Keeping Bees with a Smile by Fedor Lazutin and Leo Sharashkin

I give “Keeping Bees With A Smile, Principles and Practices of Natural Beekeeping” by Fedor Lazutin edited by Dr. Leo Sharashkin 10 out of 10 acorns, with the caveat that the data in this book is specific to Mr Lazutin’s Russian climate and local bees (the European dark bee, Apis mellifera mellifera.) However, the information presented is incredibly useful in understanding what wild bees do, and how to adapt that information to keeping bees in your climate.

(All quotes are from the book)

The real secret to beekeeping is knowing your bees’ custom and following it. Anyone who wants to keep bees successfully should mirror wild bees’ way of life to the greatest extent possible.
~ Nikolay Vitvitsky (1764–1853)

To me, the principles related in this book are tied into how I treat all animals. I don’t try to force an animal to do what they don’t do naturally, instead, I look at what they do naturally, and figure out how to make that work for what I want them to do. We want bees to make honey, and learning how wild bees do it tells us a lot about what we can do to make their lives easier, so they do it more.

Because in those days people believed they were capable of anything—of yoking nature to the service of humans, of recklessly mowing down forests, of making rivers flow backward, of draining swamps. And—almost as an afterthought—of forcing bees to work “on the assembly line,” filling one super after another with honey, with no negative consequences. Against this backdrop, “natural” single-box hives—just like log hives—already seemed like some anachronism left behind by one’s grandparents.

However, to humanity’s credit, it must be said that it has already begun (particularly in technocratically developed countries) to have second thoughts and, slowly but surely, to change course. This is particularly evident in the fields of agriculture and ecology. You’ve undoubtedly heard of organic food (grown without artificial fertilizers and pesticides), the system of shallow (no-till) land cultivation, organic and biodynamic agriculture, and permaculture.

We’ve gone far astray in our senseless striving to remake nature according to our whim; it’s high time we took a break and reconsidered.

I think that reconsideration includes looking at what wild bees do, and what was working before the industrial model of beekeeping started. That is exactly what Fedor Lazutin thought too, and did. This book is the result of his thinking and experimenting.

It is exclusively concerned with what I’ve done firsthand, many times over—from building beehives in my workshop to raising nectar-bearing trees in my nursery. In my many years of beekeeping experience, I haven’t used a single gram of medicine, have only propagated my colonies through swarming, and
have never fed bees sugar. And I’ve been convinced through experience that it all works! However, everything presented in this book isn’t a dogma, or some action plan; it’s just food for thought.

There ARE action plans in here though, plans for how to build horizontal hives that are easy to care for with minimal time and effort, that require no medication, no queen excluders, no supplemental feeding, no buying nucs and requeening. And that to me is priceless information.

“With my 100 horizontal hives, I only spend 6 to 7 days per year on my bees and get a wholesome honey crop. I could not wish for a better hive model.” ~ Andrey Yakimov

Six to seven days a year, for 100 hives? That’s my kind of beekeeping! I have always thought that putting on supers and taking them off, besides being heavier work than I can handle, sounds to me like it annoys the bees. They put all that work into their honey and you take it from them, at a time when they don’t wish to give it up? No wonder you need to smoke them into submission! It’s their nature to protect their stores from bears, other bees, wasps... and people who are stealing their honey. Taking honey at the right times, inspecting at the right times, and leaving them alone the rest of the time makes SO much more sense to me. Giving them a hive that works with their natural instincts first and is convenient for the beekeeper second, also makes sense to me. And there are plans for hives like that, including plans by the editor that use lumber that can be found at Lowes or Home Depot.  

The skeptical reader may suspect that all of this sounds a bit too simple. Indeed it is. But then, this search for simplicity and sense is what brings meaning to my life. What about you?
What do you think—why were human beings endowed with intelligence? To complicate our lives, or to simplify them? To create new problems by violating nature’s laws, or, by going with the natural flow of things, to achieve our goals simply and easily?

I believe our intelligence is to be used to simplify our lives, to work with the reality of the natural world, rather than against it. Learning how bees, left to their own devices, do things, and how we can mimic that in a way that’s convenient for us, is, to me, the smart way to keep bees. This is an excellent book, I highly recommend it!

I give this book 10 out of 10 acorns.

This is a very unique bee book that is packed full of useful information. It has something for all levels of beekeepers. It is of particular interest for anyone interested in learning more about natural beekeeping techniques & building colonies to survive serious winter conditions. It's specifically about black bees in Russia. So the author knows winter:) It's not exactly a beginner book but I wish I would have read it before starting out. Would have saved some bees & a lot of learning the hard way. If nothing else ... it gets the potential beekeeper thinking in the right direction. The author very clearly spells out some of the problems with modern beekeeping methods. Then he provides practical solutions.

One of the practical solutions & a large focus of the book is the Lazutin hive. The book contains a lot of fascinating historical info in general & much of that explains how this hive style & the author's approach to natural beekeeping came to be. It includes instructions & blueprints also. It's similar to some horizontal hives commonly used in North America but with some key differences. Bigger frames & better insulation mostly.

I have to admit to not reading every word of this book yet but couldn't help but notice many references to log hives & how bees think & act in logs. For anyone interested in log hives I think it's worth digging into just for that. That's a good summary of the book too. The book completely explains how & why he designed hives & why he keeps bees how he does. From the bee's perspective. Naturally. With a Smile. (extra smiles for the cool bee gazebo) Oh yea, the artwork & pictures are nice too! Finishing this book soon is a priority. Will recommend our local bee association purchase a copy & donate it to the local library.

One comment I hear the most about Keeping Bees with a Smile is that "it makes sense".  Instead of presenting a beekeeper's view, this book puts the bees first and explains what they need to thrive. After reading Keeping Bees with a Smile in the original Russian and visiting the author's apiaries, I knew this information had to be made available in English, so we spent a full year to produce the best-possible English version. I witness the truth of this natural beekeeping approach every day in my own bee yards, and receive a stream of heartwarming emails from others who put it to practice and report wonderful results. Be warned that catching local swarms and having an apiary composed of robust "survivor stock" can be overwhelming at times as the number of colonies keeps growing in geometric progression! Here is a quote from a beekeeper who attended my two-day seminar at my bee farm in Missouri: "I captured 98 swarms last spring and then took down my traps before I caught anymore, I had all I needed. I had 135 hives out of 137 survive the winter and they look strong going into spring." You can go from 10 to 200 hives in two summers, if only you can build hive boxes fast enough.