Beekeeping for Dummies

By Howland Blackiston

Beekeeper and cofounder and President of bee-commerce.com

Now updated- your guide to becoming a successful backyard beekeeper.

Interested in raising honey bees? This friendly, practical guide presents a step-by-step approach to starting your own beehive, along with expert tips for maintaining a healthy colony. You get the latest on honey bee medication and treatments, harvesting and marketing your honey, and the impact the sudden disappearance of the honey bee has on our environment and economy.

Open the book and find:

• The various types of honey bees and the role each plays in a colony
• Hands-on instruction in building a hive
• How to keep bees healthier and more productive
• Guidelines for all phases of honey production
• New information on raising your own queens
• Plenty of helpful, illustrative pictures to guide you
• The safest ways to inspect and enjoy your bees
• A Beekeeper’s Calendar organized by climate zones

Learn to:

• Build and maintain your own beehives
• Handle all phases of honey production
• Use the latest tools and equipment
• Explore the theories behind and the environmental, economic, and societal impact of Colony Collapse Disorder

•  To bee or not to bee?- understand the benefits of beekeeping and whether it’s right for you
• Build your first hive- gather the right equipment, obtain your bees, and transfer them safely to their new home
• Get up-close and personal- see how to open and close the hive, inspect your bees at the right times, and know what to look for
• Handle common problems- from swarming to robbing to pesticide poisoning, find simple solutions
• Understand Colony Collapse Syndrome- learn what you can do to help save the honey bees
• Gear up for the golden harvest- use the tools of the trade to extract honey, store it, and sell it