As a beekeeper, I'd highly recommend this to all beginner beekeepers. It's heavy use of detail images and easy-to-read text, make this guide a pleasant starting point for beekeepers. This book is also great for those who are simply interest in the subject. It covers the equipment used, the roles of the bees in the colony, and hive maintenance.

Are you thinking about trying beekeeping? Are you completely new to the beekeeping world? This is the book for you! The author, an expert beekeeper, has written a detailed and easy to understand reference that includes tons of full-color illustrations and photographs. From selecting a location for you hives and setting up your new colony to caring for your been and harvesting honey .... this book has it all.

I received a complimentary advanced reader copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Great, well structured look at how to keep bees. What they need, how to care for them, common challenges, good tips.

A really neat and thorough instructional book about backyard beekeeping. This manual is fantastic and laid out very simply with tons of information and instructions and wonderful photographs. Topics covered include, but not limited to: habitat, choosing bees and their roles, maintenance and care, addressing problems, etc. This would be a great book for anyone curious about beekeeping.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for providing this ARC.

This book was very interesting and informative - the pictures were especially helpful since I am still trying to learn the names of some of the different parts of the hive, tools, etc. This truly is a beginner's step-by-step guide to the keeping of bees.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* My husbands family had bees for years and when I saw this book I wanted to read it to learn a few things, seems like a really good, practical, easy to follow book for beekeeping!

With recent research into the importance of bees becoming more accessible in society, this book is very important for the upcoming beekeepers. This can be used for secondary pupils as a research text or for adults as a guide to starting this for a hobby or the basis of a new career. The writing style is user friendly and accessible to all types of readers.

As someone who has always loved and been fascinated by bees but knows little about them, I have found this book to be the ideal introduction. It covers all the basic knowledge needed to get started, however I think there is no substitute for learning hands on from an expert. This book provides enough of a starter to make those first sessions worthwhile. I am planning to take up bee keeping as a hobby later this year under the guidance of a mentor and this has served to make me even more confident and positive.

I just love beginner books and this one was no different! I’ve been reading about beekeeping lately and I’m interested in keeping bee’s solely for pollinating my garden and helping the environment. However this book delves into the care and housing a bee hive more intimately than my needs. Still it’s a very resourceful book.

What did I like? The pictures of sticking your hands into the beehive gloveless made me cringe. Wow, I envy your bravery. My interest in beekeeping are slight versus the author. So many unanswered questions.. my reality though is to find the nearest beekeeper with some knowledge and just go look. I don’t care how much you read, every farmers market has someone selling honey that’s local and seeing is what’s going to sell it to me.

Would I buy or recommend? Very good book with some great info but this could be quite dangerous if you’ve never been stung. This book delves a bit more into the hive and care of it than others that I have read which makes it a good buy. If your really serious though I’d encourage going to see one live and in person. I just don’t think that just a book will cover everything, and the author encourages joining a bee group locally.

I received a copy to read and offer an opinion. Four stars!

This is a great book for anyone new to beekeeping or interested in learning what it entails. Well written and full of tips to get you well on your way to raising bees. It flows well and is packed with beautiful photos to illustrate everything from queen identification to disease and pests. Kim Flottum is a true legend is his field. Great read!

First Time Beekeeping is a reformat and re-release tutorial instruction guide for the people who want to get started with bees. Originally published in unabridged form in 2010, this edition is due out 11th Aug 2020 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint. It's 128 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a compact, well written, accessible guide to sourcing, choosing, and succeeding with beekeeping as a hobby. This guide presupposes no prior experience and covers all the basics including equipment, siting, getting started, and bees themselves. For a short(ish) book, it's quite comprehensive and will definitely provide enough good factual information to help new keepers avoid the most common mistakes. Sidebars throughout highlight important information keeping it easier to find. The photography throughout is clear and easy to follow. There's a good chapter on how-to perform the tasks necessary to keep bees healthy and (hopefully) happy and includes troubleshooting information on controlling diseases, inspections, and fall/winter management of the hives.

The book also includes a resource links list as well as a cross referenced index.

This would make a good selection for the smallholder's library or for anyone information-gathering before making the commitment to start beekeeping. I've been keeping bees off and on for 50+ years (I learned at my grandfather's side), and I still *strongly* recommend getting a mentor and finding like minded beekeepers to get off to a good start, but this book will definitely fill a gap and provide enough information to at least get started with beekeeping.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes