The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

I use this book for my beekeeping classes. It is simply one of, if not the best beginner books out there covering a little of everything from start to finish. I highly recommend it. Rich Waite Owner Black Cat Honey

Kim writes an excellent book on the joys of beekeeping. It is engaging for those who are seriously considering keeping bees and for those who think the idea of keeping bees is merely interesting. There are many topics covered in the book. Fundamentals in bee biology, honey plants and even hive products such as candles and balms are discussed. This is an excellent book with useful information, quality photos and is a great all-around pleasureable read. Highly recommended. Visit www.[...] to learn more about bees after reading this book!

My bees are coming in less than 2 months, and this book is the first and only one I have bought. I am glad that I did! He starts with a brief explanation of the history of bees and beekeeping as well as bee biology and basic behavior (which is important to understand in order to know what the heck they are doing at any given time). Then he clearly explains what types of bees you can order and in what "packaging" and the equipment that you need as a beginner and what its use is. He provides good pictures and diagrams that detail out what he is talking about, so you know what a queen looks like, what the entire stack of equipment looks like and where each goes in the hive. Then he gives a detailed analysis of the current state of diseases, mites, and other bee enemies and how to treat them, not taking sides on the ecological/chemical approaches. There are also two sections that cover step-by-step what you do when you get your bees (how do you get them into your hive without having a mutiny) and what you need to do for your bees throughout the different seasons of the year, culminating in how to harvest honey and how to extract it. The end of the book has some beeswax and honey recipes for food and products that you can make, and was useful but not necessary. The only complaint I have about the book is that he doesn't cover the foundation that you put in the frames in enough detail. Foundation is an important and yet very confusing part of the hive for a new-bee like me. This book is exactly what you need as a beginning beekeeper.

This book is very good at extracting basic and intermediate information from a large selection of beekeeping manuals. Once I entered this world of beekeeping, I soon found an overwealming amount of information available on this subject. I enjoyed this book's ability to bridge the gap between the usual vague coverage of a begining beekeeping book and the thick manuals I am now pouring through. The illustrations and quick reference characteristics make this book a great addition to any home library.

This book seems like an excellent beginners book- it's not intimidating and seems to cover the basics well. It seems like a good prep book to read before going to the beekeeping classes to become a real beekeeper. It has a lot of info about what to do with the wax- other products beyond honey. This is just what I wanted! It's pretty enough to be a coffee table book, but full of all the info I wanted to know to start seriously thinking about beekeeping.