Beekeeping Resources – Books

Whether you’re just thinking about keeping bees or have kept bees for years, there is always more to learn.

This is our list of books that we use as resources when we have questions about our bees. You can learn about their biology, the basics of caring for them, and how each macroorganism lives.

Have a suggestion on books to ad? E-mail us at LeatherstockingBeekeepers2024@gmail.com and we’ll review your suggestion.

Storey’s Guide to Keepking Honey Bees
by Malcolm T. Sanford & Richard E. Bonney
ISBN: 9781612129785
With this book as their guide, beekeepers will understand how to plan a hive, acquire bees, install a colony, keep bees healthy, maintain a healthy hive, understand and prevent new diseases, and harvest honey crops.


The Beekeepers Handbook
by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile
ISBN: 9781501752612
Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile have created the best single-volume guide to the hobby and profession of beekeeping. The Beekeeper’s Handbook provides step-by-step instructions for setting up an apiary, handling bees, and working throughout the season to maintain a healthy colony and a generous supply of honey. Various colony care options and techniques are explained so that beekeepers can make the best choices for their hives.


Beekeeping for Dummies
by Howland Blackiston
ISBN: 1119702585
In this easy-to-follow guide, Howland Blackiston, one of the nation’s most respected authorities on the subject, takes the mystery (and the sting) out of beekeeping. Taking a step-by-step approach to successful backyard beekeeping, he gets you up and running with all the information you need.


The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism
by Jürgen Tautz
ISBN: 9783540787273
This book destroys the cute notion of bees as anthropomorphic icons of busy self-sacrificing individuals and presents us with the reality of the colony as an integrated and independent being – a superorganism with its own, almost eerie, emergent group intelligence.  We are surprised to learn that no single bee, from queen through drone to sterile worker, has the oversight or control over the colony.  Instead, through a network of integrated control systems and feedbacks, and communication between individuals, the colony arrives at consensus decisions from the bottom up through a type of swarm intelligence.

Scientific text with outstanding photography.


The Beekeeper’s Bible
by  Richard A. Jones & Sharon Sweeney-Lynch 
ISBN: 1584799188
The Beekeeper’s Bible is as much an ultimate guide to the practical essentials of beekeeping as it is a beautiful almanac to be read from cover to cover. Part history book, part handbook, and part cookbook, this illustrated tome covers every facet of the ancient hobby of beekeeping, from how to manage hives safely to harvesting one’s own honey, and ideas for how to use honey and beeswax. Detailed instructions for making candles, furniture polish, beauty products, and nearly 100 honey-themed recipes are included. Fully illustrated with how-to photography and unique etchings, any backyard enthusiast or gardener can confidently dive into beekeeping with this book in hand (or daydream about harvesting their own honey while relaxing in the comfort of an armchair


Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping
by Dewey M. Caron  with Lawrence John Connor 
ISBN: 1878075292
Fully revised and in full color, this very comprehensive Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping is a must have for teachers and beekeepers both. With updated material covering over a decade of changes in the world of apiculture and hundreds of full color photos and diagrams, this book offers insights into bee behavior, current management techniques, and updated threat analysis, all in a  context that will elucidate and educate. Features many new full-color photos by Caron and Connor as well as new color drawings by Jon Zawislak.


The Backyard Beekeeper, 4th edition
by Kim Flottum
ISBN: 1631593323
The Backyard Beekeeper, now in its 4th edition, makes the time-honored and complex tradition of beekeeping an enjoyable and accessible backyard pastime for urban and rural beekeepers of all skill levels


Bee-sentials: A Field Guide
by Lawrence John Connor and Robert G. Muir
ISBN: 1878075284
A basic book with some meat on its bones for study by new and not-so-new beekeepers, Bee-sentials is a compact book that can be thrown into a computer bag or backpack and read beside a lake or in the beeyard. Many full color Connor photos, including 25 colorful pages of honey plants.


Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, 2nd Edition
by Ross Conrad
ISBN: 1603583629
The various chemicals used in beekeeping have, for the past decades, held Varroa Destructor, a mite, and other major pests at bay, but chemical resistance is building and evolution threatens to overtake the best that laboratory chemists have to offer. In fact, there is evidence that chemical treatments are making the problem worse. Ross Conrad flips the script on traditional approaches by proposing a program of selective breeding and natural hive management.


Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honey Bee Health
by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell 
ISBN: 1603584617

An introduction and general guide to Top Bar beekeeping


ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture
by Amos Ives Root
ISBN: 0936028017

An encyclopedic guide to everything honey bee from A. I. Root.


The Hive and the Honey Bee
by  Lorenzo Langstroth, Joe Graham, and J. Ambrose
ISBN: 1908904526

A comprehensive collection of beekeeping articles from Dadant.


The New Complete Guide to Beekeeping
by Roger A. Morse
ISBN: 9780881503159

A comprehensive guide from the internationally known retired Cornell professor and beekeeper.


Free Books

This is a selection of free literature compiled by the club. There are many sources on the web, many are very good and others are simply worth what you pay for them.

Remember, all beekeeping is local and sometimes the best source is your mentor and the monthly meetings.

With that in mind, here is a list of free sources we’ve found helpful.

Bush, M. The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally (2011)
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
Exhaustive text highlighting natural beekeeping.

Honey Bee Health Coalition. Best Management Practices for Hive Health (2019)
https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/hive-health-best-management-practices/
Comprehensive contemporary guide to colony health.

Honey Bee Health Coalition. Tools for Varroa Management (2018)
https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/
Comprehensive contemporary guide to varroa management.

Purdue Extension. Biology & Control of Varroa Mites in Bee Hives (2017) https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/POL-8/POL-8.html
Comprehensive contemporary guide to varroa management.

MAAREC. Honey Bee Nutrition (2015)
https://canr.udel.edu/maarec/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2010/05/Honey-bee-nutrition-MAAREC-1.pdf
Comprehensive contemporary guide to honey bee nutrition.

Purdue Extension. Biology & Control of Varroa Mites in Bee Hives (2017) https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/POL-8/POL-8.html
Comprehensive contemporary guide to varroa management.

Purdue Extension. The Complex Life of the Honey Bee (2017)
https://ag.purdue.edu/department/extension/ppp/ppp-publications/ppp-116.pdf
Comprehensive contemporary guide to honey bee biology.

Spivak, M & G. Reuter. Honey Bee Diseases and Pests (2016)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RXL1R6_SLZ-kbCz0d656-R2zlxLZikj6/view
An excellent practical guide to diseases and pests.

USDA. Diagnosis of Honey Bee Diseases (2005) https://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/honeybeediseases/honeybeediseases.pdf
Comprehensive guide to honey bee diseases.

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