Get Started In Beekeeping

The first book I read about Beekeeping was Get Started In Beekeeping  written by Adrian and Claire Waring, from the Teach Yourself series. The Teach Yourself books cover pretty much everything from learning widely spoken languages such as Bulgarian and Tagalog to business skills like Project Management and Stand Up Comedy, so it's no surprise they have a book on beekeeping tucked in there.

Teach Yourself

Get Started In Beekeping eases you into the subject with, first, a one minute overview, written in large letters across two pages. This tells you in the briefest of briefness basically how a bee colony works. If you're still interested you can then read the five minute section which is two pages of normal size print. This tells you a little more about bees, honey and the approximate commercial value of beekeeping in the UK and the USA. At this point assuming you've not attracted the ire of Waterstones staff by brazenly standing reading a book you haven't paid for there's a ten minute section to read.

The ten minute section is three pages of text. The more mathematically able of you are probably thinking this doesn't add up. If two pages of text takes five minutes to read then surely three pages should equate to seven and a half minutes -maybe the Warings need to invest in a copy of Basic Mathematics from the same range. Anyway for the ten minute overview if you're in a Waterstones I suggest taking the book to the in store Costa franchise and ordering a great big latte, then grabbing a comfy seat and table. Then you can read the ten minute overview at your leisure as you sip that frothy combination of cow juice and the world's most popular addictive stimulant. The ten minute section tells you a bit more about what bees actually do and how they do it (hint: it sounds like "making money" has to do with "honey").

After this you've probably finished your latte and can either buy the book and take it home to bore your housemate with interesting honey bee facts or pop it back on the shelf, whip out your smartphone and order a copy from Amazon for just over a fiver -or try your luck with eBay the worlds biggest poundshop.

Written in 2006, this book does pretty much what it says on the metaphorical tin. It's got enough info to get you started in beekeeping, from how to hive your bees and keep them alive all year to harvesting the honey. At the end of each chapter is a section called "10 Things To Remember," whilst you might not remember them all they certainly make it easy to locate points again later on. The last part of the book is a glossary where you can look up things like gimp pins or tropilaelaps without having to wade through the text. It's written in a very accessible way packed with information and diagrams. There's also some colour plates in the middle of the book showing you things like bees, some more bees, another load of bees, a waxmoth larva, various bits of bee feeding stuff, even more bees, honey comb, a bee keeper, some parasites, some bee hives and oh it's another bee. Towards the end is a month by month breakdown of the beekeeping year. I'd reccomend this easy to read tome to anyone wanting to start beekeeping.