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Bees, Biology & Management
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| 9780968012345 |
| ISBN10: 0968012345 |
| ISBN13: 9780968012345 |
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| Enviroquest Ltd. |
| Kevan, Peter G. |
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Language: English
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| $48.70 |
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| You are viewing prices in Canadian currency. |
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| “Bees, Biology and Management.” is not just about "How to keep bees" but why bees are kept, what it is about them that makes them amenable to management and domestication: their anatomy, physiology, behaviour, diversity, ecology, and value to agriculture and the natural world. Of course, the main study organisms are European races of the Western honeybee, Apis mellifera, but other bees are far from forgotten. This book contains much basic insect biology (entomology), with bees at the centre. The book has eleven sections, and a total of 51 short chapters. The order of the chapters represents only one way in which bee biology, ecology and behaviour can be integrated and explained as applicable to beekeeping. There are many cross-references so readers can follow their own leads to understanding the complex whole.
The first part of the book (SECTIONS I to III) introduces castes and anatomy of social bees. That provides a framework for understanding colony structure and bees as micromanipulators of their own world (SECTIONS IV to VI). Honeybees pass through the four stages, egg, larvae, pupa, and imago (adult) and develop into different castes according to genetic programming and nutrition. Development and age dependent behaviour are under hormonal control. The colony itself goes through a seasonal cycle, and in this book the example of the north temperate zone is used. The interesting features of bees' mating and genetics combine naturally with colonial reproduction, swarming, supersedure, absconding, laying-workers, and migration. Activities associated with food-gathering and efficiency help explain optimal foraging theory.
No book on bee biology is complete without a description of the remarkable ways that bees communicate by chemistry (pheromones) and by dance about conditions and places within the hive and outside. Remarkable is the capacity for honeybees, and other bees, to incubate brood and stay warm over winter. Insects' nervous systems show many functional similarities to our own, despite differences in structure. The brain, of about 850,000 cells, and segmental ganglia are not only in neural processors, but also work in chemical control of development and behaviour. Sensory systems and organs, such as vision, olfaction, taste, mechanical senses, and others (SECTION VII) link through the brain, with inputs stored in memory and used in complex behaviours, including an amazing capacity for learning and navigation.
From a strong biological basis, the book proceeds to beekeeping. Historical roots are followed from the Stone Age to modern apiculture. The year for a beekeeper is described briefly, relying heavily on basic information in SECTIONS IV to VI. As with all domesticated organisms, bees suffer diseases, predators and pests (SECTION IX). The “why” of beekeeping concerns hive products; i.e. honey, bees' wax, pollen, royal jelly, venom, brood, and the far more valuable service that bees provide through pollination (SECTION X). Pollination services to agriculture, to nature, rely heavily on honeybees, but other bees are important (SECTION XI). Some are integrated in agriculture, and the conservation of all pollinators is now a matter of international concern.
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