THE BEEKEEPERS BIBLE

I first picked up this book at the store because of the cover.  It was gorgeous.  Simple yet detailed, modern yet classic.

I guess you could say that yes, I did judge a book by it's cover!

The Beekeepers Bible

Here is the Amazon link to the book.  I originally saw it in a bookstore but when I went back, it was sold out.  I searched Amazon and of course, found it online.

The Beekeeper's Bible: Bees, Honey, Recipes & Other Home Uses

Anyway, I purchased it and wow, do I love it.  It's on the nightstand beside the bed so that I can read a bit each night.  It's very comprehensive, covering the history of bees and beekeeping and then delves a bit into the 'how to' of beekeeping.  It has recipes using honey and even shows you how to make candles from the wax and soap using honey.  In a way, it's like a history book, an encyclopedia, an almanac and a cookbook were all rolled up into one.

The illustrations and photographs are beautifully detailed and rendered.  It's also written to be very easy to read.  Nothing is complicated or uses hard to understand terminology, it's written for both the layman and the experienced beekeeper.  Would this be the only book you'd ever need to learn beekeeping? No, there are others out there (including Beekeeping for Dummies) that go into far more detail about how to start.  I'm not sure why much of that was left out of book, possibly because of what I mentioned, that there are so many very detailed books already out there.  The real value of this book, in my opinion, are the bits of lore and wisdom scattered throughout that help a beekeeper (or anyone interested in bees for that matter) to have a better understanding of how the history of bees from thousands of years ago has led us to this moment now in our history.  I'm all for learning more about the lovely ladies that we'll soon be sharing the property with.

Side note, our local library has a copy of this (I checked online) so you might check yours if you'd like to get a copy of it that way.  I'd recommend it for anyone that wants to learn a bit more about bees and their history in our world.

Now it's on to my next book to review!