The book covers all aspects of bees and bee-keeping, providing lots of information for anyone who is interested in bees, not just bee-keepers.  In a chapter called ‘The Joy of Bees’ the book starts by detailing the history of bees and man’s relationship with them, the relationship spans back thousands of years.  Bees have been used in sacred rights throughout the ages.  The book tells us that in Britain alone there are over 200 species of bee and that not all are social like the honey bee.

The book is split into chapters such as; understanding bees, first things first, your bees, through the seasons, reaping your rewards, troubleshooting, and taking things further.

The chapters take the reader through all the stages of bee-keeping, from understanding bees and how to keep them through to bee threats and diseases and how to mitigate them.  The book also covers the honey bee by-products such as honey and beeswax.

At the end of each chapter there is a check-list of the issues covered making it easy to recap the main points.  These check-lists are also repeated at the end of the book in a comprehensive list. The book also gives a list of useful websites and further reading.

The book contains a wealth of information, I really enjoyed reading it and will refer back to it. As well as learning about the art of bee-keeping, I was introduced to  quite a lot of information about bees in general that I didn’t know before.

The book is published by Flame Tree Publishing who can also be found on twitter @flametreetweet.