Les Crowder has devoted his entire life to the study and care of honeybees. He has dedicated the last 45 years to finding organic and natural solutions to problems commonly treated with chemicals. Les designed his own top-bar hives, finding them more natural to the honeybee nature and far less expensive than alternatives. Les also set about discovering how to treat disease and genetic weaknesses through holistic and chemical free intervention, plant based medicine and promoting selective breeding for health and disease resistance. Les puts the wellness of the honeybee above all else, as she labors enough on her own and does not need to be pushed via toxic chemicals to produce more. 

 

Les Crowder is a leader in his community. He served as New Mexico's Honeybee Inspector for many years as well as the President of the New Mexico Beekeepers Association multiple times. In his early years he worked on farms with 4,000 or more hives, learning mostly what not to do. Since then Les has taught Natural Beekeeping methods across the world in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. He is an avid storyteller and has spoken annually at the NM Organic Farm Conference. Les Crowder's book Top-Bar Beekeeping has sold in over 60 different languages since its' inception.

 

Currently Les is writing another book, speaks globally about chemical free natural beekeeping, offers natural top-bar beekeeping classes across the U.S. and abroad, and is available for consulting in his current city Austin, Texas. 

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Books: Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health