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The Complete Guide to Beekeeping for Fun & Profit Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
Beekeeping is both a hobby and a practical business plan that many individuals have taken up in recent years as a viable way to culture a valuable natural resource and have fun in the process. In any given year, an effectively built beekeeping business can bring profits up to 500 percent of your investment according to numerous private beekeepers.
The benefit of growing your own honey and selling it to local customers for between $3 and $6 a pound depending on how you cultivate and whether your honey is completely organic can be a huge boon for anyone with the money and time to invest. This book walks all motivated potential beekeepers through the process of building and operating their beekeeping business from the ground up, ensuring it is both a fun hobby and a great way to make a little extra money on the side.
You will learn everything you need to effectively start beekeeping for profit and fun, including what materials you need, what kinds of bees are best for honey or wax production. You will learn all of the fundamental safety equipment you need to effectively handle the bees and where to place your hives on your property to take advantage of natural circumstances. You will learn the basics you need to understand what bees do and how they interact, including details about the queen bee, the worker bees, drones, and foragers. You will learn how seasonal changes affect your colonies, and how to use your smoke to access and gather honey from your bees.
The best in home beekeeping professionals have been interviewed and their expertise and insights have been gathered here for you to review, providing additional details about the kinds and methods of honey gathering that you can profit from you. You will learn how to install everything and keep your colonies updated. You will learn how to keep the necessary records and how to sell your honey and what the best prices for that honey is. You will learn what is involved in opening a colony and how to manage pests effectively without endangering the bees or the honey. You will learn how to manage your hives in the winter and fall and what you can do with everything your bees produce.
For anyone who has ever considered beekeeping as a hobby or source of side income, this is the book for you.
Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.
This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. The print version of this book is 288 pages and you receive exactly the same content. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version.
The benefit of growing your own honey and selling it to local customers for between $3 and $6 a pound depending on how you cultivate and whether your honey is completely organic can be a huge boon for anyone with the money and time to invest. This book walks all motivated potential beekeepers through the process of building and operating their beekeeping business from the ground up, ensuring it is both a fun hobby and a great way to make a little extra money on the side.
You will learn everything you need to effectively start beekeeping for profit and fun, including what materials you need, what kinds of bees are best for honey or wax production. You will learn all of the fundamental safety equipment you need to effectively handle the bees and where to place your hives on your property to take advantage of natural circumstances. You will learn the basics you need to understand what bees do and how they interact, including details about the queen bee, the worker bees, drones, and foragers. You will learn how seasonal changes affect your colonies, and how to use your smoke to access and gather honey from your bees.
The best in home beekeeping professionals have been interviewed and their expertise and insights have been gathered here for you to review, providing additional details about the kinds and methods of honey gathering that you can profit from you. You will learn how to install everything and keep your colonies updated. You will learn how to keep the necessary records and how to sell your honey and what the best prices for that honey is. You will learn what is involved in opening a colony and how to manage pests effectively without endangering the bees or the honey. You will learn how to manage your hives in the winter and fall and what you can do with everything your bees produce.
For anyone who has ever considered beekeeping as a hobby or source of side income, this is the book for you.
Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.
This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. The print version of this book is 288 pages and you receive exactly the same content. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version.
- GenresNonfiction
304 pages, Paperback
First published March 23, 2010
12 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 28, 2021
As a complete novice beekeeper, this book started simple and explained the basics, like the parts of a bee or hive. Other books expect you to know such basic facts already. I didn't like that it didn't go into depth about some things, like how exactly to I collect the wax or honey? But as a basic beginners book, it gave me the knowledge to ask intelligent questions and a good base to start from
May 26, 2011
Beekeeping For Fun & Profit
With Cindy Belknap
Book Review by Jay Gilbertson
It used to be that beekeeping was considered an art. That the beekeeper and his/her bees were a harmonious team off to an adventure-filled summer of pollination heaven leading to a bountiful harvest, flourishing flowers and culminating in honey-bliss. Then the bees began to disappear.
Author Bellknap has assembled a collection of beekeeping how-to-steps as well as beekeeper interviews and many facts and figures to help you begin your journey because she realizes—we can’t give up!
“Honey bee researchers are encouraging people to take up beekeeping to help reverse this decline in population—properly managed hives have a much better chance of survival than hives in the wild.”
With chapter headings like; “Beekeeping Basics, Working the Hive, Organic/Natural Beekeeping, The Business of Bees and Cooking With Honey,” Belknap manages to cover the gamut. A side benefit of this particular guide is that the author incorporates many other beekeeper’s advice as well as case studies from various professionals with interesting facts and figures to consider.
“In the northern states that experience winter, bees need 60 to 70 pounds of capped honey to survive. This is equal to 10 deep frames of capped honey.”
I’ve read many a bee-book and this is the first time I came across the above and it’s exactly how much honey I left with my gals—they disappeared anyways. BUT, am I giving up? No way.
One drawback to this particular book was the lack of useful information concerning ‘Natural Beekeeping,’ which is what I do. There are a very few guides available for pesticide-free beekeeping. Belknap does (at least) have a chapter on keeping bees without the use of chemicals, but she fails to inform the reader how much or in which combination essential oils can and should be used. I found this a tad frustrating as she sure can tell you how to use the countless chemicals and to use them a lot! With names like; Apistan, CheckMite+ and Apiguard would you want to eat honey from those hives?
On the other hand, there are tons of great honey-related recipes such as; Honey Lemonade, Bee-Sweet Banana Bread, Honey Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches and (of course) Caribbean Honey-Spiced Chicken with Mango. Imagine that.
At the very end, author Belknap created a month-by-month ‘Beekeeping Calendar’ which I found really helpful. She also suggests that beekeepers keep a log of each bee-yard visit and to jot down any unusual observations as well as positive sightings such as if the queen is busy laying eggs, are the frames getting drawn out, is there nectar being stored and if you can notice any pests that may have moved in.
Lastly there is a list of bee-factoids some of which are really interesting.
“In a lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12 a teaspoon of honey. A hive of bees can make and store up to 2 pounds of honey each day. In one collection trip, a worker bee visits up to 100 flowers.”
Yes, last year in May I did a Beekeeping Review and I hope to do another next May as beekeeping is just so darn important. Please consider becoming a beekeeper—imagine all that honey and you get to wear a cool outfit too!
• You can find this book at your local library.
• Beekeeping is FUN!
• Feel free to contact me (unless I’m in my bee-yard) at jrg@chibardun.net
With Cindy Belknap
Book Review by Jay Gilbertson
It used to be that beekeeping was considered an art. That the beekeeper and his/her bees were a harmonious team off to an adventure-filled summer of pollination heaven leading to a bountiful harvest, flourishing flowers and culminating in honey-bliss. Then the bees began to disappear.
Author Bellknap has assembled a collection of beekeeping how-to-steps as well as beekeeper interviews and many facts and figures to help you begin your journey because she realizes—we can’t give up!
“Honey bee researchers are encouraging people to take up beekeeping to help reverse this decline in population—properly managed hives have a much better chance of survival than hives in the wild.”
With chapter headings like; “Beekeeping Basics, Working the Hive, Organic/Natural Beekeeping, The Business of Bees and Cooking With Honey,” Belknap manages to cover the gamut. A side benefit of this particular guide is that the author incorporates many other beekeeper’s advice as well as case studies from various professionals with interesting facts and figures to consider.
“In the northern states that experience winter, bees need 60 to 70 pounds of capped honey to survive. This is equal to 10 deep frames of capped honey.”
I’ve read many a bee-book and this is the first time I came across the above and it’s exactly how much honey I left with my gals—they disappeared anyways. BUT, am I giving up? No way.
One drawback to this particular book was the lack of useful information concerning ‘Natural Beekeeping,’ which is what I do. There are a very few guides available for pesticide-free beekeeping. Belknap does (at least) have a chapter on keeping bees without the use of chemicals, but she fails to inform the reader how much or in which combination essential oils can and should be used. I found this a tad frustrating as she sure can tell you how to use the countless chemicals and to use them a lot! With names like; Apistan, CheckMite+ and Apiguard would you want to eat honey from those hives?
On the other hand, there are tons of great honey-related recipes such as; Honey Lemonade, Bee-Sweet Banana Bread, Honey Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches and (of course) Caribbean Honey-Spiced Chicken with Mango. Imagine that.
At the very end, author Belknap created a month-by-month ‘Beekeeping Calendar’ which I found really helpful. She also suggests that beekeepers keep a log of each bee-yard visit and to jot down any unusual observations as well as positive sightings such as if the queen is busy laying eggs, are the frames getting drawn out, is there nectar being stored and if you can notice any pests that may have moved in.
Lastly there is a list of bee-factoids some of which are really interesting.
“In a lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12 a teaspoon of honey. A hive of bees can make and store up to 2 pounds of honey each day. In one collection trip, a worker bee visits up to 100 flowers.”
Yes, last year in May I did a Beekeeping Review and I hope to do another next May as beekeeping is just so darn important. Please consider becoming a beekeeper—imagine all that honey and you get to wear a cool outfit too!
• You can find this book at your local library.
• Beekeeping is FUN!
• Feel free to contact me (unless I’m in my bee-yard) at jrg@chibardun.net
September 25, 2010
While the writing in this book wasn't great, the author did give a good overview of beekeeping for someone who's a complete novice--and some of my confusion with the writing may have been because beekeeping is probably something that is better explained and demonstrated in person than taught in a book. I have no immediate plans to start a bee colony, but it was interesting, all the same!
Read
February 27, 2012Informative
May 3, 2012
Alright book about beekeeping, but there are far better books available.
September 7, 2012
Can not wait to read this one! I want bees. This was my birthday present from my hubby tonight!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews