Book Description

Customer Reviews (10)

A real beekeeper's time machine
I've been keeping bees now for a year and thought it would be neat to read this classic text without spending hundreds of dollars for an original copy on ebay.Rev. Langstroth's writing style is really beautiful and definately gives the reader a visual in your mind.It's so interesting to see how science and religion were so closly mixed during this time period.I love how he affirms creation through the science of bees.Very cool book but because of the older style ornate writing it can be difficult to read at times.

Great basic Beekeeping.. olde school
Beekeeping the way it was.. before all the chemicals and big business.. when most everyone had a hive or 2 as the only sweetener you could afford.

Informative, but curiously flawed
I'm editing this to add that the publisher, Dover Publications rapidly responded to my query in regard to the manufacturing error explained below, and sent me a replacement copy. If I were able, I would increase my rating to 4 stars. It misses getting five because, while it contains muchinformation that is both valuable and valid today, substantial portions of the text are devoted to convincing the skeptics of the 1850's.

To canvass the beekeeping territory, I picked up a few titles on bees, including Langstroth's Hive and the Honeybee, which appealed to both my desire to raise bees and my interest in American History.

I was quite surprised then to find that at page 160, Langstroth's exposition on artificial swarming ends in mid-sentence. The next 30 pages are devoted to the heros of Celtic mythology. Though I am of Scots and Irish descent, I knew next to nothing, of Celtic mythology beyond that cribbed by T.H. white. Thanks to a production error at Dover, I can now sustain 15 to 20 minutes of cocktail party banter about the Welsh name, Caledvwlch, of Arthur's sword, Escalibur, (from, mind you, the Latin Caliburnis) and the parallels with, if not blatant plagairism by, Malory, of the Cuchulainn stories, as the foundation stones of Arthurian legend were set in place.

Aside from this flaw however, Langstroth remains a powerful primer on the beekeeping art. One well worth reading in an age where organic methods hold promise in the effort to combat Chronic Collapse Disorder.

When Reverend Langstroth developed his methods of hive management, organic beekeeping was the only kind that existed. His discussions of the means and methods for combating the parasites and diseases that afflicted bees 150 years ago are as applicable today when it appears that commercial bee operations must radically change or perish, as they were before and after the civil war when chemical means for bee management simply did not exist.

Quaint in language, Langstroth nevertheless delivers, and while I purchase my hive equipment from a modern manufacturer, I am confident that armed with only Langstroth and the tools my great grandfather left me, I could build an equally good, and substantially similar hive.

As modern petroleum based agriculture begins to sway and collapse under the weight of genetically modified organisms, hydrocarbon based fertilizers and pesticides, leached out soil, antibiotic resistant strains of disease, subsurface compaction, and the erosion of topsoil, it is delightful to discover that the knowledge of largely preindustrial agrarians has been preserved. Their methods remain reasonably achievable today and demonstrate a possible pathway back to small scale, sustainable production methods largely free of the industrial accoutrement under which farmers stumble to remain profitable today.

very hard to understand unless you're one hundred years old
I don't recommend this book except for it's historical value, it is hard to understand unless you're familiar with the way people talked 150 years ago.

Indispenable beekeeping primer
After reading this book, I can fully appreciate why Rev. L. L. Langstroth was dubbed "the father of modern beekeeping". As a novice beekeeper, I am always on the look out for "how to" books on beekeeping. I wish that I had read this book BEFORE I setup my first hive; I would have been able to get my bees through their first year with a lot less stress on them and me. The book explains the reasons behind the bees behavior - this is invaluable information, for just like training a dog or a horse, if you can understand what is motivating their actions you can better shape the results to your needs and desires. I highly recommend this book to both novice and experienced beekeepers - get the book, read it, and practice its principles - you will be glad you did!!
... Read more

Book Description
Banned for many years by the Franco regime, Cela's masterpiece presents a panoramic view of the degredation and suffering of the lower-middle class in post-Civil War Spain. Readers are introduced to over a hundred characters through a series of starkly rendered interlocking vignettes, transforming this book from a social document into a towering work of inventive fiction. Filled with violence, hunger, and compassion, The Hive captures the ambitions and constraints of life under a dictatorship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The fellowship of the cafe
In "The Hive", a most appropriate title, Cela recreates the everyday life of Madrid in the 1940's, centered around a small cafe and the life of its employees and clients. This place is the real protagonist of the novel, as we are witnesses to the small tragedies, triumphs, fights and passions of the people who live around it. It is verily a hive, an endless show of life with all its grandiosity, sordidness, pettiness and small acts of love and redemption. For those who know the modern-day Madrid, a cosmopolitan, prosperous place, it should be reminded that this book portrays the city right after the bitter Spanish Civil War, during the first days of Franco's dictatorship. Under Franco, Spain was a poor, provincial, backwards place where the most primitve form of Roman Catholicism was the religion of state, where the Catholic Church reigned supreme and where political repression was everywhere. Life wasn't easy in Spain in those days, and though this is not by any means a political novel, it is useful to remember this as we look at the lives of the many characters in this moving and excellent story.

A canvas and people's lives
It's a very refreshing book. Particularly how it's composed and how the stories develop. There is something about the artist's technique that will make you remember this book. Imagine yourself thousands of feet above the ground from where you can view the neighbourhoods of a big city. All at once. And you observe people in space and time creating a beautiful pattern of life and its richness. This could be any city anywhere in any age (though we know its Spain) because this pattern of human life is very central to our existence. Each paragraph is an incident that relates to other paragraphs in a very sketchy way and picks up its thread somewhere else when you least expect it. Also be prepared for a multi-dimensional story with one very important dimension missing - time and I think on purpose. Because it's a snapshot, it does not aspire to be a video, there in lies its beauty. Take a blank canvas and put threads of various colors in a random design and then step back. You may not remember the threads but you will not forget the impression.

A day in the life of Franco's Spain.
"The Hive" is the story of a coffee shop in Spain, frequented by a wide assortment of every-day Spanish citizens. It is an interesting narrative of colorful characters. There are a few tense moments when one realizes the fact that this is the Spain of Franco's rule, and a character runs afoul of the authorities once or twice, but by and large, this is a normal novel with an interesting story to tell. It is enjoyable to read and nice to follow the various characters, but Cela will remind the astute reader in a very subtle fashion, but an unequivocal one, that this is Franco's Spain, an isolated universe of political peril, giving this novel a second tier, a dark cloud which overhangs the proceedings. Readers who enjoy the multivarious tales of small town inhabitants and their common taverns, or readers who enjoy stories of early twentieth-century Spain will enjoy this story particularly.

obra maestra de un maestro
"La Colmena" pasará a la historia como la obra hispana contemporánea más estudiada en las Universidades Americanas. Entre los diversos estudios destaca una tesis doctoral de la Universidad de California firmada por una tal "Loreena M." que intenta analizar el número de personajes que intervienen en la novela llegando a la conclusión de que son 232 aunque plantea la duda sobre un personaje llamado "Manolo" que aparece en dos ocasiones y que la autora de la tesis no puede asociar. Esta anécdota demuestra el interés suscitado por esta obra publicada a mediados de la década de los 50 y que sirve de puente entre el realismo de Posguerra y las nuevas tendencias de los años 60. La técnica narrativa, denominada por los críticos como calidoscopio, se basa en una estructura coral de los personajes que describen un entorno concreto, el Madrid de la posguerra, haciendo un exhaustivo repaso a la sociedad de la época con sus grandezas y miserias en un periodo temporal muy determinado: cinco días.
Como antesala de esta obra hay que mencionar "Café de Artistas", un relato que Cela escribió a finales de los años cuarenta aunque se público bastante después que "La Colmena". En definitiva una obra compleja que invita a ser releída una y otra vez descubriendo a cada pagina un nuevo matiz con el que completar ese espectro narrativo que surge de la descomposición de la realidad, cuando pasa a través de un prisma óptico llamado Camilo José Cela.

Life
A masterpiece -- and a superb translation. ... Read more

Book Description
The beekeeper's year begins with a late winter hive inspection and ends with "putting the bees to bed" in the autumn. Richard Bonney believes that each beekeeping activity should be performed with an eye toward the overall well-being of the colony, as part of an integrated year-round program of hive management. Long-term success in beekeeping can only be achieved by understanding the intimate lives, behaviors, and motivations of honey bees ; the factors which govern the life of each colony. Richard Bonney explains the reasons behind common practices that many beekeepers perform without really knowing why. He also stresses when to take timely actions that will prevent problems in future seasons. Hive Management offers concise, up-to-date information on the whole range of beekeeping tasks, including: ; How to prevent, control, and capture swarms. ; What you can tell from an outside inspection of your hives. ; When and how to "take the crop" and harvest honey. ; How to successfully requee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Bee Farmer
A good all round book.
The chapters lay it out for the reader, and if that reader is like me you will get a better understand of bees and their needs.
I suggest this book to anyone who is thinking about getting a few hives for the backyard BEFORE they do.Although bee keeping is a enjoyable passtime, there are things that need to be considered and this book will equip the reader with what they need to know.Good evening reading.

Awsome Book
This book is well written and laid out in a great way to make keeping bees easier to understand.Highly reccomend this one.

Nice general book
This is a very readable book - Bonney puts words together well. Not a "must have" in a beekeeper's library but a good general discussion of relevant topics. Assumes basic beekeeping knowledge. Overlaps with his beginner's book (Beekeeping: a Complete Guide); this would be aptly titled "Your Second Year as a Beekeeper."

This one is a keeper (pun intended).
In the past year I have borrowed from the library all the books I could find about beekeeping .This is one I plan to add to my personal library.

Excellent, very informative, a must have reference
Cover the subject in detail for good managemen ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

The Hive and Mankind
This book is not just about bees and the history of beekeeping.This also deals with how bees have been linked to sex, death, food and drink.The book deals with mead, the Church and bees, the Romans and bees, the Renaissance and bees.How bees, and their hives, shaped our ideas of nature, science, government and God.They became the symbols of power, of Kings and Popes, of socialism and order.
There are also lists of recipes for food made from honey and potions made with honey.This is a must for any fan of bees or any beekeeper.
Bee Wilson is a big fan of bees and the honey they produce, going so far as to visit an apiary and, yes, she has been stung.You can feel her wonder and joy at writing her first book on the subject.And it is a joy to read.
But one warning.Mormons are not shown in a good light as the other reviews show.

Questionable Scholarship
I initially enjoyed the book very much, but then I was very taken aback by the blatant religious bigotry in the book toward Mormons.If Ms. Wilson can express such slanted and misinformed views about Mormons in a supposed scholarly work it certainly calls the rest of her scholarship into question.I can't help but doubt the accuracy of the rest of the book -- why would she be accurate in other ways and be so totally inaccurate about Mormons, their origins and what they believe?Her claim that she doesn't "mean to be offensive" rings hollow -- she absolutely does intend to offend, and she absolutely does.Moreover, her sidebars about Mormons and their supposed beliefs have nothing whatever to do with bees and the fact that Utah is the beehive state.It was just Mormon-bashing plain and simple.

My husband (who is not a Mormon, by the way) read that passage and said that he no longer had any interest in reading the book because he found her bigotry so off putting.I would never have purchased the book had I realized it contained that, and I am surprised the publisher allowed her uninformed diatribe to pass through.It is a shame because the premise of the book is interesting.I can't know whether Ms. Wilson is telling the truth in the rest of the book or just sort of making stuff up as she goes along, however, so reading the rest of it at this point seems pointless.

Buzz on!
I picked this book up completely randomly but have loved every moment of it. I am a huge fan of honey, cooking and the convoluted histories of the foods we love. Always a big fan of honey (and bees!) it wasn't until I read this book that I realize how pervasive and longlasting our human fascination (obsession?) with bees has been. It's an easy read - very detailed with lots of great honey and bee trivia throughout the ages. The writer is a Brit and mentions the history of bees and honey in the U.S. only in passing, so people looking for something specific to North America might have to go elsewhere. This is definitely more of a Western European view.

A fun story.
THE HIVE: THE STORY OF THE HONEYBEE AND US joins others which have appeared earlier this year covering the bee - but goes further than most, drawing connections between the hive mentality of the bee and human affairs. Bees appear as symbols of many things and their honey product is widely used in cooking: their story blends myth with science and mankind has long been enamored of the bee. THE HIVE traces mankind's different beliefs about the bee over the decades, gathering history from around the world from science, religion, politics and beyond. Lovely black and white drawings throughout enhance a fun story.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Sweet -- But With A Sting
I love the lore and allure of bees and was anxious to read Bee Wilson's book. And I did enjoy it until I reached page 37 where Ms. Wilson began a section on Mormons and Masons and their use of the hive as symbol. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,I found her comments regarding the church disturbing. After stating "I don't mean to be offensive," she becomes very offensive for the next five pages and then moves on to attack Masonry. She refers to the church's founder, Joseph Smith, as a "troubled youth" with a "disordered mind," and the second president of the church, Brigham Young, she calls a "despotic loon." More than eleven million members of the church around the world revere these men as prophets of God. I think the church's use of the bee and hive as a symbol could have been covered in less offensive manner. My disappointment in her comments ruined my enjoyment of the rest of the book. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is about the inner workings of one of nature's most complex animal societies: the honey bee colony. It describes and illustrates the results of more than fifteen years of elegant experimental studies conducted by the author. In his investigations, Thomas Seeley has sought the answer to the question of how a colony of bees is organized to gather its resources. The results of his research--including studies of the shaking signal, tremble dance, and waggle dance, and other, more subtle means by which information is exchanged among bees--offer the clearest, most detailed picture available of how a highly integrated animal society works. By showing how several thousand bees function together as an integrated whole to collect the nectar, pollen, and water that sustain the life of the hive, Seeley sheds light on one of the central puzzles of biology: how units at one level of organization can work together to form a higher-level entity.

In explaining why a hive is organized the way it is, Seeley draws on the literature of molecular biology, cell biology, animal and human sociology, economics, and operations research. He compares the honey bee colony to other functionally organized groups: multicellular organisms, colonies of marine invertebrates, and human societies. All highly cooperative groups share basic problems: of allocating their members among tasks so that more urgent needs are met before less urgent ones, and of coordinating individual actions into a coherent whole. By comparing such systems in different species, Seeley argues, we can deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that make close cooperation a reality.

Customer Reviews (2)

How to make a machine that makes honey
Thomas Seeley has written an amazing book that will work for many different types of readers at many levels. The book outlines experiments that Seeley did with prepared hives to demonstrate the system dynamics of how a hive adapts to the resources around it. Seeley's style is easy for a layperson to read with clear charts and pictures. This is a great book to savor; read a chapter, then daydream about how these creatures could be constructed to perform their functions.

I got a lot out of the book. First of all, it's a narrative of Seeley's experimental method; he labels a hive (puts the bees in a hive in a refrigerator, pulls them out one by one and puts identifying tags on each), sets up feeding stations with different concentrations of sugar at different distances, then observes behavior to demonstrate how individual variation in bees optimizes the hive's collection of resources. Second, it's a pretty good introduction to bee physiology and the hive's social system. Seeley describes experiments tracking the individual jobs of bees as they age and, in doing so, he covers how and what the bees do. Third, Seeley reviews and describes the previous literature, giving a history of behavioral study of bees. Finally, he develops his thesis regarding the hive as a system, with parallels to systems theory and studies of hierarchies of organization.

This is a fun read; easy to get through, thought provoking, giving you appreciation for the author's work and for the creatures that are his subject.

One Amazing Book about Bees
This is a special scientific book, for the author tells the reader not only WHAT we know about the inner workings of honey bee colonies, but also HOW we know it.Through simple but graceful writing, accompanied by manydiagrams, Seeley takes you on a step-by-step journey through hisexperimental analysis of how the members of a bee colony work together togather the nectar, pollen, and water that they need.I think anyoneinterested in seeing how a human has dissected the complex internalorganization of a bee hive will find this a rewarding read.I especiallyliked chapter 6, where Seeley explains that the bees have several kinds ofcommunication dances, not just the famous waggle dance, to activate morebees for making honey. ... Read more

Book Description
Wilks was a space marine with a near-fatal flaw:  he had a heart.  Billie was a child, the only survivor of a far-flung colony outpost.  Thrown together in the last hellish night of an alien invasion, Billie and Wilks helped each other get out alive.  Thirteen years later Wilks is in prison, and Billie lives in a mental institution, the nightmare memories of the massacre at Rim seared into her mind.  Now the government has tapped Wilks to lead an expedition to the aliens' home planet to bring back a live alien.  But the competition on Earth to develop the aliens as a new weapons system is brutal.  When Wilks's team departs on their mission, a trained assassin trails them.  And what follows is no less than guerrilla warfare on the aliens' planet--and alien conquest on Earth! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (43)

Good book
My teenagers were having problems finding the book in the stores, they enjoyed the Alien/Predator series.

Good book
Minimum Maturity Level - Teen
Extreme violence and gore.Mild language.

Previous Reading Required - None
Seems to be the start of an epic series.

Reading Level - Average
Easy to keep up with.

Rate of Development - Average
Takes a bit to get background on the characters but not too long.

The Story - Good
Aliens found.A group of marines sent to destroy them.At the same time, a queen is brought to earth for study.

My Suggestion - Recommended
I liked this one.There is not much of a plot but its good action.It was a good story save for a few things.The ending was one of those preparing for a sequel endings so there was really no real climax to be found.The title of the book gave me the idea that it starts off as the earth is overrun but it seems like it only just tells the story of how it got overrun with a side quest being told with Wilks and Billie.I would recommend this but only if you plan on reading the sequels after.

Earth Hives
This was a gift to a friend. He said it was quite good.

Better than Alien vs. Predator
Having read all three installments of this series, I feel that the first book - Earth Hive - was the best. Since the movies all deal with faraway worlds and distant spaceships, choosing Earth as the setting of this book was a good, new angle for a novel. There is a really lurid enjoyment to seeing the places you visit get it (ala Independence Day).

Earth Hive focuses on a Marine named Wilkes and an escaped mental patient called Billie. Several subplots build the action, ranging from the marine squad sent to destroy the aliens' home planet to the arms dealers that see the aliens' as a potential weapon. As the title might imply, the Earth faces a danger of alien infestation.

The scenes are very reminiscent of the movie Aliens, and the characters could well be taken from that movie and dropped into this book without a problem. Perry uses some interesting presentation of the aliens in his book to make Earth Hive an enjoyable read. For a page or two, the book takes a documentary-like script to examining the aliens' biology. That can be a potentially dangerous plot device in a novel, but Perry pulled it off nicely. This book is what it is, and in that regard it succeeds. Three stars - average.

Aliens Earth Hive
After reading S.Perrys 'Earth Hive' I found myself wanting more, and before I knew it I had worked my way through 8 aliens books, 3 AVP books and 3 Predator books. From the first page of the first Aliens book I was hooked and I must admit nothing has ever been able to grab my mind and keep me thrilled and the need to keep me reading.

From a small age I have never really been interested in much reading, but being a fan of the Aliens movies and receiving the first 3 aliens books as gifts, I thought to myself that I would take the time and read them, and I am not regretting this decision.

The story is quite simple, humanity has fallen into a world of greed, living for the wants of life, not the needs. And during these sorrowful years we find ourselves in hell, as the beginning of the war for Earth begins. Alien eggs are stolen from a science facility and spread across the globe, and within a year man has to live in space stations and almost unhabitable planets.

Each of the books follows an almost linear pattern of story telling, we are introduced to almost doomed individuals and their growing struggle to live in a world and space inhabited by monsters. The books themselves originate from Graphic novels that would be inspiration for the books, and each page you can see this. The description jumps out at you, as each Xenomorph attack does, and you want to turn the page to see who lives, who dies and who, well becomes a lifeless host for the aliens.

S.Perry started with a great read, and with the help of his daughter who joined him and wrote her own stories, was met up with many other writers, and each one did a great job, bringing likable and hated characters, and the stories that would make you just hope that Earth would not be taken over by these creatures. But with each of the novels, you learn that man itself is far worse in nature than these creatures.

Thank you for all the authors who would write the books that would make me wish to continue the series and I hope to see on the bookstore shelves, one more story that would take me to a world where power and greed outways the growth of such a devastating species.

Earth Hive began it all, read it, it will scare you into reading the others...! ... Read more

Product Description
A SEQUEL OVER 70 YEARS IN THE MAKING
Jimmy Hayes had a bad feeling the moment he arrived at Kharkhov Station, and it had nothing to do with the cold, the snow, and the four solid months of darkness at the South Pole. But when mummies were discovered in the mountains, Hayes knew the cause of his bad feeling. Only he didn’t know what would happen when the ruins of a pre-human civilization was discovered in a series of sub-surface caverns. That was when the real trouble at Kharkhov Station began...

Tim Curran (author of Skin Medicine) presents a stunning sequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A Good Pastiche
IF you are a fan of HPL's outre 'fiction', and particularly of 'At the Mountains of Madness' (ATMOM, as aficionados refer to it), THEN you really MUST read "HIVE". IMHO,I think it incorrect to refer to ATMOM and this story as part of the Cthulhu Mythos, as there are no Cthuluians and no distracting volumes of elder lore; while nary a sound of 'Tekeli-li' [if you don't remember, see the very end of ATMOM] is to be heard in this sequel (although it often seems to be immanent!), nevertheless the saga of the pentasymmetric Old Ones is carried to the next (nest?)step.
Read and enjoy.

Unoriginal, but still fun
Tim Curran's HIVE is a workmanlike science fiction horror novel, fun in parts but not earthshaking. Billed as a sequel to H.P.Lovecraft's celebrated novel "At The Mountains Of Madness", the book tacks on the entire plot (and most of the set pieces) of Nigel Kneale's BBC serial "Quatermass and the Pit", perhaps better known in the US in its movie incarnation as "Five Million Years To Earth". To this mix Curran also adds the central conceit of Kneale's last Quatermass story, known in the States as "The Quatermass Conclusion", and large chunks of John Carpenter's version of "The Thing". The resulting stew is quite entertaining, if heavy-handed in parts.

This borrowing doesn't make the book a bad one, but it is annoying as Curran is obviously a skilled writer who - with a little more effort and a decent editor - could be a really good one. Hopefully as Curran continues to write, he'll become confident enough in his abilities to come up with his own plots in future.

Wanted to like it...but...
Let me start by taking Christ's name is vein. Christ.

Now to move on. The main problem with this book is the writing. It's just not very good. The use of language is so distracting infact that it made it impossible to enjoy the story. My main gripe is the fact that the author keeps shifting the focus from the characters to the reader. Rather than show you how the character feels about a situation Mr. Curran tells the reader how the reader would feel in that situation by constantly using "you". It's distracting,presumptous and completely pulled me out of the story everytime it happened, which is often.

I appreciate the effort that went into the novel and the general ideas were interesting, but if you are a fan of craftsmanship in writing, I can't in good faith suggest you read this book. I also can't help but think a good editor could have solved many of the problems of this book. A shame really.

It's fine as a stand-alone novel
I had very high expectations of book that is supposed to be a sequel to myfavorite H.P.Lovecraft story. My expectations weren't quite met. But, there's plenty of dread to make this a good horror novel, if you can somehow ignore that it's supposed to be a sequel. I've read the novel twice and I enjoyed it more the second time around.

Not bad, but not on the mark either
A fairly-good sequel to ATMOM, but not on the mark.From little things (such as the stereotypical authority figure being a villain and the free-spirits the heroes) to excessive emphasis on profanity instead of literary.Good for a beach paperback, but not worthy of Lovecraft.

Plus, I have an issue with the book cover.There are no shoggoths in the novel!I want my shoggoths, dangit!!!:-) ... Read more

Book Description

In spring and summer, honeybees gather nectar to make into honey. These fascinating insects live and work together in complicated societies, complete with queen bees and workers. Read and find out about honeybees and their creation -- honey!

Customer Reviews (1)

really detailed and fabulous
not only did my 4yo daughter learn a ton from and love reading this book, but i did too! very clear, detailed, and interesting. we love this! ... Read more

Book Description
It is estimated that one out of five persons in the United States experiences at least one episode of hives in their lifetime. That is approximately sixty million people in the U.S., almost twice the population of California. Even if the actual number is over-estimated by fifty percent because of inaccurate diagnosis, thirty million remains an impressive number. Approximately five to ten percent of these patients may experience symptoms from six weeks up to two years or longer. This suggests that 1.5 to 3 million individuals in the U.S experience chronic hives.

There is a paucity of materials to assist health care professionals (HCP) and patients on these conditions.There is in fact no existing publication, past or present, that provides the practical approach discussed in this book for the evaluation and treatment of these conditions. The book will appeal to patients who are desirous of a self-help approach and to HCPs who need time-saving guidance to organize and standardize the evaluation of these conditions.

Many of the common questions that are asked by patients are answered in this book. It is our experience that addressing the following questions allays anxiety that patients experience and will improve their understanding as to why their symptoms are sometimes not diagnosed or brought under control.
•What are urticaria and angioedema?
•Why is it difficult to find the cause of urticaria and/or angioedema?
•Is there a common mechanism that causes urticaria and/or angioedema?
•Why do urticaria and/or angioedema remain only for a short time in some individuals, while other patients experience symptoms for longer periods, sometimes months or years?
•Can the duration of symptoms be predicted for chronic urticaria and/or angioedema?
•Why aren't antihistamines completely effective in treating urticaria and/or angioedema?
•How can you determine whether a food, food additives, dyes, preservatives, or undetected allergens are causing urticaria and/or angioedema?
•Do psychological factors play a role in causing urticaria and/or angioedema?

This book is very different than existing medical textbooks as it distills the information from a variety of scientific sources to a level that is understandable for patients and for health care professionals, who may not be familiar with these complex conditions.

This book provides time saving tools to gather information efficiently from patients. Key sections may be reproduced for use with multiple patients. The book organizes and standardizes the evaluation and treatment process and encourages a cooperative approach between HCPs and patients that improves outcomes. It can be used by:

•Health care professionals (HCPs) who can advise their patients to complete a workbook section. Based upon the workbook information, the HCPs can utilize a numeric algorithm to guide them to discussion(s) of possible diagnostic possibilities, laboratory test considerations and treatment recommendations. •Patients, who believe they have hives or swelling, can complete the workbook section. This is shared with the health care professional, who can use the information to consider diagnostic possibilities, laboratory considerations and treatment recommendations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Hives: The Road to Diagnosis and Treatment of Urticaria
Urticaria hives have plagued me for nearly 3 years.Many visits to a Dermatologist and an Allergist plus numerous blood work-ups have not been of any help. Dr. Wanderer's book "Hives: The Road to Diagnosis and Treatment of Urticaria" has been very beneficial in my understanding of Urticaria and has shown me what steps to take in an attempt to pinpoint the cause.I highly recommend this book to anyone who has Urticaria.It may not help you find the cause but it will help you understand what you are faced with.It is my belief that this book should be recommended by all Doctors to people with Urticaria.

Wonderfully validating and great reference material!
I have been a chronic urticaria sufferer for 5 1/2 years and have been on Prednisone for the last 4 1/2 years.My doctor ordered the book after my recommendation and we are using it together to try new medications and therapies.Thank you Dr. Wanderer!

Very helpful for a CU sufferer like myself
Should have gotten this book way before wasting so much time, energy, fraustration, and money on all the different doctors/medications/injections...etc. it is too bad Dr. Wanderer is not in Los Angeles otherwise I would love to see him also refer him to others

A must have for Chronic Urticaria sufferers
This is a terrific book that answers many questions for chronic urticaria sufferers.I wish I had found it sooner.I'm only on my first year of CU, but I really like to use this book as a reference for all the information scattered over the Internet.I brought it to show my allergist/immunologist and he had ordered it too.

UnderstandingHives
I have been battling hives for several months.Dr. Wanderer was the third Dr. I encountered in an attempt to rid myself of this problem.On my first visit with Dr. Wanderer, he recommended a thorough series of testing to try and determine the cause of my outbreak of hives.During our interview time, it was apparent to Dr. Wanderer that I was in need of information on my illness.He suggested I read a book that he had written on the diagnosis and treatment of hives.I would encourage anyone who might have a bout with hives to get this book!It has helped me immensely with the understanding of the illness and more importantly, the diagnosis and treatments.I am still in treatment but I'm doing better and I've stayed the course of treatment ONLY because I have the book to go to for guidance and understanding.I'm hopeful of a positive outcome for my illness now because I have this book for reference.I would not have progressed to this point of recovery if not for the book Dr. Wanderer has published for us!It has given me strength daily! ... Read more

Amazon.com
Anne McCaffrey concludes the saga of Angharad Gwyn, the Rowan, her husband Jeff Raven, and their family of powerful telepathically and telekinetically Talented offspring with The Tower and the Hive. ( The first four books in the series are: The Rowan, Damia, Damia's Children, and Lyon's Pride.)As usual, McCaffrey delivers vividly real characters struggling with personal, political, and ethical issues and finding humane solutions.

Federated Teleport and Telepath, dominated by the Gwyn-Raven clan, provides interstellar shipping and communications for the Star League of Humans and Mrdinis--weasel-like aliens. In following the aggressive, ant-like Hivers, whose "spheres" have repeatedly attacked League worlds, naval vessels have discovered many more habitable planets, including some occupied by Hivers. Who will get to colonize these planets, Humans or Mrdinis? Should all Hivers be destroyed, or is there some way to contain them? Where will more Talents to staff the vital Towers come from? And how best to defeat those whose resentment of the Gwyn-Raven family's powers and friendship with Mrdinis could lead to violence?

McCaffrey's protagonists are four Gwyn-Raven grandchildren, now young adults who find romance and mature while studying both alien races. Old and new fans alike can enjoy her masterful blending of scientific extrapolation and fantasy elements to produce a universe they'll leave regretfully. --Nona VeroBook Description
The long-awaited final volume in the New York Times bestselling Rowan saga.

For generations, the descendents of the powerful telepath known as the Rowan have used their various Talents to help mankind--some are powerful telepaths, others can teleport through space, others are empathic healers. The clan has grown powerful. They have led Earth to ally itself with the alien Mrdini, and together the two races have held back the predatory Hivers, a deadly insectoid species that kills all life it finds.

Like all powerful families, the Rowan clan has also made enemies. There are those who say the treaties with the Mrdini gave away too much--especially, that the Mrdini get more than their fair share of new living space as habitable planets are discovered--that the Hivers should have been exterminated by now, and that far too much power is concentrated in one family.

The clan has two goals to keep the peace: to help the Mrdini control population growth, so that newly discovered planets are distributed more evenly, and to put a final halt to Hiver advances. They are confident of success--if they can survive sabotage and assassination attempts aimed at destroying all they have worked for.

"McCaffrey continues to hone and extend this universe, which has become more convincing with each novel." -Booklist ... Read more

Customer Reviews (60)

Is this Anne McCaffrey?
Who really wrote this book? I have to wonder if Todd McCaffrey didn't in fact write this.
That's the only explanation I can come up with for her having seemed to forget her characters so completely.
I just finished reading the whole Talent series back to back and the difference between those books and this is striking.
What happened? I have been wondering what the deal is with her allowing her son Todd to tinker with Pern, the results
of which you can read about in other reviews here on this site. Suffice it to say, they have not been a roaring success.
I personally think he had a large hand in this one, even if he received no credit for it. Why?
After 5 years with no sequel, all of a sudden she decides to come back, like with Skies of Pern and just like that book, this
one has some major problems. For example, the woodenness, the unfamiliarity of all the characters we have come to love
from the last 4 books. The characters just feel all wrong, almost like in fanfic when someone tries hard to emulate the original,
but is just too self aware.
What about the Rowan? She makes glorified cameos, along with Damia and Afra. And frankly, they were the only reasons I
kept reading this book. But they don't appear all that much and the reader is left with the boring personalities of their cookie-cutter
children.
The once interesting and vibrant characters in the first novels have been radically changed, as if McCaffrey did indeed forget
them. In this book, Afra is described as being `methody' when in fact the entire background of the Damia novel was all about him
NOT being methody, which was why he had to leave Capella. Jeff Raven is now a Peter Reidinger clone, shamelessly manipulating
his horde of offspring and heavily pressuring them to accept outposts on planets light years away from family and friends. The
Rowan is somewhere in the background there. She has one or two paragraphs, but not much else.What happened to the Jeff Raven
who wanted to rebel? Or even the Rowan for that matter.
My other misgivings about this so-called `ending' are these:

1. The plot meanders all over the place.I mean, why is the Hiver Queen now into her third book of incarceration, and no one has
a clue how to talk to her yet? Zara was supposed to be the liaison with godlike gifts of empathy, but she goes on to other things and
never comes in contact with the Hiver Queen again. Later they attribute her understanding of the Queen's distress as having been
just chance. Now, this is the first break with canon that got my attention and why I think someone other than McCaffrey had a hand
in writing this thing. You may recall, that Zara felt the pain of the Queen from several light years away, and when she got close, she
immediately understood that she was freezing to death. The continuity error here is a step beyond the shoddily written intro where
Afra is listed as being Damia's brother, for Pete's sake. This is just a straight cop out, and if they didn't want to write any more,
they would have been better off not bothering at all. Of course, there's no money in that, is there?

2.The other children and their significant others go from one planet to the other, hypothesizing and theorizing about Hiver biology,
when what the reader wants to know is: What happened to so and so --? And it just goes on and on, along with the ridiculous
subplot of developing birth control methods for the `Dinis. The final answer of how to talk with the Hivers is very contrived and
goes against earlier canon. Uh, why weren't the pheromones detected in Damia's Children when Zara pulled her `antic'? Why
didn't the Queen react to Zara's pheromones? You might remember she stank so badly, she was rushed into the showers, and yet in
the Tower and Hive, the mere hint of garlic caused a Hiver to react to cleanse the air. It's all just nonsense. Forget writing the
Biology textbook for the 24th century, this story was always about the PEOPLE and I think the communication thing with the
Hivers could have been so much more interesting . . . as in, what if they are Telepathic in some new way?That would have
explained why Zara could hear her all those light years away and the instantaneous communication from the Queen to her workers.
Pheromones take time, because they require air. And air, even in a hurricane, can only go so fast.

3. Damia's children. To the last man (or woman) they are absolutely perfect. They don't gripe about working full time jobs from
the time they are 12 or so and don't seem to want to rebel against their grandfather's unceasing demands as well as his schemes to
turn them all into baby factories. They don't seem to mind being bred like cattle. In addition, we are left at the end of the book
knowing that they will all be searching for Hiver worlds forever on board navy vessels in order to drop the pheromones on them.
For years and years and years. And I thought my job was bad.

4.No interesting characters. The one possibility, Vagrian, is given more time in the book than the Rowan or Damia but turned out
to be a red herring. Why did they bring in this character? He adds nothing to the story and once he is mind-fixed, has no other
purpose. Why did McCaffrey introduce us to him, if he doesn't do anything important? He doesn't even seduce one of her available
daughters, so there's no reason for him to be in the story. You begin to wonder if there wasn't more planned for that character McCaffrey
(or Todd) just lost steam and tied it all up.

5. That's yet another problem. Too many pat answers, the most glaring of which is the Laria/Kincaid relationship. Now, why go to all
the trouble to reinforce that the man is gay in the other books, and then just have him forget all that and become straight just for her.
Because he loves her? It doesn't work that way. So now, we are left with their very implausible relationship and of course her entry
into the halls of baby making. How about a female Talent that -gasp!- chooses not to have ANY babies! Now that might be a good
story.

So, we are finally left with an incomplete and hurried story, up to an including the Final Solution for the Buggers -I mean Hivers.
(Wouldn't want Orson Scott Card to get mad or anything.) What made these books so great was the concept of Talent combined with
the interesting personalities. From Rhyssa Owen to Damia, even Jeff Raven before his character got ruined. It would have been better
not to end it like this, but leave it with the open ended finale in Lyon's Pride.

Nice end to a nice series.
Well - the "Tower and Hive" Series (Starting with "The Rowan") has seen better books - but it manages to tie up a couple of loose ends from "Lyon's Pride" and puts an acceptable end to the series without making another book impossible...
It gets 4 out of 5 because I expected more a little more from the story...

The Tower and the Hive
Just filling out my library, completing the series.I find McCaffrey's books very easy reads, but good tales and well written.

Good Book in Good Series
Anne McCaffrey has a great series using ESP powers with Interseller Travel, Aliens (Good and Bad).Great series

A realistic conclusion to an exciting series!
I have read most every book by Anne McCaffrey that is out there including the Pern books and Acorna books.I have enjoyed the Talent series the most for the creativity of the author and the reality checks that are included.I admit it would have been nice to have a perfectly completed and everything resolved type of ending but for me, I enjoyed that while the major issues of how to get the Hivers to not go out and destroy worlds populated with sentient beings and getting the Gwyn-Raven-Lyon grandchildren out on their own and starting their own dynasty are resolved more quietly than with a big bang!

Especially touching and interesting in this book was the more information we got on Mrdinis, their hibernation and reproductive habits as well as their attitudes and politics.The relationships between Asia and Rojer and Laria and Dano were also very nicely matured.

I enjoyed learning more about the "bad guys" -- the Hivers -- their habitat was so well described I could just picture it.I also swear that I have had a "sting-pzzt" type of experience -- when my husband used to work in a factory before we were married and came home with a sort of metallic powder all over him.It was definitely a smell/taste/feeling!!

I was also glad that this book had a few less tragedies since the last book had quite a few.The invasion of the Blundell building was exciting and showed how Jeff Raven and the Rowan have still "got it." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Bee Bible
If you're new to bees or an old coger still raising bees, as the other reviewers have said, you've got to have this book, no arguments! It covers everything you'd ever want to know. Even after reading it and using it for reference, you'll more than likely find something new you didn't find the first time or something becomes crystal clear. :)

I will also recommend to get the newest edition, it has a red/maroon cover with gold lettering.

Watch out...
This book is for sale, new from the publisher for $36.00 brand new.Cheaper if you buy in quantity.It is the latest revision, 1992.


I just thought I would pass that along for all you would be beekeepers...

More honey please!
This is an excellent how-to book for novices in the honey industry. Last year when I decided that harvesting honeybees would be an interesting way to make a living, this was the book I read to prepare myself for the challenge ahead!
Read, drink and eat honey!

The OED of beekeeping!
For the seasoned or beginning beekeeper, this tome has everything you might want to know.More than complete, surprisingly easy to navigate, HIVE AND THE HONEY BEE is the bee all and end all.

THE BOOK! This is the book that Rutger's uses in it's class
I first used this book in 1979, it has been a companion ever since. I wearmine to shreads and must replace it every couple of years. I learnedeverything I neeeded to get started in bee keeping and taught me somethingnew with every new release. To manage hives for honey production,polination or queen rearing, this book is the authority. To work in yourhive, or apiary without it,is like driving your car with a blindfold on. ... Read more

Book Description
They work hard, are devoted to family, love sex, and know the importance of a good piece of real estate. Honey bees, and the daily workings of their close-knit colonies, are one of nature's great miracles. And they produce one of nature's greatest edible bounties: honey. More than just a palate pleaser, honey was once an offering to the gods, a preservative, and a medicine whose sought-after curative powers were detailed in ancient texts . . . and are being rediscovered by modern medical science.

In Letters from the Hive, Prof. Stephen Buchmann takes us into the hive--nursery, honey factory, queen's inner sanctum--and out to the world of backyard gardens, open fields, and deserts in full bloom, where the age-old sexual dance between flowers and bees makes life on earth as we know it possible. Hailed for their hard work, harmonious society, and, mistakenly, for their celibacy, bees have a link to our species that goes beyond biology. In Letters from the Hive, Buchmann explores the fascinating role of bees in human culture and mythology, following the "honey hunters" of native cultures in Malaysia, the Himalayas, and the Australian Outback as they risk life and limb to locate a treasure as valuable as any gold.

To contemplate a world without bees is to imagine a desolate place, culturally and biologically, and Buchmann shows how with each acre of land sacrificed to plow, parking lot, or shopping mall, we inch closer to what could become a chilling reality. He also offers honey-based recipes, cooking tips, and home remedies--further evidence of the gifts these creatures have bestowed on us.

Told with wit, wisdom, and affection, and rich with anecdote and science, Letters from the Hive is nature writing at its best. This is natural history to be treasured, a sweet tribute that buzzes with life.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

great read
I enjoyed this book tremendously.As a complete novice in the world of bees, it gave me the information I wanted while being thoroughly enjoyable to read and providing great historical connections.Added bonus, the recipes are terrific!

A lovely book that could do with lovelier writing
All in all, this book was very enjoyable.Parts were charming, while half or more sounded more like an article in a scientific magazine or, indeed, a travelogue.Those parts could have used a bit more literary touch.The content throughout, however, is really very interesting, especially if you're not all that familiar with honey bees, and I'm very happy to have read this.The publishers also did a beautiful job on the book, which contains pretty little illustrations to punctuate the chapters.

Beekeepers Poetry
What a great book full of insights, humour and knowledge about bees in the world. Great easy read which has appealed to this new amateur beekeeper

Charming little book
Faint praise you say? Ok, maybe my ruffly apron is tied too tight today. The history and the cultural sections were excellent but the numerous recipes were unwelcome, mere space fillers. In fact most of the contents were fillers, neatly boxed items you could cull from a rural calendar or a few copies of Country Living. Great book for short attention spans and folks who have no trouble falling asleep. You won't fall asleep in the middle of anything in this book, nothing's that long. Which reminds me, the hardcover version is not 288 pages as stated on amazon. It's 276 pages, and that includes 54 pages of: afterword, acknowledgements, five appendices, sources, permissions, index and "about the authors."

a pretty good history
I think this is a mostly well written book, but I am a bit disappointed with the recent history section. I would like to have read more from this book about history in the 1900's more so than ancient history and a few hundred years ago. It could be that not that much happened, but I would have like a bit more coverage of what did happen. Other than that it's a pretty good reference. ... Read more

Product Description
The Bee Hive Product Bible takes you through the hive, explaining what each beehive product is and how it is produced. Bee pollen, propolis, royal jelly and honey are described including their benefits and how they should be bought, prepared, stored and used. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Resourc3e, forget about the Lifestyle...
The only sections of this book that are great are the ones that talk about the value of Bee Pollen, Propolis, and Royal Jelly. These are very illuminating and are a terrific resource. The stuff about Mr. Brown and his lifestyle are just awful - fuggetaboutthem!! This book, although very "over-enthusiastic" hits the mark on the value of these products and why we should use them.

The title was very misleading to me.
Ithought I was buying a book onbee hive products besides honey.Instead I read about a lifestyle that was so strange to me I couldn't stomach finishing the book.The book goes in to great detail about alifestyle having nothing to do with products from the hive, like exercisinghours a day, eating raw meat and checking your bowel movements each day.Iam sending the book back to Amazon and have never sent a book back before. I have never written a review before so I am not that critical of a person. ... Read more

Book Description
An 1865 report on public health in New York painted a grim picture of "high brick blocks and closely-packed houses . . . literally hives of sickness" propagating epidemics of cholera, smallpox, typhoid, typhus, and yellow fever, which swept through the whole city. In this stimulating collection of essays, nine historians of American medicine explore New York's responses to its public health crises from colonial times to the present. The essays illustrate the relationship between the disease environment of New York and changes in housing, population, social conditions, and the success of medical science, linking such factors to New York's experiences with smallpox, polio, and AIDS. The volume is essential reading for anyone interested in American public health and the social history of New York. The volume is essential reading for anyone interested in American public health and the social history of New York.The contributors are Ronald Bayer, Elizabeth Blackmar, Gretchen A. Condran, Elizabeth Fee, Daniel M. Fox, Evelynn M. Hammonds, Alan M. Kraut, Judith Walzer Leavitt, and Naomi Rogers. David Rosner is a professor of history at Baruch College and The Graduate School of the City University of New York. Robert R. Macdonald is the director of the Museum of the City of New York. ... Read more

Book Description
In Hellstroms Hive, winner of the 1978 Prix Apollo, Frank Herberts vivid imagination and brilliant view of nature and ecology has never been more evident. America is a police state, and it is about to be threatened by the most hellish enemy in the worldinsects. When the Agency discovered that Dr. Hellstroms Project 40 was a cover for a secret laboratory, a special team of agents was immediately dispatched to discover its true purpose and its weaknessesit could not be allowed to continue. What they discovered was a nightmare more horrific and hideous than even their paranoid government minds could devise. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Agents and Insects
This probably worked better as a short story.Hellstrom's Hive is a 1950's, cold war sci-fi tale, nothing more, nothing less. A few grotesque situations in the hive are memorable, the "stumps" for example, but the endless pages of the Agency going through the motions is just plain mind numbing. Pass.

Interesting
the blurb is a little misleading, but the book was an overall adventure.It was very action packed and was a real page turner

The Return of a Classic
Frank Herbert is one of the all time greatest science fiction writers. He is best known as the author of the Dune series. However, Herbert wrote many other fine works of futuristic literary art. One such is Herbert's 1972 novel Hellstrom's Hive, a new edition of which has just been put out by Tor Books.

Hellstrom's Hive depicts an America that is ruled by a dictatorship. One dissident was a Doctor Nils Hellstrom who created a Project 40 that he persuaded the government to fund, but which Hellstrom was using as a secret laboratory. Upon discovering Hellstrom's duplicity, the dictatorship sends a special team of agents to shut down the lab.

When the agents arrive, they discover that inside the lab there is stuff that places the entire planet's survival in peril. Or it could affect the future evolution of humanity. In any event, it is clear that the mad scientist Dr. Nils Hellstrom has created something truly insane that is nothing short of sick and twisted in its potential effect upon the innocent people of the world.

Readers who try out this forgotten novel will be greatly satisfied by this tale of the future. It is heartily recommended.

Fascinating
In Oregon, filmmaking entomologist Nils Hellstrom establishes the human hive in which 50,000 peoplewill live together based on how insects work as a unit regardless of size.The Agency is concerned about the influence of the Hive and has begun spying on the entity especially wanting to steal a metallurgical technology for their personal gain.

Early information proves hard to gather as the agents are easily uncovered by the Hive.Those captured are placed in the dying vats and used as food for the members.Realizing that their first intrusion failed, the Agency sends in a more professional team of experts to learn more about Project 40 and the stunwand.

This is a reprint of an interesting 1980s tale focusing on two societies.Frank Herbert goes deep into the Hive so the audience obtains a discerning look at how humans could behave like the social insects that Nils wants to emulate in order for the members to work together for the common good.Within the Hive, a caste system exists for instance the scientists are out of 1950s B movie monster thrillers with all sorts of physical problems.On the other hand, the Agency remains in the shadows so that the audience knows little about them except their obsession over Project 40 and that they appear to be a secret part of the Feds.Science fiction readers will enjoy the HIVE that wants to spread out and assimilate the Outsiders.

Harriet Klausner

The Hive vs. The Outsiders
Core concept: the Hive, led by entomologist and filmmaker Nils Hellstrom, is located in remote Oregon.Population 50,000.They have based their lives and organization on lessons learned from insects.Their dwelling extends far underground.

The conflict: an outside agency, called The Agency, is surveilling the Hive, unaware of the reality and immensity of the Hive.The Agency thinks that Hellstrom has created a new metallurgical process.They hope to discover and leverage the technology for the benefit of those supporting The Agency, though the composition of that group is never detailed.

The Agency sends in several members to spy around Hellstrom's farm.They are captured and put in the vats, which are tanks that Hive members willingly go to at the end of their lives.The purpose of the vats is that these members become food for the rest of the Hive.Needless to say, those captured from The Agency did not willingly go the vats.

So, after this opening, The Agency sends in the "A" team to discover what is really going on.

What is really going on is that Hellstrom's film work is a cover (albeit one to bring in revenue) for Project 40.This is a major weapon system that is an extension of the stunwand, another weapon developed by the Hive scientists.The scientists themselves are pretty cool, with monstrous heads, stunted legs, withered arms, servants to carry them around, and massive intellectual capability.

I'll not go through a blow by blow recap; if it sounds interesting, read it.It is a quick read.

The writing about the Hive is fairly interesting, but never rises to that "this is reaaaally cool" threshold.The writing about the members of The Agency and their lives is booooooooring!Did Herbert mean to be so boring in the details of The Agency?

Project 40 actually only comes into any sort of detail at the very end of the book.The scientists perform a demonstration experiment in which they create a new island in the sea near Japan.How a destructive weapon can be used to create land doesn't make sense, but that is what they do.The story ends in a stalemate between the US government and the Hive, with their Project 40 weapon.Hellstrom's crew has the weapon targeted to destroy several hundred square miles around Washington, DC, if the government attacks the Hive.

The book ends by relaying that because of the destructive potential of Project 40, the Hive had acquired the time and space to continue existing.They would use this time to "swarm" out into the Outsider (their term for normal humans) world in order to assimilate Outsiders and take more of the Earth's surface for the sake of the Hive. ... Read more