Recommended Beekeeping Books

Rooftop beekeeping gives city dwellers the best of both worlds— the vibrant culture of urban life and the delicious pleasures of homegrown food. Brooklyn-based beekeeper Megan Paska is a professional apiarist to NYC restaurants, and with The Rooftop Beekeeper, she puts into your hands everything you need to know to keep bees. It turns out cities are perfect for beekeeping: rich with diverse flora for bees to pollinate and abundant in apartment buildings with sun-kissed rooftops to house hives. With a focus on minimally invasive techniques, Megan walks you through the details of getting to know your honeybees, starting your own hive, harvesting your honey, and more! Combined with her fool-proof instructions are detailed photographs for visual learning and whimsical illustrations to get you in the mood to raise bees. Twenty-six simple and easy recipes for drinks, meals, and home remedies take advantage of honey’s taste and beautifying and cleansing qualities. Crispy Chicken Salad with Egg and Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette with a side of Jalapeno and Honey Skillet Cornbread makes a satisfying meal with a sweet finish of Honey “Treacle” Tart. Your living room feels like a spa when you relax in a Honey Rhassoul Clay Facial Mask, an icy Country Girl Julep within reach. This is one of that rare beekeeping books that are the perfect guide for first-time beekeepers, aspiring apiarists, or those who want to connect with nature and the extraordinary honeybee…you!

The classic, easy-to-read guides of “For Dummies” give you the lowdown on beekeeping in Beekeeping for Dummies!  Get the most trusted and updated information on how to safely keep your own backyard apiary.  Learn about:

• Building your own beehives
• Latest tools and equipment
• Phases of honey production
• Benefits of beekeeping
• Transporting/transferring hives
• How to harvest your honey
• Maintaining a healthy colony in urban and suburban environments
• How to market your honey
• Keeping your queen bees healthy
• Improving the genetics of your colony

Bonus sections include an exploration of why bee colonies are dwindling and what you can do to make a real impact on the environment.  Enjoy this friendly, easy to explore guide piece by piece or read it all the way through!

If you’d rather take a hands-on approach to build your own apiary, Building Beehives for Dummies is the book for you.  Learn how to create your hives from scratch with this fun, easy to read guide with step by step instructions and fun facts about beekeeping.  Even learn how to dress up your hives and build them for fun and profit! Moreover, this is one of the beekeeping books Amazon bestsellers. 

• Multiple beehive designs
• Supplies lists
• Detailed diagrams and drawings
• Step by step instructions
• Over 12 traditional beehive designs, including: the Langstroth hive, the eight frame garden hive, designs for elevated hive stands, the Warre hive, screened bottom board, the Kenya top-bar hive, four-frame observation hive, hive top feeders, and more.
• Chapters to teach you the carpentry skills you need
• Guidance on navigating neighbors, laws, and regulations
• Tips on finding the perfect location for your hives

Get started on your hobby or expand your beekeeping operation the old-fashioned way, and reap the rewards of building your own hives!

Everything you need to know about the complex tradition of beekeeping in one enjoyable book.  Made for gardeners, crafters, and cooks looking for a backyard passtime.  New edition that gives you more information on a green beekeeping experience.

• Sustainable practices
• Guide to pesticide resistant bees
• Urban and suburban beekeeping
• Honey cookbook
• Beautiful illustrations
• Set up, care , and harvest honey from your colonies
• Bee facts and projects

Study the best organic ways to care for your bees and keeping them healthy, productive, and happy.  Includes recipes for treats, beauty treatments, and creating candles.

Honeybees make decisions collectively–and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. In fact, as world-renowned animal behaviorist Thomas Seeley reveals, these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making. A remarkable and richly illustrated account of scientific discovery, Honeybee Democracy brings together, for the first time, decades of Seeley’s pioneering research to tell the amazing story of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees.

In the late spring and early summer, as a bee colony becomes overcrowded, a third of the hive stays behind and rears a new queen, while a swarm of thousands departs with the old queen to produce a daughter colony. Seeley describes how these bees evaluate potential nest sites, advertise their discoveries to one another, engage in open deliberation, choose a final site, and navigate together–as a swirling cloud of bees–to their new home. Seeley investigates how evolution has honed the decision-making methods of honeybees over millions of years, and he considers similarities between the ways that bee swarms and primate brains process information. He concludes that what works well for bees can also work well for people: any decision-making group should consist of individuals with shared interests and mutual respect, a leader’s influence should be minimized, debate should be relied upon, diverse solutions should be sought, and the majority should be counted on for a dependable resolution.

An impressive exploration of animal behavior, Honeybee Democracy shows that decision-making groups, whether honeybee or human, can be smarter than even the smartest individuals in them.

Explore over 20,000 be species in this incomparable book that details the diversity of bees.  Get hands on, practical knowledge on beekeeping and the health of your hives in this enjoyable narrative form.  Take a look at the human-bee relationship over time, and the importance of these crucial pollinators to our food supply.

• Learn about bee evolution, genetics, physiology, and ecology
• Directory of notable species
• Handy go-to guides on the treatment, identification, and prevention of bee diseases
• Holistic approach to bee health
• Tips to help the bee populations in general

An essential book for the beekeeper and any who are concerned with the recent devastation of bee populations worldwide.  You’ll enjoy reading this book and learn much more about how to run a successful apiary.

Learn how to successfully raise your colonies in the face of tremendous modern challenges such as Colony Collapse Disorder, varroa, and tracheal mites.  This can be done without the aid of miticides, antibiotics, and chemical applications.  The secret?  Top-bar hives, which resemble a hollow log in the interior.  This allows bees to behave more naturally and build comb according to their instincts

This new technique does yield slightly less honey, but produce more natural beeswax than a traditional Langstroth style hive.  You can keep your bees healthier and disease free in this environment with regular inspection of the hives interior.

Top-bar Beekeeping gives you the complete overview of what this technique entails.  These innovative hives are perfect for the at-home hobbyist who are looking for a natural low stress alternative to traditional beekeeping methods.  A top-bar hive is the perfect addition for gardeners and permaculturists who are interested in maintaining healthy pollinator populations on their property.

Since 1973, this book has been widely regarded as the most essential text for the beginning beekeeper. Incorporating over 100 illustrations with step by step guides, this book is a great read for any who are considering beekeeping as a hobby or want to learn more about how to maintain and grow a successful apiary.  The text focuses on what you can do throughout the season to yield the best supply of honey and healthiest hives of bees.  You will be presented with a variety of techniques, as well as the pros and cons, so that you can make the best decisions for your own operation.

• Directions for every stage of operation, from set up to honey harvest
• 100 illustrations on beekeeping techniques, equipment, and bee biology
• How to manage and prevent pest infestation and Colony Collapse Disorder
• New trends including urban beekeeping and green techniques
• Up to date bibliography & resources
• User friendly book design for quick reference

The fourth edition has been revised and edited to include new information on the most modern beekeeping techniques.  Learn not only how, but why things are done a certain way, and become the most informed beekeeper on the block!

This book edition contains all three essential volumes of The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally.  You’ll learn how to keep bees in a natural, practical system with minimal intervention and treatments.  Learn how to:

• Utilize unconventional beekeeping techniques to minimize your work
• Backed up by decades of experimentation and simplification
• Tailored to the questions of new and experienced beekeepers

Get the Beginning, Medium, and Advanced volumes in one convenient order today, and learn how to efficiently keep your hives healthy and strong.