Urban Beekeeping - by Cormac Farrell Farrell (Hardcover)

About the Book

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.

Book Synopsis

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.

Urbanbeekeeping 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.

Review Quotes

"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"

-

Good Organic
Gardening Magazine

"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. "
- The Riot ACT

'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.'
- Stuart Anderson, co-inventor of the Flow Hive

"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."
-Tanya Ha, environmental advocate and science journalist

"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."
-The Senior featured in their Christmas Gifting Guide

"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."
- Organic Gardening Magazine

"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."
-

Amateur
Beekeepers Association

"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."
-Australasian Beekeeper-review by Dr Anna Carrucan.

"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."
- Cristy Burn (via Instagram)

"It's a great book with some fantastic photos. A ripper. Get your copy
and get involved."
- 6PR Weekend Wake Up Radio with Seinor and Jamie Burnett

"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"
-The Canberra Times

"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."
- ABC Canberra - Afternoons with Emma Bickley

"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"
- Australian Bee Journal

"Urban Beekeeping by Cormac Farrell

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."

-Good Reading

About the Author

Cormac
Farrell is an
environmental scientist and beekeeper, best known as the Head Beekeeper for the
Australian Parliament. He manages several apiaries throughout Canberra,
including training apiaries, organic orchards and tall rooftop apiaries,
creating unique food experiences that educate and inspire, pushing the
boundaries of what cities can produce.

In addition to running his own apiaries, Cormac is the
training manager for Canberra Region Beekeeper, where in an average year he
trains over one hundred new beekeepers. He also provides beekeeping support to multiple
international embassies, and has assisted several governments in developing
pollinator planting guides for their urban forests, improving the function of
street trees, parks and gardens.