Beekeepers Continue to Face Tremendous Challenges, from pests, diseases, pollution, climate change, and, in recent years, from the mysterious and devastating phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Yet in backyards and on rooftops all over the world, top-bar hives are being used to raise bees successfully without antibiotics, miticides, or other chemical inputs. In Top-Bar Beekeeping, authors Les Crowder and Heather Harrell guide you through the specifics of this innovative approach to hive management, including raising queens, harvesting and processing honey and beeswax, and planting for pollinators. Les Crowder has more than thirty years of experience developing best practices with his bees in top-bar hives. Long-lasting, inexpensive, and easy to build, a top-bar hive made of untreated wood allows bees to build combs as they would in their natural environment rather than filling prefabricated foundation frames in a typical Lang-stroth-box hive. In fact this is one of main reasons why organically minded beekeepers are more often using top-bar hives. The natural, low-stress methods outlined in Top-Bar Beekeeping are perfect for home and hobbyist beekeepers who have the time and interest in keeping bees intensively and holistically, as well as home orchardists, gardeners, and permaculture practitioners who look to bees for pollination as well as honey or beeswax. Book jacket.