Urban Beekeeping: The city as a hive

Urban Beekeeping is an inspiring and in-depth guide to beekeeping in urban spaces, written by expert Cormac Farrell. From hive selection to planting flora to feed your bees, discover how to set up and manage a thriving urban hive, and the positive impact this has through creating space for nature and facilitating local, sustainable food production. ‘This is a thorough, informative and delightful book. Open to any page and you''ll find fascinating stories, intriguing bee-facts and beautiful pictures grounded in Cormac''s broad experience and deep knowledge.’ “This excellent book is a great summation of urban beekeeping. Buy this book for yourself, your bee club or interest group. You won’t be disappointed by Cormac Farrell’s wisdom, experience and his insights into the future” “It’s a great book with some fantastic photos. A ripper. Get your copy and get involved.” "Beeautiful! Delightful and essential reading for the beginner and advanced bee lover alike. Cormac Farrell’s enthusiasm, intelligence, thoughtfulness and warmth infuse every page. This is not just a book about bees. Woven through the buzz about our honey-making friends is an underlying message about our relationship with nature and our responsibility to shape a future we can share with all living things."

“Urban Beekeeping can be read in one sitting to learn how to bring the natural landscape into our cities – or as a reference book to go back to when you can’t work out why you don’t have as much honey as last year. Through it, Cormac takes his readers on the journey of creating a thriving urban hive – from what species are best, to setting up the apiary, what flowers bees are partial to, what sort of hives suit different environments and managing hives.“

“Lifting the lid on the hives on the hill” about the launch of Urban Beekeeping and the launch at the Museum of Australian Democracy. “Part instruction manual for urban beekeeping, part manual for city planners, governments and citizens in creating a more sustainable way of life” “If you’ve ever wondered about keeping bees but were unsure about what type of bee, what type of hive, what type of space, what are the rules, this is a fabulous read. It’s useful for backyard beekeepers who want to have hives on rooftops or balconies. It’s useful if you want to support native stingless bees or make your own urban bee hotels. It’s useful just to know you can make a difference by choosing an organic-certified pesticide and applying it at night, when the bees are asleep, or before your plants flower, so bees don’t accidentally take home poisoned nectar. I loved this book – a fabulous, good-looking, exciting and informative read.” “If you’re looking for a book that ticks all the boxes for the urban beekeeper, put this book on your list. It’s essential reading for anyone who keeps bees in a small town or an inner-city concrete jungle, in a backyard, on a balcony, or on the rooftop of a city skyscraper. It’s about becoming better acquainted with the needs of your local environment through beekeeping, and bolstering the buffet of flowers for native pollinators and honey bees to live together sustainably.” “Cormac Farrell is an environmental scientist and beekeeper, best known as the Head Beekeeper for the Australian Parliament. Read the introduction from Urban Beekeeping and find out about Cormac Farrell''s love for beekeeping.” “The book is for people who have been keeping bees for a bit or they want to get into native bees in particular, but they are looking to move beyond the backyard. I am looking to connect with community now. It''s for city planners, for people running community gardens so they look at what are the other species, particularly native bees, you can add and how do you add them? What do you do in terms of bee hotels, what plants do you plant, how do you design a space for native bees... how do you set up a rooftop garden and rooftop apiary ... it fundamentally changes how you see urban landscapes.”

“Urban Beekeeping is an easy read filled with beautiful photographs, entertaining stories and clear how-to information, making this an instruction manual to adapt your urban surrounds to a haven for native bees, honey bees and other pollinators.”

“Reveals Farrell to be all about transforming our cities to produce food, nurture wildlife and create connection. Mostly, the book is an excellent practical guide to starting your own hive, plants to feed your bees, the pros and cons of different hives, and care and management, with sections on pests and diseases and varroa mite. It will help you fall in love with bees.” “Takes readers through the process of creating a thriving urban hive, covering topics including various bee species, setting up your apiary, planting to feed your bees, the different types of hive, connecting with your bees and managing the hive.” “Urban Beekeeping is not just an instruction book on how to set up your own apiary, entice some bees into it then manage the hive, it is also a work of apian philosophy. Our survival is dependent on the survival of bees, of course, and Farrell finds it endlessly amusing that for all our magnificent technology. Literature and art we are completely dependent on bugs in a box to feed ourselves”

An instruction manual for change, Urban Beekeeping explores how we can adapt urban spaces to create a more sustainable future, both for bees and for ourselves.

Urban beekeeping has become a booming pastime in cities throughout the world. But why just fit bees into our cities, when we could reshape our cities to fit them?

This guide from beekeeping expert Cormac Farrell takes readers through the process of creating a thriving urban hive, covering topics including:

• The various bee species, and how to determine which will thrive in your space.
• Setting up your apiary.
• Planting to feed your bees.
• The different types of hive and how best to utilise them.
• Connecting with your bees and managing the hive.

Keen beekeepers, environmentally conscious gardeners and even urban planners will find a wealth of knowledge on how to create local green spaces where nature can thrive. From community gardens to rooftop apiaries, cities contain vast potential for sustainable food production. Urban Beekeeping explores how – and why – we should tap into this potential and manage bees for beauty, food, and the local environment.

This is more than a manual for beekeepers and gardeners who want to go beyond their backyard; it is a guide to changing the whole concept of our cities, to make them places where we produce quality food locally and create spaces for native species.

• | Author: Cormac Farrell
• | Publisher: Exisle Publishing
• | Publication Date: Oct 02, 2024
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781922539854
• | ISBN-10: 1922539856