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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping: Everything the Budding Beekeeper Needs for a Healthy, Productive Hive
The buzz on beekeeping.
The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Beekeeping has all the information a beginning beekeeper needs to know to start a hive and keep it buzzing. Expert beekeepers Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer, owners of Golden Rule Honey, take readers step by step through the entire process-from information on the inhabitants of a hive and how it works to collecting bees, keeping them healthy, raising a queen, harvesting honey and wax, and storing hives for the off- season.
The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Beekeeping has all the information a beginning beekeeper needs to know to start a hive and keep it buzzing. Expert beekeepers Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer, owners of Golden Rule Honey, take readers step by step through the entire process-from information on the inhabitants of a hive and how it works to collecting bees, keeping them healthy, raising a queen, harvesting honey and wax, and storing hives for the off- season.
- GenresReferenceNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
72 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 1, 2025
This was extremely good and I learned SO much about beekeeping! I am so excited to become a beekeeper one day and am genuinely fascinated over how intricate and amazing bees are. God took extra time creating honey bees and their design is truly beautiful! 🐝 💛
June 6, 2010
My musician friends Dean and Ramona (aka Laurie) got into beekeeping a few years ago. Then they got REALLY into beekeeping, starting a business selling their honey and honey products (Golden Rule Honey, at http://beeuntoothers.com/). Then they got approached to write a book about beekeeping... not just any book, but the Complete Idiot's Guide! Very exciting, and they did a great job.
It's not just an instruction manual: they have a not-so-hidden agenda, which is to promote treatment-free beekeeping (i.e. no pesticides or antibiotics that can mess up the balance of microbes that naturally occur in a hive), unlimited broodnest (i.e. don't artificially limit the amount of drones in order to maximize honey; they help defend against disease and parasites), and regression to a smaller honeycomb cell size (i.e. and thus smaller bees, rather than being artificially enlarged by commercial beekeepers to maximize honey output, which weakens the bees and the hive). I am usually turned off by this sort of anti-commercial and anti-technological attitude, which is often more emotional and ideological than rational, but here the case is made in a very sensible and convincing way. It may be that commercial beekeepers need to do things the way they do them, but for a hobbyist beekeeper it is clearly a good idea to keep things simple and natural, even if it means less-than-optimal honey production. And if nothing else, more variety in the way bees are kept can probably help hedge our bets against Colony Collapse Disorder.
I have no interest in keeping bees myself, but this book is an entertaining and educational read. Bees and bee colonies are fascinating and complex organisms, and the ancient relationships between humans and bees and between bees and the rest of the environment are interesting to learn and think about. Nice work, guys!
It's not just an instruction manual: they have a not-so-hidden agenda, which is to promote treatment-free beekeeping (i.e. no pesticides or antibiotics that can mess up the balance of microbes that naturally occur in a hive), unlimited broodnest (i.e. don't artificially limit the amount of drones in order to maximize honey; they help defend against disease and parasites), and regression to a smaller honeycomb cell size (i.e. and thus smaller bees, rather than being artificially enlarged by commercial beekeepers to maximize honey output, which weakens the bees and the hive). I am usually turned off by this sort of anti-commercial and anti-technological attitude, which is often more emotional and ideological than rational, but here the case is made in a very sensible and convincing way. It may be that commercial beekeepers need to do things the way they do them, but for a hobbyist beekeeper it is clearly a good idea to keep things simple and natural, even if it means less-than-optimal honey production. And if nothing else, more variety in the way bees are kept can probably help hedge our bets against Colony Collapse Disorder.
I have no interest in keeping bees myself, but this book is an entertaining and educational read. Bees and bee colonies are fascinating and complex organisms, and the ancient relationships between humans and bees and between bees and the rest of the environment are interesting to learn and think about. Nice work, guys!
April 13, 2011
This book is amazing! After reading it I feel totally confident in taking care of my bees. I read through the section about lighting the smoker and installing package bees right before I did mine and everything went totally smoothly. Especially helpful: the tip not to drop the queen cage into the swirling mass of bees. Hahahahaha.
The way the book is broken down makes everything easy to find. You don't have to read through giant paragraph blocks of text to get to the heart of what the authors are trying to say. I feel like pretty much every topic was covered but not is an overwhelming, too-much-depth sort of way. And yet there were step-by-step breakdowns where needed.
I love that it goes into how to have no-treatment hives and normal-sized ("small") bees.
Not a fan of the "complete idiot" title, but I guess there's not much to be done about that.
The way the book is broken down makes everything easy to find. You don't have to read through giant paragraph blocks of text to get to the heart of what the authors are trying to say. I feel like pretty much every topic was covered but not is an overwhelming, too-much-depth sort of way. And yet there were step-by-step breakdowns where needed.
I love that it goes into how to have no-treatment hives and normal-sized ("small") bees.
Not a fan of the "complete idiot" title, but I guess there's not much to be done about that.
June 17, 2015
In some ways it was more detailed and instructive than other books. The authors are definitely advocating for a natural approach to beekeeping that goes beyond what most small (even organic) beekeepers do. Because of the lack of other resources to consult to implement "their" beekeeping methods, the authors needed to be extra detailed in describing how to implement the techniques they are advocating, such as no treatments, reverting to small cell, and using only local,genetically diverse queens. I don't think they provided enough detail or referenced enough other resources to really implement the non-mainstream approaches. Still it was interesting learning about them!
October 3, 2020
Very informative, especially for someone like me who knew nothing about beekeeping or apiaries.
March 10, 2015
Lately I have been researching beekeeping. Especially since I have recently become one. In doing the research for keeping these fascinating creatures, I've found (as beekeepers say)for every ten keepers of bees there are twenty opinions. Bissinger's book comes up on sites on what is referred to natural beekeeping.
In the beekeeping world there are kinda-sorta three schools: 1) Give em' chemicals to keep them alive, 2) Give em' some chemicals but not harsh ones because it's necessary, and 3) Bees know best; let them do what they're best at. If they're not good at living, let them die. Bissinger's book picks door #3. At first, I was skeptical about his methods, motivation and philosophies. I must admit, however, that after losing a hive and doing more research, his suggestions make more sense.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping offers solid suggestions, clear and concise directions, and what is coming to be considered a realistic way of keeping bees in such a way that respects nature, the bees, and the beekeeper. There is a lot of technical expertise in the book concerning methods of keeping that include foundationless frames, top bar hives vs. Langstroth hives, feeding vs. no feed, the use of chemical solutions to disease and pests that are unfortunately prevalent in beekeeping today (Bissinger advises against the use of chemicals).
In the tradition of "Idiot's Guides" the book is easily accessible to beginners and is very well organized including the famous "boxes" for information. While I picked up this book before knowing much at all about keeping bees, I come away after reading the book believing that I at the very least have some very solid information about a world that is rarely filled with certainties.
In the beekeeping world there are kinda-sorta three schools: 1) Give em' chemicals to keep them alive, 2) Give em' some chemicals but not harsh ones because it's necessary, and 3) Bees know best; let them do what they're best at. If they're not good at living, let them die. Bissinger's book picks door #3. At first, I was skeptical about his methods, motivation and philosophies. I must admit, however, that after losing a hive and doing more research, his suggestions make more sense.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping offers solid suggestions, clear and concise directions, and what is coming to be considered a realistic way of keeping bees in such a way that respects nature, the bees, and the beekeeper. There is a lot of technical expertise in the book concerning methods of keeping that include foundationless frames, top bar hives vs. Langstroth hives, feeding vs. no feed, the use of chemical solutions to disease and pests that are unfortunately prevalent in beekeeping today (Bissinger advises against the use of chemicals).
In the tradition of "Idiot's Guides" the book is easily accessible to beginners and is very well organized including the famous "boxes" for information. While I picked up this book before knowing much at all about keeping bees, I come away after reading the book believing that I at the very least have some very solid information about a world that is rarely filled with certainties.
February 27, 2014
I've thought about beekeeping for a few years and when I found an old, 1920's honey extractor for sale I bought it. Without bees, of course, it is not much use. I know nothing about beekeeping. Stiglitz's book is a great book for people like me. The book is not just about honey extraction. In fact, most of the book is not about the product of honey, but about the animal itself: the bee.
This book offers the "complete idiot" solid information about natural beekeeping. Based on the premise that bees know best, Stiglitz offers methods that do not rely on artificial feeding (with the exception of the first few days of getting a package of bees), medicines (except for AFB), or excluders for efficiency and profit. The book is about bees, their happiness, and their health.
This is an excellent book for those (like me) that are interested in going beyond "organic" with their food and offers the homesteader an excellent source packed with insights that will allow them and the bees to co-exist as happily as possible.
This book offers the "complete idiot" solid information about natural beekeeping. Based on the premise that bees know best, Stiglitz offers methods that do not rely on artificial feeding (with the exception of the first few days of getting a package of bees), medicines (except for AFB), or excluders for efficiency and profit. The book is about bees, their happiness, and their health.
This is an excellent book for those (like me) that are interested in going beyond "organic" with their food and offers the homesteader an excellent source packed with insights that will allow them and the bees to co-exist as happily as possible.
July 25, 2016
The more I read it, the more I like it
As a self professed biologically organic beekeeper, I find this book to be very valuable. As a beekeeping instructor at a local community college, I use this book as a source of information in my classes and always make it a most recommended purchase to them.
As a self professed biologically organic beekeeper, I find this book to be very valuable. As a beekeeping instructor at a local community college, I use this book as a source of information in my classes and always make it a most recommended purchase to them.
July 18, 2011
A good source of reference for treatment-free beekeeping on any level. I would prefer to have more sources given for further information as there were only about 5-8 supply companies and none other sources listed.
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June 11, 2011It's the bees kneessssssss!
May 9, 2012
It was the first beekeeping book I read. Good simple over view, well set up, intro to vocabulary specific to beekeeping. Easy reading.
July 13, 2012
A very interesting and informative book. It makes me want to try beekeeping myself!
September 4, 2013
the book is a complete beekeeping course guide, AMAZING!
June 1, 2020
Good source
I just wanted to learn more about bees. Not really planning on becoming a bekeeper. But I found this book facinating.
I just wanted to learn more about bees. Not really planning on becoming a bekeeper. But I found this book facinating.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews