Backyard Farming: Keeping Honey Bees: From Hive Management to Honey Harvesting and More

by Kim Pezza

Your Backyard Farming Experience Begins Here!

Make beekeeping a part of your backyard farming enjoy honey, beeswax and a more fruitful garden, as your bees will work as hard as you do to make your backyard farm a success!

Backyard Keeping Honey Bees is your guide to successfully caring for your hive. As a comprehensive primer for first-time beekeepers, Keeping Honey Bees includes detailed illustrations and informative photographs that help to ease new homesteaders into the world of backyard beekeeping.

Keeping Honey Bees takes you from start to from planning out your bees’ space in the yard and constructing/installing your hives, to feeding and nurturing your new colony, to enjoying your very own golden honey and more.

With Keeping Honey Bees , you
• Learn the proper use of the equipment necessary to make your beekeeping a success
• Construct the perfect apiary to minimize your workload and ensure a productive colony
• Gather honey and beeswax for profit, or to include in your own self-sufficiency plan
• Use the freshest, fullest honey possible in a variety of delicious recipes
…and many more tips and tricks from experienced farmers to help you avoid the most common pitfalls you might encounter.
 
Keeping Honey Bees is your first big step to joining the growing movement of homemakers and homesteaders looking to make a return to a healthier, happier way of life—and it starts right in your own backyard.

Backyard Farming is a series of easy-to-use guides to help urban, suburban, and rural dwellers turn their homes into homesteads. Whether planning to grow food for the family or for sale at the local farmers market, Backyard Farming provides simple instruction and essential information in a convenient reference.

Genres: Gardening, Nature, Animals, Agriculture

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the introduction:

"Backyard Farming: Keeping Honey Bees is meant to be a source for those who are considering a start in the world of bees. Laying out the basics simply and clearly without a lot of complicated, in-depth information, it will give potential new beekeepers an idea of what they can expect when (or if) they decide to have a hive of their own or if it is a hobby or potential business that they even want to continue to pursue."

And that is what the book is. It is not very indepth, but full of (bee)breadth. I found the book about as amusing as my pun. Five stars.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably a decent overview of beekeeping, but so nonspecific that I felt I could've got the same information from browsing wikipedia for an hour. Actually, that's probably how the book was written, given that a large chunk of the photo credits are to wikimedia. Also there's some hippy nonsense about homeopathic bee-sting therapy and cell phone towers being a contributor to colony collapse disorder, and of course the ever-present fear of 'chemicals'.

I could really do with a recommendation of a better beekeeping book, if anyone's bothered to read this.

[Steph :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a very little experience with beekeeping, and this is a great resource in a beginner'a collection. The book thoroughly explained how to start and maintain a hive. The only improvement would be to have the photos in color, because the black and white photos were sometimes hard to understand.

I got this book from goodreads giveaways.

[Natalie Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bee Keeping is something I am interested in. This book was very informative.

[Angularrrrr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to write a 12-page paper this weekend. My mind is weak, my body is decaying.

In response, I am reverting to Ardipithecus: rejecting all man-made horrors, such as school, credit scores, and taxes.

In returning to my natural state, I find myself wanting to climb trees and own a bunch of bugs that puke up imperishable liquid gold. (Technically not puke, they just transfer it mouth to mouth.)

I could live off the grid in the mountains and wash my hair with raw honeycomb. I could eat the larva for protein, like those in northeast Thailand. I could scam Gwyneth Paltrow out of two grand just to have her walk around my hive naked, get stung for ‘cosmetic properties,’ and then brag about it on the cover of Vogue France.

This and the two other books I plan to inhale tomorrow after yoga bring me one step closer to that.

[Chris Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful but very basic, high-level overview of bees and beekeeping. If your looking for insight on how to actually ‘keep honeybees’ you won’t find it here...which is odd since the title is called ‘keeping honeybees’. Instead it should have been called ‘an informative but basic understanding of bees’

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for those who are considering getting into bee keeping!

[Nate DeRochie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introductory overview. This is a very beginner friendly book. However, it is not a complete manual, just an introductory overview. Read accordingly.

[Rosey Waters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for character research. The actual bee keeping information probably good but the science was too sketchy and bordered on the vibes side so I found it… only ok.

[Loren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've watched quite a few documentaries on bees and beekeeping. I've also read books from an evolutionary biology point of view therefore learning the history. I did not need all that filler info. I wanted something more than an ambiguous generalized description of which one of any knowledge might assume is the process. What a waste of paper.