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"Keeping bees in a more natural way is growing in popularity throughout the world. Older hive designs are being reappraised, and methods that have been used for over a century are being questioned. The People's Hive of Abbé Émile Warré (1867-1951) is one of the older designs that beekeepers find particularly attractive. Several commercial honey producers have already adapted it to fir their needs. Warréone-size box with top-bars, natural comb and insulting quilt, create ideal conditions for colony vitality and survival, as well as reducing consumption of honey stores in winter. The hive is now used worldwide in climates ranging from the tropics to the taïga."--Page 4 of cover.

In recent years, beekeepers on several continents have been suffering heavy loss of colonies. If we systematically investigate factors causing the losses, we can justifiably ask whether the way in which honey bees are kept is part of the problem. Could hive design, frames, foundation, intrusion, artificial queen breeding, drone suppression, queen excluders, artificial feeding, medication, transhumance and overstocking - all elements of modern beekeeping - be reducing the vitality of bees? This book examines the issues surrounding these practices, drawing where possible on the primary literature in bee biology and apiculture, in order to identify an approach to keeping bees that is more bee-appropriate. It also analyses the fundamental attitudes underlying the different ways in which we choose to keep bees.