The Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping

I was so excited to read The Beginners Guide to Beekeeping, by Samantha and Daniel Johnson.
I grew up with a Grandfather who was a beekeeper, and I loved helping him. Lately I’ve been thinking about it again and thought this book can help me get started.

There was so much information about beekeeping that I feel I can be successful in this project. This guide not only taught me about bees, but also their needs for “homes” and what kind of foliage to have around them. I was inspired by the section of making specialty honeys and various other products.

If your looking for a home hobby and your thinking about beekeeping this book is the perfect guide for you.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Inam about to go for a bee starting class, i loved this boik! Gave me a lot of hints to make this project a success

Get down in the weeds with this title! Everything you need to know about beekeeping. Whether you're just idly interested or thinking of starting beekeeping either for fun or profit, this book will point you in the right direction. I have a soft spot for bees and love reading books about bees and beekeeping. This is one of the most in depth books I've read. Along with the abundance of photographs, references and sources, the Johnsons cover everything from FAQs about getting started including initial considerations, necessary equipment, where to purchase bees, how to relocate them, pests, honey collection and more. I highly recommend this title!
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I’ve always had a bit of a fondness for bees, always wanted to keep them some day. I’m perhaps a little nearer to actually doing so than I ever have been before, but beekeeping is nevertheless an activity about which I know very little. Not nothing — I once went along to a couple of beekeeping trial sessions — but very little.

So of course what I need is a Beginner’s Guide to Beekeeping and Samantha Johnson and Daniel Johnson have written one. And, on the basis of my limited knowledge of the subject, very good it is too.

It isn’t exhaustive by any means, but it fulfils the function of an introduction — really readable, clearly illustrated and easy to understand. It covers all the questions I might have thought to ask and a whole lot of others that hadn’t occurred to me. And it covers everything from what type of bees there are and what they do, right the way through to how to build your own hive and how to produce and market your honey and beeswax.

It’s geared to the American beekeeper, so that a lot of it wasn’t relevant to me (I don’t need to worry about how to protect my hives from black bears, for example, or from temperatures of minus forty, and the regulations where I am will be different from those covered in the book). That didn’t matter. I still found it both interesting and enlightening.

I’ll have to wait a while before I get round to setting up as a beekeeper, if I ever do. But I feel a whole lot more confident about the project than I did before but if my dream becomes reality, this is the book I’ll turn to to start me off.

Thanks to Netgalley and Voyageur Press for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

A delightful guide to beekeeping. Even though I do not currently keep bees I am that more ethused about the idea after reading this book. Clearly laid out, great pictures and explanations - I have learned so much and will be showing my daughter (who is afraid of bees!). Great job and I shall go back to it should I be in a position to do this.

After moving back to the "lower 48" from 30 yrs in Alaska, mu husband and I decided we needed to plant a huge garden and many flower gardens. I had read many stories on the decline of bees but had not seen it firsthand. My flower gardens have a focus towards drawing bees and butterflies but it did not seem as if we were doing enough to "be part of the solution". Beekeeping drew our attention, especially when I started reading this book. While we had been around many bee hives as children, we had no practical experience ourselves. We also did not want to spend a lot of money then find out we'd not helped the bees or ourselves at all. This book has so much practical advice for the novice that it should be required reading before you launch your project. A really good, practical easy to understand book written by people who care. Unquestionably recommended.

Excellent beginners guide to beekeeping. Beekeeping can be a great hobby and you can be successful at it, as long as you know what to do and when. This book is helpful at helping first-time beeks set up their hive, get the right tools, comprehend what's happening in the hives throughout each season, how to address problems such as pests when they arise, and how to harvest honey. Would very much recommend this book to anyone who is contemplating raising their own bees.

The Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping is a revised and updated manual for beekeeping from Daniel and Samantha Johnson and the FFA. Originally published in 2013, this edition was released 8th Jan 2019 by Quarto on their Voyageur Press imprint. It's 160 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

This book is aimed at the inexperienced beekeeper. The authors presuppose no forehand experience or knowledge on the part of the reader. All of the terms and materials are explained in clear and accessible language. The introduction (about 5% of the content) is followed by a chapter on bee anatomy, identifying the different bees (worker, drone, queen), life cycle, etc.

Beekeepers wouldn't get very far without bees and hives. The second chapter deals with sourcing bees and hives as well as some building plans. The authors have included a really solid tutorial for a basic (off-grid) honey-house which is pole-built and could also be adapted to other uses.

The book progresses through installing the first bees and routine care and maintenance. A chapter on troubleshooting and disease diagnosis and prevention completes the introduction to bee husbandry. There is also a good discussion on harvesting and marketing honey and bee-products. The book ends with a short discussion of fun side activities for the beekeeper such as state fair competitions, varietal honey tastings, and gardening with bees. There are a number of recipes included which incorporate honey.

A good and simple guide. It would make a good textbook for an introductory course, school library, community centre activity or community garden library.

Four stars.