Keeping Bees

This was the book that turned me into a beekeeper, before I ever bought my first colony. The information on basic beekeeping is solid, and the descriptions are engaging.

This was my first book on beekeeping, and I whole-heartedly recommend it to any beginning beekeeper. I now have some 20+ beekeeping books but this is still my personal favorite. The information on bee diseases is a little old, but the clear concise explanations of all other aspects of small scale beekeeping and his warm writing style more than make up for this. Mr. Vivian obviously enjoys his bees and his affection for them only serves to foster the same in the reader. If you are thinking of beekeeping, or introducing the subject to a friend then this is the book to buy.

I have read many beekeeping books, and out of all of them, this is the one I would reccommend. It has very detailed pictures and instructions and smoothy guided me through having a successful hive! The author obiously knows bees very well and has a lot of experience with them. He also shares the "do's and don'ts" of beekeeping.

This is the best beginning beekeeping book I've read. John Vivian obviously not only likes bees but has made it a family affair. In such, it is a wonderful book, full of advice, little "tidbits" of experience plus information on all sorts of things not normally covered by beginning bookeeping books--how to build certain structures (i.e., a wax melter), how to extract honey by hand from the comb rather than use the standard extracting machine, etc. As a reader, you come away from the book realizing that beekeeping is an art and one done best when you have a genuine respect (affection?) for the little creatures who labor so hard to make honey.