Keeping Bees and Making Honey 
Customer Ratings: - Excellent beginners book. I bought this as a starter to my new venture. I have always wanted to keep bees and now I have the garden space to do it. I have read a lot about beekeeping, much of it very dry and rather long winded. This book was a refreshing change! Easy to read and for the beginner apiculteur (I live in France)it contained the right amount of information to give me a good understanding to move back to those tomes that I found so difficult to read before. There are probably gaps in the information, but when you begin it is impossible to absorb everything at once, and if like me you are rather isolated and there is no friendly beekeeper at hand to guide you along the way - then this is the book to start you off. It makes beekeeping what it should be, a simple and delightful pleasure.
- Pretty pictures for your coffee table. This is a picture book with lots of soft focus shots of flower beds and brand new wbc hives. They ve been keeping bees for just a few years so very limited in what they can tell you and obviously have only tried one approach.
Not good enough for the beginer will rapidly leave you wanting more. - Thinking of keeping bees - read this. This is the first book I have purchased on keeping bees and really it gives you everything you would want to know if you are starting bee keeping.
It is full of practical advice, explains everything in simple, straightforward, step by step terms and short of hands on experience, has to give the clearest picture of what is involved in keeping bees.
The book is well produced with lots of excellent photographes and is a pleasure to read.
First Cass - Excellent book for someone considering beekeeping. I bought this book knowing virtually nothing about bees (they exist, they live in hives and they make honey was about the sum total of my knowledge).
I have been considering keeping bees for a while and thought that a little reading would help guide me to a decision.
From memory, the book covers: types of bees (not just honey bees), types of hives, the gear required by the beekeeper, where bee hives can be situated, how bees can be purchased, the maintenance of the colony & hive, pests and how to mitigate their impact, the social structure of the bee colony, the way honey is produced by the bees, the swarming of bees, how to harvest honey from the hive and how to store the harvested honey. There s definitely more - my memory just isn t good enough.
The book material is pitched at the level of the layman/novice. In particular areas the book is usefully pratical and in-depth e.g. There are guides to setting up the hive and putting in the colony, checking the colony s health after setting up your apiary, harvesting the honey, controlling swarming and spring-cleaning the hive. There are also little practical tips throughout that will obviously help you avoid common mistakes e.g. Approach your hive from the side, approaching the front entrance will only wind-up your bees!
To sum up. I thought the book was excellent and was written at exactly the right level for someone in my position. It increased my knowledge greatly (admittedly i started with none), it informed me that i have a more-than-reasonable environment for a hive, it convinced me that i d be capable of performing the duties required to keep the bees happy and healthy, it told me how to go about performing the duties required, it told me what equipment i d need to keep bees and finally it was a thoroughly pleasant read into the bargain.
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Keeping Bees and Making Honey (ID: 0715328107)
