Book Reviews

Next to each review (scroll down), a link to Amazon, via which you can purchase the book.  Amazon kicks back a few cents for each purchase made through such links.  All proceeds--every penny--will go to the Hendrix Beekeeping Society.

The most recent reviews will always be on top.

PURE GOLD for the beekeeper with practical questions...and a soul.  Yes, it is out of print.  But try:  www.abebooks.com.

Interesting survey of the main developments of beekeeping through history.  It takes a light touch to write about these things in a way that conveys what is dazzling about beekeeping.  The touch in this book is not light enough.  But it's fine, and the author really has done a lot of homework, so it is informative.

Back in the '80s, guys started trucking bees all over the country, following the bloom.  These are the last cowboys, folks.  And they have very tiny cows.  This is interesting.  Not terribly informative on the practical level, but really good about how large-scale honey and pollination works...or used to work...

This is GREAT.  Very informative about the life of the honeybee.  Anthropomorphic way beyond any excuse...(you may weep at key moments)...but it's a comic book, so what are you complaining about???  The artwork is really very good.

Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid, but interesting.  Actually, that's not true--it's not that interesting.  It's a bit pretentious, really.  But it is a story about a woman and her daughter, both of whom fall in love with beekeeping and do their darndest to keep bees thoughtfully while keeping their bee suits spotless.

This is a nice book.  Reflections on life and on beekeeping.  Some good practical information, but mostly a nice invocation of the ethos of bee-work.  Recommended.

 OK,  there are lots of how-to books in beekeeping.  A new one is always showing up.  This is the one you want.  It is clear, very well illustrated, well organized, and well written.  The author knows just how much to say, and just how to say it.  In a few cases the author presents as settled facts what are really still debatable opinions.  But he's a true expert, and his opinions are expert ones.  You want this book if you will be keeping bees.

Yeah, not so much.  Great pictures.  Some very useful reviews of the monthly chores of beekeeping.  But lots of topics are treated too quickly.  Some of this is out of date.  And there are some lingering problems with the translation from the German original.  I wouldn't buy this (again).  But it does have nice pictures.  I said that, right?

You should buy this book somehow.  Richard Taylor was a famous philosopher and a famous beekeeper.  His writing about bees is lyrical, beautiful, and practical.  Reading this will make you want to spend more time with bees.  His other (hard to find) books on beekeeping are also worth searching for.

I had very high hopes for this book.  But they didn't pan out.  There is a very useful bibliography.  The text seems to me to be confused and convoluted and repetitive.  If you handed this in as a paper, you wouldn't like the grade you got.

Historically super important.  Langstroth discovered the bee-space, that is, the size of the space that bees will not fill with comb or glue.  Our hives are all "Langstroth" hives because they are organized on this idea--that's why we can remove and examine and swap frames!  It is hard to convey the enormity of this for beekeeping around the world.  Lots of solid beekeeping advice.  Well-written, in that sort of hundred-years-ago way.  Suffused with concern for human virtue (he was a preacher).  This could be a library book...but either way, an hour flipping through this book is interesting and edifying.

Honeybee biology is wild.  And it's all here.  Good pictures, well-written, very current.  I recommend this for everyone who is curious about what makes bees buzz.