The BeeHolder, July 2010

This is the title of a really excellent new book on all aspects of beekeeping. The difference in type-face on the front page is telling. Who would want to keep unhealthy honey bees? Or was the intention to suggest the link between the reader’s health and honey bees: Keeping healthy... honey bees ? There are other quirky things about this book: sudden blank pages that perhaps were intended for individual note-making and then perhaps not, because they are just as suddenly missing. But I quibble. The quirkiness probably comes from the production team rather than the superbly professional authors, David Aston, Vice Chair of the BBKA and Sally Bucknall, Chair of Garden Organic.

The book is very comprehensive in all aspects of beekeeping with everything explained in a relaxed easy-to-read style. It is especially useful for having up-to-date information about bees and bee diseases and excellent advice on diseases under the umbrella of Integrated Bee Health Management. The colour pictures are superb, the black and white ones less so.; some really needed to be in colour for easy understanding. I was delighted to see at last a picture (in colour) of brood frames that should be destroyed. So often we see hives containing such frames and the beekeeper convinced that just because the cells are neat and regular, the frame is OK. There is a lot of learning to be had from this book with plenty to help the novice and enough to challenge the expert. I can thoroughly recommend ” Keeping Healthy Honey Bees “.

Published by Northern Bee Books, paperback, 194 pages £16

Arthur Finlay