Increase Essentials

by Lawrence John Connor, Robert Gregory Muir (Editor), Randy Kim (Editor)

This book explains why and how beekeepers can use increase nuclei to solve problems in the beeyard and use them to winter colonies and provide a reliable source of fresh bees, locally acclimatized queens, replacement hives and colonies for operational growth or sale. Connor draws on the concepts of Langstroth, Doolittle, Brother Adam, Mike Palmer and more while integrating his unique academic and commercial beekeeping experiences into this concise and thought-provoking second edition. Adding more methods of making increase colonies and recent developments in the science of bee biology, the second edition expands on its predecessor with rich, colorful photography and diagrams. In less than a decade, the beekeeping industry has made a wide-spread shift to increase nuclei colonies as a means of producing new colonies in the face of heavy losses from poor nutrition, pesticides, virus-mite interactions and general climate change.

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2014

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview, and useful to me in organizing how I do splits and make nucs, but not terribly systematic. You have to work with the author to extract the knowledge. You have to think about why certain techniques are supposed to work, and if you're going to use the underlying principles, you may need to reread and underline, and maybe sketch out what's involved. That's what I've done, and I'd say that for me, it's worth the effort.

[Cynthia Holt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with good info

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information on how and why to increase your bee colonies. Hopefully I'll put this information to work this year in early spring.

[Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually, I read this twice in the last few weeks. Connor writes far easier on the brain and more casual than any Honeybee text I've read so far. I just came home from a demonstration and lecture by Dr. Connor tonight, and I appreciate his simple tone for those not quite new to beekeeping nor advanced.
His main point is that by increasing the number of hives you have through the raising of Nuclear Hives (Nucs or Baby Beehives), which later stay small or become full-sized hives, you can open up the possibilities for your beeyard. The goal is to raise the average honey crop or success rate among your hives while creating more, most of which I can do without buying bees from somebody else, though raised queens come in handy. Once you have enough hives to fully manipulate them together toward greater success, you stand pretty and can do lots of mad sick things.
This book really encouraged me that I'm headed in the right direction.

[James Kolasa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, if you need to know how to propagate bees. High rating probably indicates my bias. 8)

[Charmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the book, wanted better pictures!

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for any beekeeper