Reddit reviews The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping: Everything the Budding Beekeeper Needs for a Healthy, Productive Hive
We found 2 Reddit comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping: Everything the Budding Beekeeper Needs for a Healthy, Productive Hive. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
I disagree, Beekeeping for Dummies is practically a tome to the uninitiated. At 385 pages and 18 chapters it is definitely on the hefty side. It covers topics like raising your own queens, advanced diseases and treatments, queenless hives, harvesting with uncappers and extractors etc, most of which doesn't remotely concern a first or second year beekeeper. It is essentially the boiled down version of modern labor and chemical intensive beekeeping in the US. Chapter 4: Basic Beekeeping Equipment has the uninitiated ordering hundreds of dollars worth of stuff before even informing them of the cost of package bees.
I recommend The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping focuses on getting the beginner up and running without breaking the bank, with the least amount of confusing information. It points out methods for obtaining your own bees free of charge (if your climate permits). It's slimmer at 185 pages and 14 short chapters, and talks about treatment free beekeeping which for the beginner is a lot easier to uptake.
As a noob, I've been reading and acquiring a lot of beekeeping books lately. Here are my thoughts:
"Homegrown Honey Bees" by Alethea Morrison is a nice introductory book that is loaded with photos. It's definitely a gentle intro book more than a reference book.
I really love "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping" by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer. It covers all the basics and teaches a treatment-free approach. I was put off by the Beekeeping for Dummies book, which repeatedly recommends prophylactic use of chemical treatments.
After that I'd recommend a good reference book that has hive management diagrams, such as "The Beekeeper's Handbook" by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile.
If you're interested in top-bar hives, I would get "Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health" by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell, and "The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives" by Christy Hemenway. Backyardhive.com has a great DVD on top-bar hive management.
If you want to geek out on beekeeping history, "The Archaeology of Beekeeping" by Eva Crane is legendary. It's sadly out of print and very expensive to buy. I found it at the library.