healthful, rewarding, and accessible to all. s m This new edition includes dozens of color photographs, new hive management techniques, i and an updated version of “Lazutin hive” plans. Additional coverage includes: l eB • Keeping bees naturally without interfering in their lives KadFleeeikedeeppo, irfnc rLgaoam m•••••••Bz epueSBKHEPRsltee,neriteue snoatpAhevile l prdlwdeapwu t iubiwnriinsniannstclc ghsgiugigotini n h en ta abaglhcg pg o penn eoS r wttae llrihlaramono ts-ufenupcmtan il rsltyiasfgieaaoaeo cllf lnr i sor—oiinnyobsna b r ctee vhatBf eaaoureecmetnenoilkrrrtna aanaaw aebiglfnnktltnarere iih eviinhnpncbpeneyaetoeged egl elMa udran e b ,rhant abneeo khhysi tbdreecvyh oesuarle eel meaieewicstrnsp- r,t stecf r imerhirrDtetonaseoih.hues.gtioucsnr.oeamonre rntsgaiuatciudcgnf iadd tomuetrlhw gnoeycvrulstl,i rro eiiy m,c,sltpwi o b hnBa efeaicroboce n eevryyard uilteel onlohnla-a t nigauuoA beptna id r wrueoisiwt ncnsvbhdeun oyu. obaeah ls clasncdte cahautbw’irkeetrotiru epseyeasudfighe a rsnf bblmo sshridcvdee ro soe lt!gaihrwm riniazi nnsoeyban uwnietnetegatnharastas et lbu rrraheeernisev eetdeosl ssr pa ewrt.oioiftneh s aesnxidtor na-als • SReueVCiEESSoLeo ShaeND.d .. & .. Fedor L E..E xd..PI at.N.Id o Ed N• .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. P ..K ..R .. ..IN ..EN ..a u..C ..T E .I. P..u ..w L.P.R ..E ..ia .S. tI ..L h . i .NA. S .e. DN.B. a &.. De.G.E x..s P E .a. P..m k..R .. E iB..A ..l e .C. e ..P E .T . .iu .I. NC.. E.. .Eg. .. .. S O.. .. .F. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . sustainable living in Russia. ra V N Leo Sharashkin, PhD, is a full-time natural beekeeper and founder of HorizontalHive.com. He has ashkzutin Re dEd edited numerous books on natural beekeeping, writes for major magazines, and speaks internationally on in w • • bee-friendly beekeeping. He keeps bees in the Ozarks of southern Missouri. it h S oN eCoNd E dI tI To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending select New Society Publishers books to its readers. This book is one of them. Fedor Lazutin i Leo Sharashkin www.newsociety.com Praise for Keeping Bees with a Smile In Keeping Bees with a Smile, author Fedor Lazutin proposes that we take a more humane and holistic look at our relationship with the European honey bee. And while the established beekeeping industry doesn’t want to hear it, Lazutin’s approach is one that mimics nature and is more humane for the bees and humans alike — leading to a healthier life for both. This second edition, as beautifully translated and edited by Dr. Leo Sharashkin, has been revised and updated with many additional color illustrations and photos, as well as appendices packed with more information. I had the opportunity to hear master beekeeper Sharashkin speak several years ago and have found great success by using the methods he and Lazutin promote. We no longer medicate, we no longer lose colonies (and sleep), and we populate our new home-built hive boxes with feral swarms that we attract. This book should be on every beekeeper’s bookshelf as it rep- resents a paradigm shift, worthy of consideration by everyone that calls herself a beekeeper. — Hank Will, author, Plowing with Pigs, and Editorial Director, Mother Earth News Keeping Bees with a Smile — 2nd Edition is an updated version of Lazutin’s wonderful book on natural beekeeping in a horizontal hive. If you want to learn about natural methods of beekeeping with minimal work and no boxes to lift from someone with a lot of experience, an optimistic view, and a natural philosophy, you should read this book. — Michael Bush, author, The Practical Beekeeper, www.bushfarms.com At its core, Keeping Bees with a Smile offers an appreciation for all forms of life and a glimpse of how beautifully all can work together if we allow the rules of nature to be our guide. The decline of honeybee health in the last decade has helped renew interest in beekeeping, and this book provides a blueprint for creating a harmonious relationship between bees and their human partners. These foundational principles can be adapted and applied in different geographical areas and climates, helping us build more resilient and sustainable communities and reconnect with the nat- ural world. — Bonnie Morse, Director, Bee Audacious Keeping Bees with a Smile has already shaken up the thinking of the independent- minded beekeepers in North America and Europe. Fedor Lazutin, one of Russia’s foremost natural beekeepers, describes a beekeeping system based on a trust of a bee colony as a living being capable of solving life’s challenges without human assistance. Be- ginner friendly and complete with fascinating photographs, it is a valuable guide for independent-minded beekeepers who are seeking ways to keep bees without treating them with chemicals, disrupting their homes, and otherwise intruding on their lives. — Dr. Thomas D. Seeley, Professor, Cornell University, author, Honeybee Democracy and The Lives of Bees This book is a reminder that bees can thrive on their own if we just allow them to do so. It is also a fascinating story of how beekeepers from another culture solve their own problems by using their histori- cal wisdom and just letting the bees be themselves. Instead of making beekeeping part of industrial agriculture, simple and straightforward solutions to the bees’ health problems still exist — a nd the clear guid- ance of Keeping Bees with a Smile is great help in this direction. It also emphasizes that we must do our part to restore a clean and diverse environment, and shows ways to do so. If honey bees can thrive in the future, we will, too. — Kirk Webster, treatment-free beekeeper, Vermont Keeping Bees with a Smile carefully sets out a natural beekeeping ap- proach based on horizontal hives and minimal colony manipulation. Keep only bees of the local race; nurture their natural means to stay healthy; use extra-deep combs; propagate colonies by swarming — the book is full of important lessons for all beekeepers. It also includes numerous insights and excerpts from Russian beekeeping texts oth- erwise unavailable to English readers. Fedor Lazutin’s nature-based, simple method ensures vigorous and productive bees, while also sav- ing time and money. Thorough and well written, with excellent color pictures — we love Keeping Bees with a Smile! — Dr. Nicola Bradbear, Director, Bees for Development Keeping Bees with a Smile KEEPING BEES with a smile principles and practice of NATURAL BEEKEEPING SECOND EDITION by Fedor Lazutin Translated from the Russian by Mark Pettus, PhD Edited by Leo Sharashkin, PhD Copyright © 2020 by Elena Lazutina and HorizontalHive.com All rights reserved. Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover image © iStock. All photos © Elena Lazutina unless otherwise indicated. Printed in Canada. First printing April, 2020. This book is intended to be educational and informative. It is not intended to serve as a guide. The author and publisher disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss or risk that may be associated with the application of any of the contents of this book. Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Keeping Bees with a Smile, Revised Edition should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to: New Society Publishers P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada (250) 247-9737 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: Keeping bees with a smile : principles and practice of natural beekeeping / by Fedor Lazutin; translated from the Russian by Mark Pettus, PhD ; edited by Leo Sharashkin, PhD ; artist, Andrey Andreev ; technical drawings, Fedor Lazutin, Alexander Razboinikov, Leo Sharashkin ; hive drawings (version 4), Chris Bloom. Names: Lazutin, Fedor, author. | Pettus, Mark, 1978– translator. | Sharashkin, Leonid, editor. Description: Revised and updated 2nd edition. | Previously published under title: Keeping bees with a smile: a vision and practice of natural apiculture. Ithaca, New York : Deep Snow Press, 2013. | Includes index. Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190206543 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190206551 | isbn 9780865719279 (softcover) | isbn 9781550927207 (PdF) | isbn 9781771423168 (ePub) Subjects: lcsh: Bee culture. | lcsh: Honeybee. Classification: lcc sF523 .l398 2020 | ddc 638/.1 — dc23 New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. Contents Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Foreword — The Bee Book That Makes Sense: A Roadmap to Natural Beekeeping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Part I: A Path to Natural Apiculture A Brief Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 How It All Got Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 A Small Side Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Industrial and Natural Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Bee Colony’s Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Goals of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Tree Hollow as the Bees’ Natural Home . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Some Useful Facts about Comb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Bee Colony’s Developmental Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 A Year in the Life of a Bee Colony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 A Word or Two on Wintering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 The Ideal Comb: How Deep Is Deep Enough? . . . . . . . . . . 30 Winter Ventilation of the Beehive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Bee Races. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The European Dark Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Bee Diseases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Symbiosis in Nature (A Philosophical Digression). . . . . . . . 54 Bees and Their Enemies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 A Bit of History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The History of the Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Modern Systems of Industrial Beekeeping . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 vii viii Contents Bees in the Industrial Hive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 A Word or Two about Swarming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 “Little to Smile About” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Is There a Way Out? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 The History of Horizontal Hives with Extra-Deep Frames. . . 79 The Modern Horizontal Hive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 The Horizontal Hive with Extra-Deep Frames . . . . . . . . . . 87 Using the Extra-Deep Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Part II: The Practice of Natural Apiculture A Description of the Horizontal Hive with 25 Extra-Deep Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 How to Keep Bees in a Horizontal Hive with Extra-Deep Frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 The Central Commandments of Natural Beekeeping. . . . . . 100 A Beekeeper’s Tasks in Spring and Summer. . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Fall Procedures: Pulling Honey and Preparing for Winter . . . 107 How to Make Extra-Deep Frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Brushstrokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 How to Capture a Swarm in a Swarm Trap . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Responsibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Epilogue to Parts I and II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Part III: The Finer Points of Natural Beekeeping Three Years Later. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Principles of Natural Beekeeping Revisited. . . . . . . . . . . . 134 The Recipe for Success in Beekeeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Nectar Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Bee Race and Colony Strength. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 On the Mean Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 The Queen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Contents ix The Vital Rhythms of a Bee Colony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 The Death of Bee Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Various Approaches to Natural Beekeeping. . . . . . . . . . . . 160 More on Supersedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Swarming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 How to Collect a Swarm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 The Hive Entrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Spring Inspection of Bee Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Spring Buildup of Bee Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Preparing for the Main Honeyflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 The Main Honeyflow and the Second Half of Summer . . . . . 191 Pulling Honey and Preparing for Winter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Part IV: How Bee Colonies Winter, And How to Make Wintering as Successful as Possible Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 The Facts: What You Must Know about the Wintering Process of an Individual Bee and of the Colony as a Whole. . . . 215 The Colony’s Main Job During the Winter . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 The Thermal Physics of a Wintering Colony . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Bee Respiration in the Winter Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 The Role of Water in the Wintering Process . . . . . . . . . . . 228 The Search for the Ideal Home for a Bee Colony. . . . . . . . . 235 The Physiological Condition of a Colony as It Enters the Winter Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Winter Reserves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 The Location of Winter Reserves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 The European Dark Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Wintering Indoors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Conclusions to Part IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Afterword to the Second Edition: Natural Beekeeping Accessible to All . . . . . . . . . . . . 257