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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 »

It is that time of year again and yesterday my wife and I put up the Christmas Tree and decorations what a fabulous time of year. We have just been to Winter Wonderland and seen beekeeping stalls over there and so that has been my inspiration! It again got me thinking about what gifts you could buy a Beekeeper. Having looked around there seems so many different ideas that I felt I had to write a small blog about it. Therefore here are my ideas for beekeeping gifts this Christmas: Read the rest of this entry »

………From A to Bee. It was a fascinating contest and the last day was pretty hectic with votes flying in and the lead changing almost every hour. I do feel for Rob, a great friend of mine, who I know was pulling out all the stops today trying to edge it but Henrik won out in the end. A deserved winner who now gets bragging rights next year for naming the title of a book.

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.

Here are the top 5 titles as selected by my publishers. You now have until the last second of the month (23.59.59 on Wednesday GMT!) to get your votes in!!! Here is the short list below and your opportunity to vote!!

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……

As some of you may know I wrote a little book during my first year as a beekeeper. It was all about my efforts to get just one jar of honey and my journey learning all about bees. I had a lovely time in that first year and wanted to tell everyone about it. I was very lucky to have been picked up by the Summersdale Publishing Company who will be publishing the book next year. However, we are all deliberating on the final title and we thought we would have some fun and open it out to everyone else to make the decision.

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 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!)