One of the first articles on the website and a very early one in the library section was an article on ‘Backyard Livestock Books’ which included, among other animals, bees. That was over 12 years ago and I had reason to re-visit it recently, and realised I was not happy with it. Also, I have accumulated more books on bees over the last 12 years so I have decided to extract the ‘bees’ section to revise and update it. This is the result.
The Hive and The Honey Bee – Dadant and Sons – Dadant and Sons (US) 1987 ISBN 978 0 91569 8 165– Tends to only be available through bee equipment suppliers this book is almost 700 pages of detailed information, great for the experienced beekeeper and novice alike. Just about everything you would want to know about bees is covered – history, genetics and bee races, bee nutrition, honey bee behaviour, beekeeping equipment, bee management, honey and other products, marketing, bee pests and diseases – and all in considerable detail. There is, however, no mention of Australian native bees, only European honey bees. There are some black and white photos and line drawings.
First Lessons in Beekeeping – CP Dadant – Dadant and Sons (US) 1990 ISBN 0 915698-02-1 – As the name suggests a great book for the novice, although some information may not apply to Aus. Subjects covered include where and how to start with bees, beekeeping equipment, how the colony is structures and its products, setting up bees, important pollen plants, pollination, swarming, harvesting honey and beeswax, bee management, pests and diseases and queen management. Being only 126 pages rather than over 700, there is considerably less detail than ‘The Hive and The Honey Bee’ above. There are some black and white photos.
The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture – AI Root – The AI Root Company (US) 1978 ISBN 978 0 93602 801 9 – My copy is old and there are later editions, Roger Morse is credited as the author. The book is written in the form of an encyclopaedic dictionary and is another classic on bee culture. Again, some information does not pertain to Aus but with over 700 pages of information it is worth having in your library. Just about anything you can conceive of about honey bee culture is covered including recognising bear damage to your hives, honey adulteration, bee laws (US) and building your own honey house. There are quite a number of line drawings and Black and white Photographs.
Backyard Beekeeping in Australia and New Zealand – C.N. Smithers – Angus and Robertson (AUS) 1987 ISBN 0 207 15279 9 – The book is a comparatively small paperback, not hugely detailed but a great book for the novice, a good introduction to the subject. It covers the life of the bee, basic beekeeping equipment required, where to site the hive, where to get your bees from, harvesting honey and wax, bee management, swarming and swarm control, uniting colonies, moving hives, requeening, preparing for winter, diseases and pests. There is a page on legislation, but it only covers NSW. There are a few line drawings and a series of 16 black and white photos in the centre of the book.
Beekeeping in Australia for Pleasure and Profit – Fred Bailey – William Heinemann Australia (AUS) 1985 ISBN 0 85859 281 9 – another good introduction to beekeeping from an Australian perspective, but not hugely detailed. The first part of the book covers the natural history of bees, castes, life cycle, bee space, general information about the beehive and its components, and requirements for handling bees including tools, clothing and procedures. The second part covers the beekeepers’ year, divided into three sections. Section one covers spring operations, swarm control, the queen and artificial queen breeding, section two covers operating the hive during summer and section three covers autumn operations, bee plants, bee anatomy, pests and diseases, honey and beesway recipes. The book contains quite a few line drawings and black and white photos.
Practical Beekeeping – Ray Chapman-Taylor and Ivo Davey – Inkata Press (AUS) 1988 ISBN 0 909605 46 7 – This is more than an introduction, it is the book for a serious beekeeper with lots of good Aus specific information. Topics covered include the usual ones about the hive, beekeeping equipment, siting the aviary and handling bees. There is also a section on beginning beekeeping, the first year and the second year. There is considerable detail on running half-box hives, nucleus colonies and swarms. Other subjects covered include uniting colonies of bees, home grown queens, honey harvesting, winter management and a small section on tropical beekeeping. There are lots of line drawings and a few black and white photos.
Queen Rearing – Harry H. Laidlaw Jr and J. E. Eckert – University of California Press (US) 1962 ISBN 0-520-00687-9 – A bit out of date but lots of good information about how to raise your own queen bees to keep your hives going. Topics covered include a history of queen rearing, the queen herself including life cycle, the virgin queen, mating and food of queens. The production of queen cells is covered including environmental factors, selection of breeder queens, producing queens and care of queen cells. Queen mating colonies and nuclei are covered, as is the care of queens such as finding, catching and storing of queens. Breeding stock selection and inheritance is covered including genetics and breeding methods. Controlled mating techniques and instruments and care and introduction of inseminated queens as well as the ailments of queen bees is covered. The book has quite a few black and white photos.
Australian Stingless Bees – John Klumpp – Earthling Enterprises (AUS) 2007 ISBN 978 0 975713 81 5 – This one of only two books on stingless bees that I have seen and it is very comprehensive, well written and well produced. It covers distinguishing bees and castes, finding hives in the bush, making hives, moving hives and splitting hives, pests and hive invaders and bee friendly plants. There are lots of colour photos.
The Australian Native Bee Book – Tim Heard – Sugarbag Bees (Aus) 2016 ISBN 978 0 646 93997 1 – This is the second native bee book! It is very detailed and comprehensive. It is broken up into 3 parts – Part one is titled Understanding Bees and covers bee basics including their lifecycle and anatomy, social life, nesting. Foraging behaviours and details comparing Tetragonula and Austroplebeia native bee genera. Part 2 covers keeping hives of stingless bees including getting started, constructing hive boxes, establishing a colony, splitting hives, obtaining honey, managing and protecting stingless bee hives and natural enemies of stingless bees. Part 3 covers using native stingless bees for pollination, the how and why as well as weaknesses and strengths and crops which are most likely to benefit. The book has lots of colour photos and line drawings where appropriate.
The Complete Handbook of Beekeeping – Herbert Mace & Owen Meyer (ed.) – Ward Lock Limited (UK) 1978 ISBN 0 7063 1615 0 – A good general book on beekeeping with a UK perspective. Part 1 covers bee keeping methods, hives and equipment required, managing the bees, autumn and spring bee management and record keeping. Part 2 covers propagating bees, wild bees, anatomy and physiology, pests and diseases, products of the hive and the literature of beekeeping. The book has some black and white photos and line drawings.
Hive Management – Richard E. Bonney – Garden Way Publishing (US) 1994 ISBN 0 88266 637 1 – This book is a comparatively small paperback. It covers all of the usual suspects, initial inspection of the hive, spring, summer, late season and autumn management, swarming, foraging of the bees, harvesting the honey, feeding of the bees, equipment required and pollination. Not a huge amount of detail but still quite informative, US-centric of course. The book has some black and white photos and a few line drawings.
Keeping Bees in Towns and Cities – Luke Dixon – Timber Press (UK) 2012 ISBN 978 1 60469 287 7 – This paperback book looks at the usual suspects but from a European urban perspective. Subjects covered include getting started in beekeeping including tips on siting the hive in an urban environment, selecting the perfect hive (Skeps are mentioned from a historical perspective) but mainly deals with Langstroth hives. Buying bees including a nucleus vs swarm, equipment required, dealing with stings, moving bees and hives. The next section covers looking after the urban bee colony, including gear, using the smoker and inspecting your hive. The next section looks at the life cycles of a healthy colony including queen mating and swarm control. Following sections deal with the bee friendly garden, honey harvesting and winterising the hives. The last part, Reports from the Field provides 23 short (1 page) stories of people who have installed urban bee hives. Not huge amounts of detail, but lots of colour photos.
Better Beekeeping – Kim Flottum – Quarry Books (US) 2011 ISBN 978 1 59253 652 8 – This is a large format softcover book, and as you might expect from the title, is about helping existing beekeepers to improve their operations. Chapter 1 is about growing the operation and talks about spending more to streamline the operation to save time, identifying your business goals and identifying new markets like removing bees or providing pollination services or leasing land for bee production. Chapter 2 covers a new look at honey production including what has changed, looking at non-agricultural areas, planning a honey crop including growing your own plants or working with landowners. Chapter 3 is entitled ‘Royalty’ and is about getting the best queen there is, Chapter 4 covers bee management and chapter 5 covers winterising your bees. All sorts of new stuff if you are a commercial beekeeper looking to improve. Lots of colour photos.
The Thinking Beekeeper – Christy Hemenway – New Society Publishers (CAN) 2013 ISBN 978 0 86571 720 6 – This book is unique in my collection in that it deals with top bar hives rather than the more common Langstroth hives. Part 1 covers some beekeeping basics, a bit of beekeeping history, the impacts that the langstroth method has on the bees and some of the advantages of top bar hive beekeeping and bee biology. Part 2 Covers elements and features of a top bar hive, obtaining the top bar hive, obtaining the bees, setting up, managing and inspecting the top bar hive, overwintering, bee pests and diseases. The book contains numerous black and white photos and line drawings.
The Bee Friendly Garden – Doug Purndie – Murdoch Books (AUS) 2016 ISBN 978 1 74336 756 8 – Doug also has another book (Backyard Bees – 2021 – ISBN 978 1 92235 168 5) but I don’t have a copy. This is a great Australian bee book, focussing on how you can set up your garden (of whatever size) to encourage bees and other beneficial insects. The book covers how bees do what they do, issues that bees have in an urban environment, the importance of bee plants including weeds, and the problems of pesticides. Native and European be species are covered and a great section on small changes anyone can make in their garden. There are lists of bee plants for various contexts like edible gardens and orchards etc, bee hotels and a section on other beneficial insects. This book is a great addition to any library, and has lots of colour photos.
Build Your Own Beekeeping Equipment – Tony Pisano – Storey Publishing (US) 2013 ISBN 978 1 61212 059 1 – This book covers plans and construction details for langstroth style bee hives and some other equipment and a section on making a top bar hive and demonstration bee hive. The book starts out with a discussion of general safety, tools, materials and techniques used in the projects. Plans and instructions cover various bottom boards, hive bodies and supers, inner covers and hive lids, hive stands and fittings like a hive spacer, entrance reducer, several feeders and an escape board. Also covered is making a metal bending jig, frame assembly jig and a jig to help installing foundation and how to use them. How to make several types of kits to enable you to catch bee swarms and how to make the components for an 8-frame deep hive body. The book contains lots of line drawing plans with some colour photos.
Beekeepers’ Lab – Kim Lehman – Quatro Books (US) 2017 ISBN 978 1 63159 268 3 – This book provides plans and instructions for 52 family friendly, bee related projects. Unit one covers beekeeping including setting up a hive, making fuel bundles for use in a smoker anmaking a top feeder; Unit 2 covers honey eg making sweet dog treats, herbal infused honey and hosting a honey tasting party. Unit 3 covers uses of beeswax and beeswax projects; Unit 4 covers how pollination and flowers work including hand pollination; Unit 5 covers making bee product based beauty products; Unit 6 covers experiments like honey density can comb strength; Unit 7 covers bee related art and Unit 8 covers saing the bees with things like seed bombs, a mason bee house and developing a bee friendly landscape. Lots of colour photos.
Beeswax: Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products – William L. Coggshall & Roger A. Morse – Wicwas Press (US) 1984 ISBN 978 1 87807 506 2 – This is a technical, industry book rather than a home production style book. The book starts out with a discussion about waxes, the chemical and physical properties of beeswax and specifications for beeswax. The grading of beeswax is then covered, harvesting and storage of beeswax, how beeswax is prepared commercially for market and the testing of beeswax. Following are an chapter each on beeswax used in comb foundation, beeswax used in candles and beeswax in art and industry. There is a chapter on showing and judging beeswax and a chapter on home use of beeswax for candles and car and floor polishes. The book has some black and white photos.
Beeswax – Ron Brown – Bee Books New & Old (UK) 1981 ISBN 0 905652 053 – This one is a more home based book about beeswax, it is a small book with not a huge amount of detail. Chapter one covers the history of beeswax, chapter two covers the origin of beeswax, that is to say, how bees produce the wax. Chapter three covers wax production at home including a design for a solar wax extractor. Chapter four covers the uses of beeswax in general terms for cosmetics, candles, wax foundation, pharmaceuticals and other more general uses. Chapter five covers candlemaking, chapter five covers beeswax for a honey show and chapter seven covers making wax foundation, and how to care for combs. There are a number of black and white photos and line drawings.
