The Honeybees of the British Isles

A most important book on breeding, mating behaviour, selection and all aspects of the native British bee by a GIANT of beekeeping.

This classic title, long out of print, has now been reissued by the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association.

Beowulf Cooper was one of the founding members of The Bee Improvement & Bee Breeders’ Association (BIBBA) and responsible for our understanding of the importance of native bee stocks. His professional career was as an entomologist in the Government’s Agricultural Advisory Service, helping our farmers to grow crops and raise livestock with the minimum damage from insects and other pests.

In this work he was always conscious of the environment in which farmers live and work, and he did his best to preserve this by avoiding the harmful effects which pest control unfortunately often has. He had many other interests, but he decided many years ago to devote all his spare time to the study of the honeybee.

His contribution to our knowledge of bees in Britain was considerable, and much of this new information was spread by the British Isles Bee Breeders’ Association, which he did so much to create and to foster. However, many of the results of his research have never been published. He left a mass of unedited material, which forms the substance of this book.