Beekeeping for Beginners: How To Raise Your First Bee Colonies

I highly recommend this book for beginners, so much so that I purchased a second copy and shipped it to my dad. Unlike the other books I have seen this one comes with a glossary of the terms so you can read and understand what she is talking about without any research of basic terminology. It is already included for you! If you are interested in learning about beekeeping and don't know where to start here is the best, simplest read I have seen. It gives a chapter on how to find local organizations and apps to help you know what is appropriate for your climate. What sites to look up local laws to keep you on the right side of the law and so much information that helped me figure out where to start and improvements to make. Wish I had found this book the 1st time I tried beekeeping. Long story short it was a huge expensive failure that can only be chalked up to not doing enough research prior to buying and setting up. Lesson learned. This book walks you through step by step instructions and I feel better prepared for the next time I try to set up some hives.

As a new apiary keeper this book has helped me immensely. From starters to those who've had appeared forever. There is always something great to learn.

Very informative for beginners!

The book is set up like the new books for middle school, for me it is a bit hard to just read and learn. There are things that are described in the book that should have detail drawings just understand what the author was talking about. I guess it would make the book a bit longer, the limited detailed drawing and photos needing detailed arrows with explanations I need to buy a few other books. It should have a list of government agencies at the end of the book to allow people to seek indepth help from. The book does tell the reader to find these places for in depth help. The book does have great advise for people that like honey bees, and honey, but never had any hives. The book was a great first book to get one to read more. What was written above was a point that if it was more detail oriented I would not need to read as many other books on the same subject. IF YOU ARE LIKE ME, HAVING NEVER WORKED / OWNED ANY BEE HIVES: THIS BOOK IS A GREAT START!!!! I WOULD BUY THIS BOOK AGAIN AND PLAN TO DO JUST THAT: GET A FEW FOR FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, AND FAMILY TO HELP THEM IN SUPPORTING THE SAVING AND HELPING OF BEES AND THEIR BEE-COLONIES.

Great information, very readable, well written, and understandable book. My order arrived on time and condition of the book was better than expected..

Informative, and easy to read, with good sixed text. Covers everything that we needed. This was fun to read with many color pictures.

I purchased this book because I am planning to take over the beekeeping for my husband. He no longer has the time he needs to keep bees, and I don't want to get rid of them, but I didn't feel comfortable just stepping in for him. After reading this book, I feel much better about taking over the care of our hives, and I will have some local help to get me through the transition. This book is a fast read, and yet still highly informative. I've been learning about bees for a few years, and this book filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge. The glossary and simple definitions throughout the book help those not comfortable with bee lingo, the book is well organized, and she leaves page number references in the book if you are trying to find specific answers to questions, which is convenient and helpful. Aside from being knowledgeable about bees, presenting the information in an easy to read format, this book is beautiful! Not important for the learning aspect, but I had a lot of fun just looking at the book design.

I bought this book and The Beekeeper’s Handbook (fifth ed.) In my opinion these two books are enough to get you started. But I’m a NEWBIE BEEKEEPER so my opinion doesn’t REALLY count for much. The book focuses on how to raise your first colonies. The requirements, pit falls and Seasonal Maintenance. (Did YOU know that you can’t just pop bees into a wooden box and come back in six months expecting clean perfect honey and healthy bees? Did YOU know that if you set them up and walk away they will die without regulars feeding and maintenance?) yeah…me too…I watched all the same YouTube videos before buying my bees! But this book fills in the little naggy details that you REALLY NEED TO KNOW in order to have success and not get discouraged by finding a pile of dead bees. This addresses predators. If you live rural like I do you know that neighboring farms offer a plethora of naughty dogs that will come and bust up your hives and eat all the honey. We all know about the Varroa Mites an Small Hive Beetles…we bought the traps and the other stuff we will need….but what about the LARGE PESTS?! Here the book could have spent a few moments reminding us all that Deer, Bear, Dogs, Raccoons, skunks, squirrels, Coyote, HUMANS Large Birds of Prey and Mountain Lions are all potential predators that endanger your bee hives, bees and honey. These are PRACTICAL concerns (that can mostly bee solved by buying a $25.00 welded 16’ long Cattle Panel and wiring the ends together to form an 8’ circle of protection around your hive. It can simply be pushed on it’s side when you need into the hive and the bees won’t even notice it! (That’s MY appendix to this already GREAT book!) This book is VERY basic. It is TRULY the first book a beginner with NO Knowledge of bees and beekeeping SHOULD START WITH! Never Underestimate the Stupidity of YOURSELF when rushing in to a project that you have never tried before! You will miss stuff. IMPORTANT STUFF! For everything else up the BeeKeepers Handbook (the Bible of Beekeeping really) an look for the Barefoot Beekeepers seminal work for beeginners..”The Barefoot Beekeeper”. Well, that’s it..quit reading and hit the ‘Buy Now’ button if you are serious about beekeeping for the first time….or you just want a cheap education on why you shouldn’t. This book will answer all the most basic questions of every beginner starting with empty boxes and a mind filled with wonder.

This book is brilliant, it's incredibly informative, really easy read. Went through it in 2 days. It is amazing

My son is interested in keeping a bee hive and said this book was full of interesting information! Glad I bought it for him!

Easy read covering everything I would think to ask about setting up and managing a hive.

A fun and informative book for those beginning the bee keeping journey. I highly recommend this book by Amber Bradshaw!!

Easy to read, with a chronological format. Very useful for a first time beekeeper to avoid unnecessary pitfalls and mistakes.