The Backyard Beekeeper

This complete honey bee resource is loaded with updated information on bee problems and treatments, measuring techniques, swarm control, harvesting, and using top bar hives.

The Backyard Beekeeper, now in its 4th edition, makes the time-honoured and complex tradition of beekeeping an enjoyable and accessible backyard pastime that will appeal to urban and rural beekeepers of all skill levels.

More than a guide to beekeeping, this handbook features expert advice for:

• Setting up and caring for your own colonies
• She best location to place your new bee colonies for their safety and yours
• The most practical and nontoxic ways to care for your bees
• Swarm control
• Using top bar hives
• Harvesting the products of a beehive and collecting and using honey
• Bee problems and treatments

What's New?

• Information for Urban Bees and Beekeepers
• Using Your Smoker the Right Way
• Better Pest Management
• Providing Consistent and Abundant Good Food

About the Author

Kim Flottum brings a background of more than a decade of plant science, honey bee research, and basic farming to his thirty years as the editor of Bee Culture magazine where his main occupation is finding the answers to the multitude of questions that beginning, intermediate, and even advanced and experienced beekeepers bring to the table. He teaches beginning and advanced beekeeping courses, travels extensively to educate and lecture, and contributes to a variety of other publications on the basics of honey bees and beekeeping biology, the business of bees and pollination, producing and using varietal honeys, and a host of other subjects.

His books, magazine articles, interviews, and blogs are widely read for both their fundamental and advanced contribution to beekeeping knowledge. His magazine platform gives voice to his social commentary on topics ranging from genetically modified foods to pesticide abuse to both good and bad government regulations in the industry. He is beekeeping's leading advocate for fundamental honey bee safety including insuring excellent honey bee health, providing extraordinary forage, and minimising the use of agricultural pesticides.