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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

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 »

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!