SurreyBeeKeeper.co.ukFor all your Beekeeping needs

Queen Breeding and Bee Genetics by Eigil Holm is an English translation of a Danish Book and it is immediately apparent that it shouldn’t be pitched at those who are perhaps not particularly scientific minded. In parts, despite it being a very informative book, it did remind me of past textbooks with scary looking diagrams all over the pages. Then again, that is exactly what genetics is all about; therefore perhaps I am being a little harsh.

What is immediately apparent in this book, 92 pages long and with some good colour photos to back up some of the descriptions, is that there is an incredible amount of information here in this book. Eigil Holm is obviously passionate about the topic and it shows. I would never every purport to be an expert at beekeeping and so initial chapters introducing the concepts of queen rearing were very interesting. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I wrote a short blog article about Presents to give a Beekeeper and in that piece I wrote a small section about beekeeping books I would recommend. Though I had only received it a few days previously, an excellent beekeeping book review in the BBKA news and my initial impressions as I felt it and looked through it, meant that it had to be included in my recommendations for great books for beekeepers.

As with other Beekeeping Book Reviews let me just give you the fundamentals of this book. It is written by a passionate beekeeper and professional photographer, David Wootton. You can find his Photography website here. Therefore, as you can imagine being a photographer, the images throughout this 146 page book are by far the best photos you will see in a Beekeeping Book.In fact, the images throughout this beekeeping book review have been reproduced with David’s permission so I hope you like them. Read the rest of this entry »

I have recently found a real interest in the historical aspect of beekeeping and so I jumped at the chance to review this book; Bee Boles and Bee Houses by A M Foster. Essentially it is a good review of techniques used to house bees before a certain group in the early to mid 18th Century got involved and invented the moveable frames (I.e. Dzierzon, Langstroth amongst a few others)

When I first received it I was shocked at its size, only 32 pages, as I was expecting a far larger book. However I will say immediately that, because you could finish it in an evening, it was perfect for the subject matter. If truth be told it is the perfect feeder book for you to want to find out more if that makes sense.

We all know that beekeeping history is a fascinating topic and this is obviously a very well researched (quoting 15 other books) and concise taster book. I particularly like some of the imagery which sadly, for copyright reasons, I cannot replicate here. There are at least 3 illustrations depicting historical scenes on each page supporting some of the written prose.

Another aspect I particularly liked was the “Places to Visit” section at the end suggesting 31 different locations to find these bee boles and bee houses. However they are all situated in the UK rather than elsewhere so sadly my readers from the US and elsewhere may miss out – I will just have to send you some photos when I go off visiting them all!

Should you want to purchase a copy you can get a copy direct from the publisher www.shirepublishers.com or apparently from any good bookstore (only wish there were more bookstores!)

It has been a while since my last review but felt this needed a special mention. The Bee Craftsman; A short guide to the life story and management of the honey-bee by H.J Wadey. Now the best and worst bit about this book is that it was written in 1943! It is a piece of social history and I have to say I absolutely love it for that fact alone. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it and felt like I stepped back in time and my English writing skills have improved because of it. Why don’t we talk and write like that anymore. For this book review I am just going to say that it is brilliant, well worth a read but be aware things have moved on (I think) and there is very little mention about new and modern diseases or preventative measures. But, it has to be said, I came away from reading this book more enthralled than anything I have done yet. Mr. Wadey’s style of writing was lovely and eloquent, descriptive and quietly passionate. Enough to make you want to learn even more. Read the rest of this entry »

Beekeeping; Self sufficiencey

This is the second of my book reviews so I hope that you find this one interesting as well. This is a book written by Joanna Ryde and I have to say immediately, it is a very easy to read book.

When I am reading these books I am having to review through the eyes  of a complete beginner and therefore this book scores quite highly. I would recommend the book to people who are keen to get a good general grounding. As it is only 128 pages long and the print is quite large there is not a lot of room to go into too much detail, which as a complete beginner this is probably a blessing.

What I think the book does well is make you want to understand more. Having read a few books now they don’t really consider the fact finder and just bamboozle you with science which makes the subject quite daunting. However, this also needs to be considered if you want that little bit more information. It simply doesn’t go into detail and if you consider that Varroa, perhaps one of the most important issues to be aware of at the moment if you are considering keeping bees, doesn’t even get a complete page to itself.

One thing that needs to be said though, this book really makes you want to pursue the wonderful past time of beekeeping; it really talks about the delights and there is a fantastic section on what you can harvest and an even better section on recipes using honey! All in all a useful book for the complete beginner with no prior knowledge but don’t buy it if you know a little bit about the subject (unless you need honey recipes!)

Buy it here at Amazon

I think Bees are amazing and I am learning more about them every single day…….Here are some facts that I have gathered with the help of “A world without bees” – see book review here

Bees fly at an amazing 24kph (15mph) and can fly up to 3 miles to get some pollen

The wings of a bee can beat up to 230 times a minute! Read the rest of this entry »

A World Without Bees

Hello all and welcome to my first Book Review……I am going for “A World Without Bees” by Alison Benjamin and Brian

McCallum………which I discovered at RHS Wisley. Obviously I view this from the perspective of a complete novice so I hope it is of help to you beginners out there. Read the rest of this entry »

I keep on reading random bee facts from several sources so I felt that I should join in the fun….there are really some

Bee facts part one!

amazing facts out there about our friends the bees. These are some of the reasons why I also wanted to get involved!

I think I will start off with probably the most frightening one:

“If the bee dissapeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left” Albert Einstein Read the rest of this entry »

……a proud moment for me today. Sebastian can now buzz like a bee when asked what noise a bee makes! Fantastic to see and I just have to take video of it at some point.

Something else happened today @richardfreeman wrote back to me and I now feel incredibly guilty (please read my other posts about “Anticipation“) as the reason he wasn’t getting back to me was the fact that his eldest child was in hospital. This is also the reason why he wants to give up his bees……I have to take my foot well out of my mouth and apologise as I think Richard took it the wrong way. Oops. Must think before I blog and not get too excited. My naivety has show through like a beacon of light!

I have accelerated my thoughts today of making this all into a book. Not sure where this could lead to. There doesn’t seem to be a lot around talking about experience with bees in the first year – only textbook style books that are rather inpractical……..lets see what I can come up with.

Hope everyone is well.

PS. I got given a bee mug for valentines day from the wife. How nice is that? Will have a cuppa from it tonight.

Corporate life took me away for a couple of days – this usually means two solid days of talking to people, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and generally not getting a lot of sleep. In between all of this and giving presentations left right and centre to a mixture of other corporate types, I also get to fly on a plane. I have to say that I thouroughly enjoy getting on a plane becuase it is just about the only time in my life that I actually get some time to digest things. This time I took with me “The World Without Bees” and I have to say that it has started as a fantastic book.

It starts off with offering some amazing facts about bees and takes you through some basic arguments about why the world cannot be without a bee. It then takes you through some of the basics of beekeeping and examples taken from around the world. It is really helpful if you have taken a course and want to do some background reading to remind yourself what you were meant to have learnt.

So, a successful trip all round. Too much alcohol drunk and too many people spoken to but time to get back to reality and to keep reading the book!

PS. Forgot to say, my beehive plans arrived! I got in last night just past midnight and saw the brown envelope from the BBKA – inside was a small plan of a beehive – I didn’t look any closer and shall wait for some downtime to study them closely!