A clear, practical beginner's guide to keeping honeybees at home, from choosing a hive to harvesting honey and using beeswax
A hive in the garden
Kim Flottum spent decades as the editor of Bee Culture, one of the leading beekeeping magazines in the United States, and wrote this book for people who want to keep a few hives in their garden or on their roof. It takes complete beginners through the whole process, from understanding how a colony works to setting up equipment, caring for bees through the seasons and harvesting honey.
Who will enjoy it
Beginners and hobbyists who want to keep a few hives safely, in a backyard, small farm or city setting.
What you will get
A practical, well-illustrated beginner's guide to keeping honeybees at home, from setting up a first hive to harvesting honey and beeswax.
The Backyard Beekeeper Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Nonfiction · Beekeeping · Honey · Gardening
Length
240 pages · ≈ 7 h
More about this book
Thinking about a hive but nervous about where to start? This is one of the most widely recommended first books. Flottum opens with the practical decisions, where to place a hive, which equipment to buy and how to get bees in the first place, before explaining the life of a colony: the queen, the workers and drones, and how the hive changes through the year. Large photographs and diagrams appear on almost every page.
The middle chapters cover the work of beekeeping: inspecting frames, using a smoker calmly, feeding, preventing swarms and keeping colonies healthy. The fourth edition updates the advice on pests and diseases, adds material for urban beekeepers and covers top-bar hives. A final section turns to the rewards, harvesting honey and working with beeswax, and the book closes with a set of rules for modern beekeeping. The tone is friendly, practical and reassuring.
Local conditions vary, so pair it with a local club or mentor, but as a first book it is hard to beat. Gardeners will also appreciate the attention to the flowers bees need. About 240 pages in the Quarry Books paperback, fourth edition.
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