The Ultimate Guide to all natural top bar beekeeping!
A revolutionary book about sustainable, chemical-free, ‘natural’ beekeeping, with no heavy lifting. The author strips away all complications, showing how you can make everything you need yourself, even using recycled materials and simple tools: you do not need to buy any additional equipment at all! “After reading The Barefoot Beekeeper I knew immediately I had found what I had been thinking about and searching for for years. It inspired me to immediately build several Top Bar hives and change my manner of keeping bees. . . .read as much as you can about bees and beekeeping but do buy this one and follow it’s suggested path.” N, Spain “. . .the best book out there as far as I’m concerned for those interested in pursuing sustainable beekeeping.” MH, USA “. . .a very helpful primer and a VERY inspiring discussion of sustainable beekeeping.” CS “. . .as an argument for sustainable beekeeping, the writing is unparalleled
I am new to bees and am grateful to own this book. I bought a different book on organic beekeeping before this one and was put off as it expected one to already know everything about beekeeping using regular commercial methods, and largely just advocated over and over avoiding using pesticides. I was bored to tears. It would have probably been a great read for someone steeped in traditional beekeeping methods.
For most, beekeeping is about getting more and more honey.
This book points out the plight of the bee, lays the blame squarely at the feet of modern commercial beekeeping (and shows why), advocates “listening to the bees” and show how to keep bees in a very sustainable way – a way that helps the bees get their lives back.
The book is not in any way boring (I have a low threshold for boredom).
Kudos, 5 stars, way up.
J. Segers
If you have ever wondered if you could raise bees, this is the book for you. With P.J. Chandler’s method there is no box to purchase, special equipment to find, or special talent to develop. In the book, Mr. Chandler explains bees and how they live in their natural setting. Next he describes a top bar bee hive that is simple to build, and easy to maintain. There are links to web sites with more information including detailed plans for hive construction. There are clear explanations of where to get the bees, how to get them into the hive, and how to control swarming so you keep as many bees as possible. With the top bar hive, there are no parts to store and no special forms to purchase each year. While I am sure there is enough information on bees to fill many volumes requiring many years of study to fully master the craft of beekeeping, this book provides enough of the basics to start a functioning hive. The hive will not produce as much honey as you could get from other hive designs, but if you want to have bees primarily to pollenate your plants and get some honey as a side product, Mr. Chandler makes it easy to do and fun to learn. I have built the hive and I am waiting for the bees. Please take note that you need the hive ready in January (In the southeast US) and order the bees in November or December for January through March delivery. Other locations will have other times. I just missed this year, So check the calendar or another bee keeper in your area before you decide to charge ahead. Overall, the book is fun to read, and well worth the price as an introduction to beekeeping even if you don’t plan on constructing the top bar hive itself.
Purchase the digital PDF version. Read on your computer or kindle! Only $9.99
