In this book, Gunther Hauk "invites the reader to experience the innate intelligence and wonder of the natural world.” In addition to being a guide to the care and protection of the honeybee, that invaluable member of our life sustaining agroecology, this popular text demonstrates how the ills plaguing our honeybees proceed from the ills in our manner of living and doing business. Recently reprinted due to popular demand, this life-ennobling book could just as easily be titled “Toward Saving our Humanity!"

Topics covered include:

• the hive: form and substance
• wax
• queen, workers, drones
• swarming
• honey and pollen
• health, parasites, diseases, and treatments
• outlook

Excerpts:
“In a temperate climate the honeybee needs housing for warmth and protection, for unlike the wasp, it cannot build that outer sheath by itself. When bees live in the wild, they are free to find residence in the crevice of a rock wall or inside a hollow tree. However, as the honeybee became domesticated, men found and developed other types of homes for htem. As early as prehistoric times, mankind possessed an instinct for habitat, and showed an intuitive sense for the effects of forms on living beings. By perceiving the nature of the bee it was obvious to these peoples that a round shape was appropriate for a hive. Through study and observation, we can now conclude that early man was quite perceptive and correctly understood the instinctual nature of bees and their innate ‘architectural’ requirements for a healthy and productive beehive.”

“People who have found themselves in the midst of a mighty swarm or who have observed this incredible act from a distance cannot help but admit that the experience itself evokes rather indescribable thoughts and emotions. Swarming is a powerful and vibrant expression of a healthy, well-functioning bee colony. It is at once mysterious, lucid and transcendent. Swarming supersedes, by its very display and magnitude, all that is commonplace, ‘status quo’ and subdued in our everyday human activity. We may discover upon closer examination why swarming is so intrinsic to the bee’s physical and spiritual health.”

Author Bio: Gunther Hauk has been a teacher, lecturer, biodynamic gardener and beekeeper for more than thirty-five years. He co-founded the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge, NY in 1996, where he developed a successful biodynamic part-time training and taught at Sunbridge College. Together with his wife Vivian he co-founded Spikenard Farm, Inc. in 2006, a non-profit organization with a honeybee sanctuary at its heart. Over these decades, he has given many workshops on the successful use of biodynamic principles and sustainable/biodynamic beekeeping methods throughout the United States. In his book “Toward Saving the Honeybee” (2002) he calls for a radical change from current approaches to beekeeping. The Spikenard Honeybee Sanctuary is now located in Floyd, VA.

Related Literature: Bees, by Rudolf Steiner

Author: Gunther Hauk
Paperback: 81 pages
Illustrations: Black and white and color photos
Publisher: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association
Dimensions: 9 x 5.5 inches