>  everyone can suggest a good BEGINNING beekeeper book, but there aren't a whole lot of books out there for 3rd-year beekeepers.

I was just thinking about that last night when I showed my partner my copy of Florence Naile's book “The Life of Langstroth,” which I bought in 1977, in my third year of beekeeping. I had already acquired Root's "The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture" (1975 edition) which is a book that can carry one through many successive years. I also bought Langstroth's "Hive and Honey Bee," 1853 edition, which was reprinted in 1977. I subsequently gave the ABC to a student of mine, but still have the other two. By now I have a half dozen "ABCs" from various years.

In 1979 (my 5th year in beekeeping) I bought Roger Morse's "Rearing Queen Bees" and Laidlaw's "Contemporary Queen Rearing" which both came out that year (still have them) and embarked on the enterprise of selling queen cells to beekeepers. Laidlaw's book has dozens of methods for raising queens, whereas Morse's has only one (his method). At that point I realized that I had to find my own way, as there is no one right way to do beekeeping.

The above statement "there aren't a whole lot of books out there for 3rd-year beekeepers," is simply not true. I would suggest the current "Hive and Honey Bee," the current "ABC & XYZ," and of course, "The Beekeepers Handbook," by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile, first published in 1978, and updated regularly to the present. These books are comprehensive enough that beekeepers at any level of expertise can benefit from them. 

Peter L Borst

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html