The Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping: Everything You Need to Know

by Samantha Johnson, Daniel Johnson

Raising bees is becoming increasingly popular in backyards and on farms large and small-and it's easy to see why. These resourceful insects produce organic honey and beeswax, all while constantly providing natural aid to the health of your yard and garden. And even better, bees are easy to keep, especially with the expert instruction of the "The Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping." Beginning with the basics, seasoned beekeepers Daniel and Samantha Johnson answer all of a prospective beekeeper's questions on how to set up, care for, and harvest your very own bee colonies. With the help of this comprehensive DIY guide, raising bees can be an enjoyable and accessible backyard pastime for gardeners, crafters, and cooks everywhere.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Animals

176 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

SAMANTHA JOHNSON writes about the happy things in life—pets, home, family, food, and gardening—and thinks Mondays are the most wonderful day of the week. She fills her rare spare moments by crafting to-do lists and fulfilling the commands and demands of her bossy Corgi. She's the author or co-author of ten books, including The Rabbit Book, The Field Guide to Rabbits, The Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping, and The Beginner's Guide to Vegetable Gardening. Contact Samantha at miraclewelsh@gmail.com .

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super informative! I feel ready for bees now.

[kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected to use this book as a reference, but the information was just laid out in a way that made you want to keep reading. They got technical without getting out of your league and had lots of color pictures to explain exactly what they meant. I finished it in a day and left with the feeling of "Yup, I could do this."

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and easy read about the art of beekeeping, this book tells everything you need to know to start your own enjoyment with bees. It starts with getting to know bees, how to install and care for them, how to prevent and control disease and pests, and how to reap the rewards of honey, pollen, and wax products.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

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.

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

[Jennifer Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is maybe a little too simple and didn't really realistically cover the challenges of beekeeping or keeping a hive. A little too glossy and glossing over topics, it made it seem too easy and I didn't find much information I didn't already know about

[Dmitry Tumanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent primer into the world of bees and beekeeping. Looking forward to put this in practice next year. It will bee quite an adventure.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someday...

[Karlen HK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great info, beautiful photos.

[Aaron Bolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very visually appealing and very informative at a beginner's level.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good, basic overview of beekeeping. It's pretty short and I was able to read it over the course of a day. What I like the best is that there are TONS of pictures and that is helpful when you're just starting and not sure what you should or are seeing. It doesn't say it's for children or teens, but it seems like it's geared that way. There is not a lot of text, so it would be easier to read. But, it is very informative and does give a good overview of getting, installing bees, caring for them, extracting honey, etc. Definitely a good reference book with all the detailed pictures.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book deserves a longer review than the one I am writing, but as someone who has been toying with the idea of urban/backyard beekeeping for a few years, I found this to book to be a delightful introduction to what promises to be an exciting and rewarding hobby. I am yet to buy any gear (or bees), so reading is my only vicarious outlet until next season by which time I hope to convince myself that I know enough to look after 'my girls' well enough.


I would recommend this book for readers in a similar situation, I have come away with a list of questions to pose to the beekeeping association in our region. I'll even be able to understand the answers given, based on the knowledge I have picked up over the pages of this book. While it may not be *everything* you need to know, it certainly covers all the major points of what you *should* know.
Aside from the easy reading that seems to just flow from the pages, the photographs are simply stunning and make a massive contribution to the overall appeal of the book. For reference material, I certainly enjoyed the read, and was amused to see how the photos drew in both my wife and one of my sons to learn more about this thing I'm planning to get started with.


I have reserved the final star solely because of some of the regionalisation in the text (being skewed to the American market). I do this to be fair to other reviews I have posted and, while completely understandable in terms of marketing and wanting to address the questions from their local readership, I would have appreciated a little hat-tip to readers from different countries in terms of more internationally relevant resources. Perhaps such an inclusion would be difficult to keep accurate and would quickly date the text, regardless - there is more than enough information and beautiful imagery to keep me coming back to this book again and again.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purchased a paperback copy of this from one of the local farm supply stores, just out of a passing curiosity.

For context, I knew a little about bees going in, and pretty much nothing about beekeeping practices. Seems like a pretty good reference guide for complete beginners such as myself, as well as those starting out with less knowledge than me.

Loses points for having unintuitive and somewhat random page layouts that I found confusingly difficult to read: some of the paragraphs break off and then pick up again from a weird place on the page, mostly due to the amount and/or placement of (admittedly gorgeous and high-quality) pictures. Also, if I remember correctly, there were quite a few typos, which, to be fair, is just a small nitpick of mine.

Learned quite a bit, though, so overall, it's a decent resource.

[CraftyBirdies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very similar to other bee books, but it does have very good, basic, helpful information! It was written in a great tone and very easy to understand with lovely pictures. It only covers Langstroth hives and doesn't even mention others, so if you are looking for alternatives, this book is NOT the place.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

#Netgalley

[Linda Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

We just got two hives and are beginning beekeepers. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to find this gem. Unfortunately, it's data size is so large that it makes it a bit difficult to read. The sections that I was able to read were excellent though.
This is one that I will be looking for following publication.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book from netgalley. All opinions are my own.

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Carmen Ledford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Beginner’s Guide to Beekeeping was an informative read from Daniel and Samantha Johnson and FFA. This book is for inexperienced beekeepers or those who are considering beekeeping as a hobby. I fall into the last category and learned a lot from this book. It starts with fascinating facts about bees and builds the reader’s knowledge about beekeeping from there. It is written in a very easy to read style and has copious pictures. All the FFA guides I have seen have been great, and this one doesn’t disappoint. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in beekeeping.

I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.