After a chance meeting in the pub, Roger Morgan-Grenville and his friend Duncan decide to take up beekeeping. Their enthusiasm matched only by their ignorance, they are pitched into an arcane world of unexpected challenges.

Coping with many setbacks along the way, they manage to create a colony of beehives, finishing two years later with more honey than anyone knows what to do with. By standing back from their normal lives and working with the cycle of the seasons, they emerge with a new-found understanding of nature and a respect for the honeybee and the threats it faces.

Wryly humorous and surprisingly moving, Liquid Gold is the story of a friendship between two unlikely men at very different stages of their lives. It is also an uplifting account of the author’s own midlife journey: coming to terms with an empty nest, getting older, looking for something new.

This book explores the current trends and challenges of sustainable goat meat and milk production in different global contexts, providing valuable insights into this industry in adverse environments like mountain, semiarid and arid regions. It also includes contributions from international experts discussing goat reproduction, genetic diversity and improvement, as well topics such as animal health, welfare, socioeconomic aspects, and many other issues regarding the environmentally friendly and economically viable exploitation of goats. This is a highly informative book providing scientific insight for readers with an interest in sustainable agriculture and socio-economic aspects, as well as goat breed conservation, genetic diversity, and veterinary care. These subjects are complemented in a second volume providing a detailed description of more than 40 indigenous goat breeds and several ecotypes found in Asia, Africa, Europe, and America.

Examining sustainable poultry production systems across Europe, this book contains a selected cross section of papers from the 2014 UK Poultry Science Symposium. It reviews essential topics such as resources and supply chains, the global poultry market, risk management, zoonoses and green issues. Providing a compilation of the most current research in the poultry science and production industry, this book is an important resource for both researchers and professionals.

Modelling is a useful tool for decision making in complex agro-industrial scenarios. Containing a selection of the papers presented at the International Symposium of Modelling in Pig and Poultry Production 2013, this book brings together the best and most recent academic work on modelling in the pig and poultry industry, with a particular emphasis on nutrition. It reviews basic modelling concepts, descriptions and applications of production models and new methods and approaches in modelling.

As a model organism, the chick has provided valuable insights into broad issues of development in higher animals. The complex interactions between genetic, hormonal and environmental factors which occur in the developing chick provide a potent argument against unitary causal explanations for differences in behaviour. Study of the behaviour of the chick is also relevant to poultry science and the welfare of domesticated birds. This book reviews research on the development of brain and behaviour in the chick and juxtaposes this with similar work on other avian and, to a lesser extent, mammalian species. It begins by outlining the developmental stages of the chick embryo, including the effects of environmental stimulation. Behaviour and the neurochemistry of development and memory formation in the posthatching period are then discussed. The transitions that occur during the first two to three weeks of posthatching life are described, particularly in terms of changing hemispheric dominance. The final chapter examines avian cognition and some issues of welfare for the domestic chicken. The book provides a thorough review of the subject and will interest workers in animal neurophysiology and behaviour, experimental psychologists, and poultry scientists.

The space, setup, and equipment required to raise and process poultry are minimal when compared to other types of livestock, which is part of what makes chickens such an appealing choice for small-scale meat producers. Expert butcher and teacher Adam Danforth covers the entire slaughtering and butchering process in this photographic guide specifically geared toward backyard chicken keepers and small-farm operations invested in raising meat responsibly. With step-by-step photos, detailed instructions, and chapters dedicated to necessary tools and equipment, essential food safety measures, how to prepare for slaughter and process the birds quickly and humanely, how to break down the carcasses into cuts, and how to package and freeze the cuts to ensure freshness, this comprehensive handbook gives poultry raisers the information they need to make the most of their meat.

Chickens, with their natural beauty and big personalities, are beloved for the humor and wisdom they bring to daily life. Few are better acquainted with chickens' charm than Melissa Caughey, who has introduced the appeal of owning a flock and chronicled the lives and personalities of her own backyard birds in her best-selling books. In Chicken Wisdom Frame-Ups, she delivers that charm for all to enjoy, anywhere a dose of inspiration might be needed. Sage sentiments meet delightful chicken photography on 50 individual cards, and with a pull-out table-top frame included, you can display your favorite card or easily swap it out for one that fits the mood or suits the moment. It's an all-in-one package that delivers the joy of keeping chickens -- without having to clean the coop!

Want to expertly look after alpacas? Would you like a step by step guide on raising alpacas? Read through this book and you'll discover everything you need to know from... Selecting a healthy alpaca, associated costs, housing, husbandry, health and breeding, plus useful frequently asked questions. Each section is covered in detail. You'll also find a breeder's directory detailing sites across America, Canada and the UK plus a list of relevant websites. Discover everything from Which way the alpaca home should face (and why) What important things you need to know about worming What fencing is recommended and what to avoid How to recognise and more importantly how to prevent some common health problems And lots lots more...

Ducks are kept for profit in a great diversity of circumstances in both temperate and tropical climates. Outlining the biology of the domestic duck, this book also combines the authors' considerable practical and scientific experience to provide quantitative descriptions of nutritional and environmental effects on growing and breeding ducks, as well as practical advice on husbandry, housing and management. It is an essential resource for duck industry practitioners, researchers, and students.Peter Cherry worked as Development Manager for a major duck producer before assuming a world-wide role as a consultant. Trevor Morris is a world-renowned poultry scientist who has also worked as a duck consultant. Their combined knowledge of the duck and the duck industry is thus unparalleled.

A beautifully illustrated and thoroughly engaging cultural history of beekeeping - packed with anecdote, humour and enriching historical detail. The perfect gift. "A charming look at the history of beekeeping, from myth and folklore to our practical relationship with bees" Gardens Illustrated "An entertaining collation of bee trivia across the millennia" Daily Telegraph * Sweden's Gardening Book of the Year 2019 * Shortlisted for the August Prize 2019 * Winner of the Swedish Book Design Award for 2019 Beekeeper and garden historian Lotte Moeller explores the activities inside and outside the hive while charting the bees' natural order and habits. With a light touch she uses her encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject to shed light on humanity's understanding of bees and bee lore from antiquity to the present. A humorous debunking of the myths that have held for centuries is matched by a wry exploration of how and when they were replaced by fact. In her travels Moeller encounters a trigger-happy Californian beekeeper raging against both killer bees and bee politics, warring beekeepers on the Danish island of Laeso, and Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey, breeder of the Buckfast queen now popular throughout Europe and beyond, as well a host of others as passionate as she about the complex world of apiculture both past and present. Translated from the Swedish by Frank Perry

"Buzz is a fascinating reminder of the interconnections between humans and animals, even in that most urban of environments, New York City."--Gary Alan Fine, author of Authors of the Storm: Meteorologists and the Culture of Prediction Bees are essential for human survival--one-third of all food on American dining tables depends on the labor of bees. Beyond pollination, the very idea of the bee is ubiquitous in our culture: we can feel buzzed; we can create buzz; we have worker bees, drones, and Queen bees; we establish collectives and even have communities that share a hive-mind. In Buzz, authors Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut convincingly argue that the power of bees goes beyond the food cycle, bees are our mascots, our models, and, unlike any other insect, are both feared and revered. In this fascinating account, Moore and Kosut travel into the land of urban beekeeping in New York City, where raising bees has become all the rage. We follow them as they climb up on rooftops, attend beekeeping workshops and honey festivals, and even put on full-body beekeeping suits and open up the hives. In the process, we meet a passionate, dedicated, and eclectic group of urban beekeepers who tend to their brood with an emotional and ecological connection that many find restorative and empowering. Kosut and Moore also interview professional beekeepers and many others who tend to their bees for their all-important production of a food staple: honey. The artisanal food shops that are so popular in Brooklyn are a perfect place to sell not just honey, but all manner of goods: soaps, candles, beeswax, beauty products, and even bee pollen. Buzz also examines media representations of bees, such as children's books, films, and consumer culture, bringing to light the reciprocal way in which the bee and our idea of the bee inform one another. Partly an ethnographic investigation and partly a meditation on the very nature of human/insect relations, Moore and Kosut argue that how we define, visualize, and interact with bees clearly reflects our changing social and ecological landscape, pointing to how we conceive of and create culture, and how, in essence, we create ourselves. Lisa Jean Moore is a feminist medical sociologist and Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Purchase College, State University of New York. Mary Kosut is Associate Professor of Media, Society and the Arts at Purchase College, State University of New York. In the Biopolitics series

Dairy herd health is an important and universal topic in large animal veterinary practice and farming, covering both preventive medicine and health promotion. With the move towards large-scale farming, the health of the herd is important as an economic unit and to promote the health of the individuals within it. This book focuses on diseases within herds, herd husbandry practices, youngstock management and environmental issues. Major diseases and conditions are covered, including mastitis, lameness, nutrition, metabolic and common infectious diseases from a herd health perspective. It is an essential resource for veterinary practitioners and students, researchers and dairy industry personnel.

Bees play an essential role in the pollination of crops, but they face an increasing number of threats. This book provides information about 32 bee species including their size, habitat, location, nesting and eating habits, plus other interesting facts. A photograph of each species allows easy identification of these beautiful and important insects. Jack Byard is a former mechanic, jewellery craftsman and school technician. He is retired and now lives in Bradford. This is his 13th book in the popular "Know Your" series which also includes Know Your Sheep, Know Your Cattle and Know Your Pigs.