Additional information
by Fedor Lazutin (Author), Leo Sharashkin (Editor), Mark Pettus (Translator)
Keep healthy, productive bees without chemicals, stress, or constant intervention. Master beekeeper reveals natural methods that work with bee biology instead of against it, producing more honey with less work while building stronger, disease-resistant colonies.
Why Chemical-Free Beekeeping Works Better:
Conventional beekeeping relies on treatments that weaken bee immunity and create dependency. This natural approach strengthens hives from within, resulting in healthier bees, better honey yields, and dramatically reduced colony losses.
What You'll Master
- Natural hive management - work with bee instincts rather than fighting them
- Chemical-free disease prevention - build immunity through nutrition and environment
- Stress-free seasonal care - minimal intervention techniques that bees prefer
- Honey harvesting ethics - take surplus while ensuring winter survival
- Problem diagnosis - read bee behavior to prevent issues before they start
Results You Can Expect:
Beekeepers using these methods report 90% lower colony losses, 40% higher honey yields, and 75% less time spent on hive maintenance compared to conventional chemical-dependent approaches.
Transform beekeeping from constant worry to joyful partnership with nature. Your bees (and your harvest) will thank you.
Front Jacket
THE UPDATED BESTSELLING GUIDE TO LAID-BACK BEEKEEPING FOR ALL, NATURALLY!
This book should be on every beekeeper's bookshelf.
-- HANK WILL, author, Plowing with Pigs, Editorial Director, Mother Earth News
Learn about natural methods of beekeeping with minimal work and no boxes to lift.
-- MICHAEL BUSH, author, The Practical Beekeeper
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 bee-friendly approach to apiculture that is fun, healthful, rewarding, and accessible to all. This new edition includes dozens of color photographs, new hive management techniques, and an updated version of "Lazutin hive" plans. Additional coverage includes:
- Keeping bees naturally without interfering in their lives
- Starting an apiary for free by attracting local bee swarms
- Building low-maintenance hives that mimic how bees live in nature
- Keeping colonies healthy and strong without any drugs or sugar
- Helping bees to overwinter successfully even in harsh climates
- Enhancing local nectar plant resources
- Producing truly natural honey without robbing the bees
- Reversing the global bee decline...right in your backyard!
Keeping Bees with a Smile is an invaluable resource for apiculture beginners and professionals alike, complete with plans for making bee-friendly, well-insulated horizontal hives with extra- deep frames, plus other fascinating beekeeping advice you won't find anywhere else.
A blueprint for creating a harmonious relationship between bees and their human partners.
-- Bonnie Morse, Director, Bee Audacious
Fedor Lazutin was a natural beekeeper, homesteader, and advocate for habitat restoration and sustainable living in Russia.
Leo Sharashkin, PhD, is a full-time natural beekeeper and founder of HorizontalHive.com. He has edited numerous books on natural beekeeping, writes for major magazines, and speaks internationally on bee-friendly beekeeping. He keeps bees in the Ozarks of southern Missouri.
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.
Back Jacket
Keep healthy, productive bees without chemicals, stress, or constant intervention. Master beekeeper reveals natural methods that work with bee biology instead of against it, producing more honey with less work while building stronger, disease-resistant colonies.
Why Chemical-Free Beekeeping Works Better:
Conventional beekeeping relies on treatments that weaken bee immunity and create dependency. This natural approach strengthens hives from within, resulting in healthier bees, better honey yields, and dramatically reduced colony losses.
What You'll Master
- Natural hive management - work with bee instincts rather than fighting them
- Chemical-free disease prevention - build immunity through nutrition and environment
- Stress-free seasonal care - minimal intervention techniques that bees prefer
- Honey harvesting ethics - take surplus while ensuring winter survival
- Problem diagnosis - read bee behavior to prevent issues before they start
Results You Can Expect:
Beekeepers using these methods report 90% lower colony losses, 40% higher honey yields, and 75% less time spent on hive maintenance compared to conventional chemical-dependent approaches.
Transform beekeeping from constant worry to joyful partnership with nature. Your bees (and your harvest) will thank you.
Author Biography
Fedor Lazutin was one of Europe's leading natural beekeepers, the author of bestselling natural beekeeping guide Keeping Bees with a Smile. He founded a number of model apiaries southwest of Moscow, Russia, championed habitat restoration projects, and served as the first president of Russia's Ecovillage Union.
Leo Sharashkin, PhD, is a full-time natural beekeeper and founder of HorizontalHive.com He has edited numerous books on natural beekeeping, writes for major magazines, and speaks internationally on bee-friendly beekeeping. He holds a PhD in Forestry from the University of Missouri and a master's in Natural Resources from Indiana University. Sharashkin's forest apiaries are composed entirely of local wild honeybees housed in bee-friendly horizontal hives. He lives in the Ozarks of southern Missouri.
