The Beekeeper’s Guide: Building Skills and Knowledge

A comprehensive guide on establishing and maintaining beehives

Beekeeping is a popular pastime that more and more people are taking up for fun or even modest profit. Today, you will find hives not only in large fields or rural spaces, but also in city gardens and on rooftops--to the benefit of both bee and beekeeper. If you’re at the early or middle stages of your beekeeping journey and need a go-to guide on establishing and maintaining your hives, The Beekeeper’s Guide is the perfect companion. It offers invaluable information about a wide range of bee species and their life cycle, behavior, and optimal habitat, and covers the practicalities of beekeeping, from personal safety and hive hygiene to feeding methods and record keeping. Complete with an extensive troubleshooting section and a directory of useful resources, The Beekeeper’s Guide is a comprehensive tool for all beekeepers.

Meredith May is the author of The Honey Bus, a bestselling memoir about her beekeeping childhood with her grandfather in Big Sur, California, and a children’s book, My Hive, among other books. She is a fifth-generation beekeeper and a former award-winning reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. Claire Jones has been beekeeping in her Maryland meadow for more than twenty-five years and writes about beekeeping and gardening on her blog, The Garden Diaries. She is an award-winning garden designer, garden communicator, and organizer of garden-centric trips around the world. Anne Rowberry is president of the British Beekeepers Association and lectures on bees in the UK and internationally. She is a Master Beekeeper and has been beekeeping for close to two decades. Margaret Murdin, a former president of the British Beekeepers Association, has been beekeeping for more than twenty years and recently downsized her bee colonies from more than forty to six. A winner of the prestigious Wax Chandlers’ Award, she is a Master Beekeeper and earned the National Diploma in Beekeeping.