It was really interesting talking about the host of articles coming up over the next 12 months and I never realised the huge variety of sources and topics covered. It was eye opening to say the least to be involved in such a prestigious and well respected publications editorial meeting and one I look forward to sharing again.

From a marketing perspective I hope you will join Beecraft on Facebook and you can find their website here. We will be working on the branding of the magazine whilst also allowing more people to find us in more places which will be an exciting development in coming months. If you would like any more information about Beecraft don’t hestitate to make contact here

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.

As you can see from the chapters below the topics covered are vast and each chapter is further subdivided which is also helpful:

1. Production of Queens
2. Mating Nucs
3. Alternative methods of queen production
4. Mating Stations
5. Instrumental Insemination (in my opinion a great chapter with good photos to back it up)
6. How To Get Better Bees (As a beginner this gave me a real insight into what to do)
7. Aims of Breeding and Judgment
8. Queen Breeding and Genetics
9. How to Make a Pedigree
10. Bee Cytology and Genetics (May the real scientific terms begin!)
11. Meisosis and Genes
12. Mendels Second Law
13. Sex Alleles, Additive Genes, Nature and Nurture
14. Bee Races and Evolution
15. Breeding
16. A Germany Breeding System
17. The Future

Therefore, as you can see there are a lot of topics covered and this probably wasn’t the best book for me to start my education into Queen Breeding but it was still a very interesting read.  However, it will be a great reference book to have in my collection.

I suppose the real difficulty I had with this book was that it was Danish and therefore the chapters had a very Danish feel to them. The Mating Stations Chapter for example was all with maps of the different stations around Denmark. Sadly we haven’t got the geographical luxury they have with small islands to ensure that we are breeding exactly one strain of bee with no interference of other types.

Having said that the literal translation does show the true Scandinavian side to their personalities i.e. abrupt and to the point. Take this quote, on the first page:

The beekeeper must follow the manual strictly, otherwise he will fail

Correct and to the point. Us British would never be quite so exact!

Anyway, for those of you who want to know that little bit more information about Queen Breeding and Genetics this book should see you fit. You can purchase the book through Northern Bee Books here and it is priced £20.

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.

I have always been a little bit critical of the beekeeping literature out there for beginners as I often feel it is a little bit complicated and detailed for the humble beginner. There is after all a tremendous amount of information to obtain and understand in order try to be a responsible beekeeper (I refrain from using the word good here!) and so I remember really struggling when trying to read around the topic when I was attending my beginner courses.

I often found beekeeping books to be quite aesthetically boring and used quite complicated terminology. There were and are obviously good and detailed books but I felt something was lacking. This wasn’t just at the level pitched but also at the language used. A lot of the beekeeping books were written in the 3rd person and almost textbook like which always felt rather impersonal.

I think that is why I really enjoyed reading David’s book and to use his own words

This book is not an expert’s view on how to keep bees; there are plenty of those. It is an aid to discovering the pleasure of how to keep bees as a hobby

I think this absolutely encapsulates this beekeeping book and it is very readable and pitched at the right level. Though it is a fantastic book for the beginner or those who have survived the first few years (there are great chapters on the 2nd and 3rd year which I found particularly interesting) I would also say that experience beekeepers would enjoy if simply for the photography alone.

Perhaps my only critical point was a single page (yes; that tells you how much I enjoyed it) about bumble bees. David states there are only 30 species here in the UK. In fact there are over 250 species of solitary bee (and bumble bees are obviously not solitary) in the UK alone and a very vital area of the art of pollination (consider a Mason Bee is 100 times more prolific at pollinating than a honeybee and it shows you) – I think it was great to include and perhaps if he prints a 3rd edition he may expand on solitary and bumble bees and they are much misunderstood – having talked to David about this it appears it was information sourced from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust so I would have thought they could have given him better information than that but there you go.

I particularly liked the Hints and Tips sections set out amongst the more detailed text in this beekeeping book and the feel of it being a personal account. Both gave the book a slight informality which was nice when you compare its competition.

Below you will see a breakdown of the chapters that David covers in his beekeeping book:

1. Getting Started – Don’t be afraid to ask
2. The Hive – Part by part
3. Constructing a National Hive -It’s not difficult
4. Making up Frames of Foundation – It gets easier the more you make up
5. Equipment – Buy it as you need it
6. Bees – Its a hard life being a honey bee
7. Where to place you Hive – don’t upset the neighbours
8. Getting and Transferring Your Bees – Where to get them
9. Opening the Hive – Your first inspection
10. Feeding Bees – If you take their honey you have to return something
11. Subsequent Inspections – adding supers
12. Wintering Your Bees – Give them a little help
13. Collecting Swarms – A free colony
14. Your Second Year – The Spring Clean
15. Swarm Prevention – In your second season splitting your hive
16. Extracting Honey – the sticky but sumptuous bit
17. Honey – Jars, Chunk or Comb
18. A Beekeepers year – Things to remember to do
19. Glossary
20. Pollen Colour guide
21. The End – If you’ve got to this stage – congratulations you’re a beekeeper!
22. Website links

I particularly enjoyed the early chapters of this beekeeping book about building the hives as that is certainly something I could have done with when starting out. The pictures really add to an understand on how it gets put together. Other chapters I felt particularly good were the sections about Collecting Swarms and The Beekeepers year. The latter I will need to constantly refer to as time gets on.

Should you be interested in buying this beekeeping book you can purchase it directly from David’s website here, it is priced £16.99 excluding postage. If you want to you can also find David’s page on Facebook here.

Jo and I were going around high for two reasons. Firstly, we calculated this was only our 5th time away from the children in 14 months and though we love them with all our heart, it is sometimes nice to simply be the two of us. Secondly there was mulled wine stores everywhere and we simply couldn’t resist, especially as it was a little chilly out last night. The mulled wine certainly warmed the cockles!

Anyway, we found the most amazing stall. Now let me tell you, this “fair” had a distinctly German feel to it with almost all the rides with German text all over them but imagine my surprise as we walked through all the stalls selling toys, Christmas gifts and other random Christmasy things, to see a stall selling wax candles honey and…..mead. I nearly fainted and slightly tipsy on mulled wine Jo and I had to take a look.

It was fantastic. The candles were mostly Christmas themed, the variation of honey amazing (Lime Tree honey, Acacia honey, Heather honey and many more) and then there was the mead. Though there was ordinary mead there were countless other mixtures to try out. The owner (pretty obviously having had a few too many of his own samples!) was German and a lovely guy. It turns out that he was from a family run company in Germany who run over 500 hives (apparently there are about 10 families who run this many and there are two others that run more) who make everything to do with honey. It was great.

Anyway, we left slightly more tipsy than we arrived having sampled most of the mead. We ended up buying a bottle of the mead mixed with cherry (not sure if trying it again sober it will have the same appeal!) but we left happy bunnies and I hope our paths cross again with this gentleman as he was lovely. I hope you like the pictures below.

If you are compiling a list of great beekeeping gifts. Firstly you will need a few books to read this Christmas and they always make ideal beekeeping gifts. I think it is the best time to sit down and read and so I have picked four books. Two of which I believe would be great as beekeeping gifts for an aspiring beekeeper. One of this books would be a perfect beekeeping gift for someone who wants to understand more about the problems faced and another that I believe is a perfect beekeeping gift for the youngsters:

The Haynes Bee Manual. Claire Waring

I am currently reading this book and I have to say it is a fantastic introduction to beekeeping with some great pictures and is very easy to follow. I only wish this was around when I was learning as it is a far better introduction to new beekeepers than most.

The cost is £19.99 and you can buy it here

Beekeeping; A novice’s guide. David Wootton

A book that I have just received but I can already tell that it will be a good one. With David being a professional photograph, the accompanying photos on this 2nd edition (only just released on the 5th November) are excellent and a great visual aspect to the book. With a quick glance through there are excellent sections as well for the beginner with step by step instructions on building hives not to mention more detailed sections. A real close call between this and the Haynes Manual but there was an excellent review from the BBKA on this book which you may want to read as well.

The cost is £16.99 and you can buy it here

A World Without Bees. Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum

This was actually the first book I read and you can read the beekeeping book review if you would like. An excellent overview of the problems the bees are facing, who is to blame and a rather blunt outlook on what could happen if we don’t do anything about it.

The cost is £9.50 and you can buy it here

Hannah and the Honey Bee. Alison Simms and Terry Gable

A lovely book aimed at younger children and introducing them to beekeeping. It is all about Hannah and her Grandad, a beekeeper set in Rural England. A lovely fantasy story and perfect for children.

The cost is £9.00 and you can buy it here

Should you be looking for more books and maybe some that are slightly more advanced there is a great selection at Northern Bee Books who have the greatest number of English written bee books in the world. You can find their shopping site here

Jerry, who runs the site is a fountain of all knowledge when it comes to books about bees and is regularly on all the trade stalls so I am sure he would be more than willing to help you out. See what you can find!

Bee Jewellery:

This isn’t really my fortay I am afraid and so I have taken a few recommendations as bee jewellery would obviously make perfect beekeeping gifts! Here you are:

There are several sites that you can look on for Jewellery for beekeepers. One such site is www.beegifts.com which is a subsidury of the BJ Sherriff team. They have plenty of options for Beekeeping Jewellery and other beekeeping giftswhich you can find by clicking on that link. I particullarly like the cufflinks!

Another option if you have a little bit more money to spend was a recommendation I had from one of my Facebook friends; Jackie. She mentioned checking out Theo Fennel Jewellery. On that link I have just given you will see a bracelet; a snip at just £1,425.00! Lovely to look at though. If only!

Bee lotions and potions:

Occasionally I do win some brownie points back home and buying some Burt’s Bees stuff always goes down well for beekeeping gifts. I have to say I like this company, their branding, their ethos and their customer service. I cannot really fault them to be honest. If you are interested and want to know more here is their website and here is their Facebook page. Before you rush out and buy some of their products have a little look below to see a discount voucher with the “Adopt a Hive” scheme.

Adopt a Hive:

This is set up run by the BBKA here in the UK that allows people who don’t actually want to keep bees themselves help the cause, perfect for beekeeping gifts. For £30 you get to “Adopt A Beehive” and is a great scheme. Each year you get the following for your hard earned cash:

• A choice of a jar of honey or a jar of honey mustard
  

  Adopt a Beehive

• A pocket guide to the honey bee
• Burts Bees lip balm and a 20% gift voucher
• Hive Talk – 3 Seasonal newsletters with updates from the Hive
• Set of  beautiful bee cards
• A mix of wildflower seeds for you to sow in your garden

If you want to know a little bit more and are interested in purchasing one of these you can here. They also have a Facebook Page set up especially for it here

Beekeeping Courses

What about buying a beekeeping course for Christmas? Find a great couple of resources here with BeeCraft magazine which has an interactive map with courses all around the UK varying from Taster courses to those run by local associations.

Other Beekeeping Gifts:

There are hundreds of beekeeping gifts and, to be honest, I have only scratched the surface but you can find an awful lot of beekeeping gifts at www.beegifts.com which I mentioned earlier with Bee Jewellery but Anji and her team do seem to have most things covered.

There is also another quite useful site should you want to look at Tshirts or badges for loved ones. If you click here you will be taken to www.zazzle.co.uk and their section for the above. A great place for random gifts!

And Finally!!

At the end of the day you will always need to wrap up your beekeeping gifts and so why not get some great bee wrapping paper. This is a recent release with a new cover. Prices start from £1.50 and I, personally think it would look great to wrap up your beekeeping gifts. What about you?

Buy the wrapping paper to wrap your beekeeping gifts here

All in all, Christmas is a lovely time of year and I hope you get all that you may wish for. If you have any other ideas of what to buy please share them for others to take advantage of!

I would like to personally thank everyone who offered titles; there were well over 200 suggestions. I would also like to thank everyone who voted as well. There were nearly 500 votes which was way over my initial expectations. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Below is the actual result but once again, a big thank you. The book will be out in the middle of next year and hopefully it will do okay.

The premise of the book will be my first year of beekeeping and is a blow by blow account of how I became a beekeeper in search of one, just one jar of honey. There will be a subtitle to the book which is “My Adventurous First Year as a Beginner Beekeeper”

Let me know your thoughts! Sorry if your title didn’t make it……..but thank you so much for entering into the spirit of things. I have really enjoyed everyone’s entries.

ONCE YOU HAVE VOTED YOU CAN SEE THE RESULTS SO FAR. ENJOY EVERYBODY……

Therefore, put your entries in the comments box below (the more entries the merrier!); the team at Summersdale will then pick their top 5 and we will then put it to the public vote to see who gets to name the title. There are some amazing prices (!)……and I may just chuck in a jar of next years honey to add to the prize fund.

I wanted to know a little bit more about this as I am genuinely interested in how people and companies in London are really pushing beekeeping. Sadly I couldn’t really talk to Dale at the awards but made contact afterwards. Interestingly his hives are 150m away from the restaurant who seem to be making a push for everything being local. Anyway, let me tell you a little bit more about the restaurant and their menu. So, the restaurant is called “The Delfina” and its Head Chef is Stuart Dring. It is situated in Bermondsey (near where my Auntie Mollie was brought up if that is of interest to anyone?!) which in my mind is the perfect setting for a restaurant; just off the beaten track slightly but with plenty of good foodie restaurants nearby.

Dale’s hives are situated on a roof top nearby the restaurant and all of this years spring harvest went to the restaurant. Now earlier I mentioned that he won an award at the London Honey Show but I didn’t realise that Dale also won another award recently. I was at the National Honey Show where Dale also won the award for “Best Honey Inside the M25” – for those American readers amongst you this is the big ugly road that surrounds London where those of us who live in the South East of the UK spend the majority of our time!

Below are some pictures of Dale’s hives. Some lovely ones really. I would love to keep bees on a roof (unless it was windy!)

Below are some pictures of an event held at the restaurant so you get a little feel for the restaurant itself:

Sadly, I have yet to visit myself but plan to do so either in November (when it has the menu running throughout service) or maybe in December when sadly there is only a lunch menu being served. Either way I have to taste some of these dishes:

Bermondsey Honey, Fig and Shallot Tart

paired with with Hacienda Araucano Sauvignon Blanc, Chile, 2010

Braised Shoulder of Norfolk Pork with

Bermondsey Honey & Bramley Apple Gratin and Cider Jus

paired with Les Salices Pinot noir Francois Lurton, France, 2010

Williams Pear and Vanilla Cheesecake with Bermondsey Honey Sorbet 

paired served with Royal Tokaji Late Harvest, Hungary, 2009

What exactly do you need to start keeping bees? There is quite a lot of discrepancy when you read all the books on starting to keep bees and what equipment you need but, in reality, there is a basic set up and then there is a slightly more comprehensive suggestion. Let me start with the basic set up. In my opinion this is what you really need on a budget and to start quickly:

• One complete hive with frames – buy it fully assembled for ease (though, on average it will be about £40/$63 for just the hive or £70/$112 with frames more expensive if you buy assembled)
• A Beesuit and gloves – some will go for a simple veil or jacket to save money (I did for a time but went for a full suit later on)
• A smoker – I went for a larger one but, to be honest, on a single hive (or two) a smaller smoker would be fine
• A hive tool – a beekeepers friend I call it.

Now, and this is a broad estimate based on prices here in the UK (prices outside of the UK are always dramatically cheaper) would be about £250/$400 for all of this assuming you went for a Standard National Hive which was not assembled. You do have to factor in the cost of the bees as well assuming you are buying a “nucleus” of bees which will, in the UK set you back between £150-200/$240-320. Alternatively people on a budget tend to offer their Brood box to their local association who will pick up a swarm for you (usually there is a suggested donation to the Bee Association). Some people will warn you away from this as you don’t know the temperament of the bees you are picking up or whether they are diseased but some feel it is a risk worth taking.

Therefore, and I say this very approximately, if you want to start beekeeping quickly and on a budget you could get away with a starting cost of £250.

A slightly more comprehensive set up – I have found I used all of this in my first year: 

• Two hives complete with frames – it is often said to run two hives when you start so you can compare one against the other. Only this way you will know if one hive is doing well. Also it means you do have more equipment ready should you need an additional super or two.
• Beesuit and gloves – as above
• A smoker
• A hive tool
• A bee brush – this allows you to brush off bees when you are replacing the supers and stops you squashing them
• A feeder – come the Autumn you will look to feed the bees. Best be prepared early on
• Queen Cage and marking pen – you may want to mark your queen should you take a swarm with an unmarked queen present
• A frame rest – these fit on to the sides of your hives and stops you placing frames on the floor which is a pain sometimes

There are plenty of other paraphernalia that you will look at and consider but these two options are the bare essentials. The second option is that much more expensive but simply because you are looking at the cost of a second hive which obviously adds considerably to the cost. You may be looking at approximately £500 for the second option, excluding the bees should you want to pay for them.

There are plenty of  “Beekeeping Starter Packs” out there on the market which anyone can pick up. It does make it easier for all the equipment to be grouped together and some do include random books or DVDs to help you in your quest to learn the art of beekeeping. I have seen some prices for very basic starting packs starting at around the £250 mark. They range in price up to the £400-450 mark and some can be higher but that is in extreme cases and often includes bees.

I hope that helps you think about Beekeeping Equipment should you be looking to start as a beekeeper. Any thoughts let me know.