“Keeping Bees With a Smile is a valuable guide for independent-minded beekeepers who are seeking ways to keep bees without treating them with chemicals, disrupting their homes, and otherwise intruding on their lives. Fedor Lazutin, one of Russia’s foremost natural beekeepers, describes a beekeeping system based on a trust of a bee colony as a living being capable of solving life’s challenges without human assistance. Beginner-friendly and complete with fascinating photographs, it is a special book, and one that I expect will ‘shake up’ the thinking of the independent-minded beekeepers in North America and Europe.”

— Dr. Thomas D. Seeley, Professor, Cornell University
author of Honeybee Democracy and The Wisdom of the Hive

While the media are awash with the news of bees disappearing on a global scale, Fedor Lazutin’s bees are healthy and happy, and the number of his hives naturally doubles every year. He uses no medicines or any unnatural methods, inspects his hives once per year, and harvests more honey than he can sell! His approach is fun, healthful, rewarding, and accessible to all. Discover his unique insights on how to:

• keep bees naturally without interfering in their lives;
• start an apiary for free by attracting local bee swarms;
• build maintenance-free hives that mimic how bees live in nature;
• keep colonies healthy & strong without any drugs or gimmickry;
• help bees overwinter successfully even in the harshest climate;
• enhance local nectar plant resources;
• produce truly natural honey without robbing the bees;
• reverse the global bee decline... right in your backyard!

An invaluable resource for beginners and professionals alike, this richly illustrated book is complete with plans for making bee-friendly, well-insulated horizontal hives with extra-deep frames—plus other fascinating advice you won’t find anywhere else.

You will gain a profound respect for the bees’ intelligence, the practical information for successfully starting and maintaining a few (or many!) colonies in your own backyard, and an appreciation of the bees’ harmonious cooperative ways—which may be key to creating a brighter future for our planet.

“Keeping Bees With A Smile shows a truly natural way of beekeeping that is also hands-off and fun. Following the detailed plans and straightforward advice from this book, I built improved swarm traps and caught four swarms in the first six weeks! I then transferred these free bees to the special extra-deep horizontal hives which were easy and almost free to build. And that’s it: • you don’t need to inspect the bees, treat them or smoke them • no requeening • no heavy lifting • no queen excluders • no hauling hives around • no stings - i.e., none of the hassles and expenses commonly associated with keeping bees. Author’s 10-year-old son now manages part of their hundreds of hives!

“The book is thorough (402 pages!), sumptuously illustrated, and covers so many subjects that are hard to find in other sources: • effective colony propagation via swarming (creating, collecting, and installing your own swarms instead of making splits or buying bee packages) • how to avoid all unwanted swarming without intruding into the brood nest • construction of well-insulated horizontal hives with extra-deep (18” deep) frames and why these are important • successful bee wintering even in the harshest of climates • natural alternatives to requeening • enhancing local bee genetics • completely natural approach with zero medicines and no sugar feeding • clear diagrams of all frame manipulations • and much more. The author’s approach is so gentle on the bees that I feel it will take natural beekeeping to new heights.”