The Backyard Beekeeper, 5th Edition: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden – Natural beekeeping techniques – New Varroa ... for recordkeeping and maintenance

I cannot imagine a better resource to start beekeeping with than this book. It is great quality, cheap, easy to read, has all information you will run into in your first year, has pictures with captions, etc. I’ve watched YouTube videos for months, thinking that would be enough - boy, was I wrong. This book has taught me so many things. It has such great linear pace, information, etc.I saw other reviews harping on it that it talked about Varroa too much. I can tell you right now, those are not going to be good beekeepers. If a disease killed 90% of humans, I would not go to a doctor that got bored of a 200 page picture book that talked about it too much. I am on page 140 and there hasn’t been a dedicated section to Varroa yet, which I’m kind of bummed about.Great read. Don’t know how it could be better.

This book is great for anyone considering getting into beekeeping. You really need to know what you are getting into. It is NOT "get bees and get honey". But you should also join a local beekeeping organization and take lessons, get a mentor, etc. Your bees (and wallet) will thank you.

We are grateful for a couple very helpful mentors. There is no substitute for that. Please don’t use a book in place of a real life experienced beekeeper! That having been said, this book is great. It’s very easy to follow and worded very clearly . I highly recommend this for a new beekeeper!

I just got the book today and have thumbed through it looks like a solid read and cant wait to get into it. The only bad thing is it arrived damaged.

I got this for my husband as he wanted to start bee keeping and getting rid of bees for people. He loves it. There is so much good useful information in it.

Easy to read, lots of glossy images, very factual and detailed. Highly recommend for anyone interested in bee-keeping!

This is the first beekeeping book I have ever purchased. I did a large amount of research before deciding on which book to buy. I like that many reviewers stated this book was not only good for beginner beekeepers but also used by advanced beekeepers as their beekeeping Bible of choice. I've included a few pictures including the table of contents and a couple of the graphs and demonstrations from the book. I did not want to violate the copyright infringement and therefore it did not post any of the texts. If you want to read the book get your own. Do not steal other people's work. Now I've just started reading this book but I do love how the history of beekeeping and the current challenges beekeepers are facing are given to you and the prologue of this book. I've already started highlighting and this is just the beginning. Skipping ahead the book appears to be a step-by-step, with pictures for those of us who have issues, book to beekeeping.

I got the second edition of this a year before I started bee keeping and read it cover to cover several times. The 3rd edition came with a beginner-all-inclusive kit I got the next year when I started keeping bees. I also took 2 beginning bee keeper courses - one at MSU and one on-line, and both seemed to follow this book almost chapter by chapter. Now I always get the updated version. Well written, up to date, great information for the beginning hobby bee keeper. This is my go-to bible. It should be the first book in any bee keeper’s library (in my opinion). The science of bee keeping is constantly changing. This book keeps me appraised of changing recommendations. If you’re thinking of bee keeping or just interested in learning about bee keeping, this is the place to start. I’ve compared this with several other books for the hobby bee keeper and none seem as simple and strait forward.