Books (UK)

Beekeeping Guides & Books I Like (UK)

If you are a USA resident, please click here for my page on USA books.

This blog is about sorting our beekeeping heads out as much as looking after the bees, so with this in mind, I thought I would start to list and review the best beekeeping guides and other books I have read for people looking to regain their sanity.

Best Beekeeping Guides (UK)

There are many beekeeping guides. I have just chosen what I believe to be the most comprehensive, the best guide for a novice and a good natural beekeeping guide. If you have written or used a beekeeping book and want it listed please use the comment form below.

Collins Beekeeper's BibleGuide to Beekeeping (BBKA Guides)The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally
Most comprehensive beekeeping book. 416 pagesBest introduction to beekeeping. 192 pagesBest guide to low intervention beekeeping. 629 pages

The guide which goes with the beehaus is a good introduction to beekeeping and is available as a FREE download (and you don’t need to give your email address).

Best Beekeeping Stories (Non Fiction)

The Bad Beekeepers ClubFrom A to BeeBad Beekeeping
Very funny book by Bill Turnbull (UK TV breakfast presenter)A first year beekeeper trying to make one jar of honey.The author buys a bee ranch and makes a million pounds of honey.

Best Books About Bees

The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a SuperorganismThe Bee GardenA World Without Bees
250 excellent photos and a milestone in bee literatureInvaluable aid to the design of an attractive bee garden.A moving, enjoyable, well-researched homage to the honeybee.

Best Books For Regaining Some Sanity

These three books represent the best, accessible philosophy and psychology I have read. I.e. easy reads!

Status AnxietyThe Romantic MovementThe Road Less Travelled
If you feel inadequate, and everyone around you appears to be more successful – read this book.If you’re a romantic or a commitment phobe. Or just need some words of wisdom in matters of the heart - read this book.I had never looked inside myself, until this book! Inspirational.

Best Books With Crazy Characters

We can probably all identify a bit with the characters in these books that I love. If you need an energy and emotional boost, please read them.

A Fraction Of The WholeThe Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and DisappearedHector & The Search For Happiness
Three crazy characters upset an entire continent. Incorporating death, parenting (good and bad), one labyrinth, first love, a handbook for criminals, a scheme to make everyone rich and an explosive suggestion box.An inspirational 100 year old man has an adventure.A psychiatrist is very good at treating patients in real need of his help. But many people he sees have no health problems: they're just deeply dissatisfied with their lives.

I hope you enjoy some of the books above as much as I have. Some of the secrets of life can be found within the pages as well as within the beehive.

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4 thoughts on “Books (UK)”

  1. You might like to take a look at ‘Getting the Best From Your Bees‘ by Dave MacFawn and me! It is published by Outskirts Press of Colorado. Dave (whom I have never met and spoken to by phone only once) approached me by email and asked me to co-author a bee book with him. Dave comes from S.Carolina so the book is aimed at an international readership at the advanced beginner/lower intermediate level.

    It is available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Northern Bee Books, Bees for Development and (one autographed copy left) National Bee Supplies. Shop around. The cheapest way is to go to the Outskirts Press website and download an e-book for $5.

    1. Amazing that you managed to co-author a book without hardly ever talking. I am intrigued. I have linked your book to the Amazon page where it can be found. I’ll put this book on my Christmas list.

  2. Hi Roger, Great blog. I agree that beekeeping is good for stress relief. It makes you adopt a Zen like attitude to life.

    A couple more book recommendations – “Keeping Healthy Honey Bees“, by David Aston and Sally Bucknall This is one of the best books I’ve read on keeping bees.

    Also, “How To Be Free“, by Tom Hodgkinson

  3. Thanks for this list. A number of books I hadn’t come across before and i’m always grateful for a recommendation. I wasn’t always 100% sure that I was looking at the right book. I thought it strange that you hadn’t named the authors with the titles.

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