--- title: Beekeeping description: Beekeeping keeps honey-bee colonies for honey, pollination and pleasure. You will learn bee biology, hive setup, seasonal management, disease control and harvesting. category: trades-crafts subcategory: specialty-crafts difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/beekeeping --- # Beekeeping Beekeeping keeps honey-bee colonies for honey, pollination and pleasure. You will learn bee biology, hive setup, seasonal management, disease control and harvesting. ## Available Resources 1 Videos • 3 Books • 1 Courses • 2 Websites ## Books ### 1. The Hive and the Honey Bee (2015 Edition) **Author:** Joe M. Graham (editor) The 1,057-page successor to Langstroth's 1853 manual, with chapters written by separate apicultural scientists on bee anatomy, genetics, pollination contracting, honey chemistry, pests and commercial management. Use it to settle questions a beginner's handbook leaves open. The reference work of North American apiculture - nothing else has its depth across biology, pathology, pollination economics and commercial practice in one volume. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0915698161?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** apiculture, honey-bee-biology, bee-diseases-and-pests, pollination, commercial-beekeeping ### 2. The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild **Author:** Thomas D. Seeley Seeley's synthesis of decades of research into how honey bees live wild in tree cavities: nest size and spacing, swarming, thermoregulation, foraging economics and natural mite resistance, and what those findings imply for how hives are managed. The bee-biology anchor the topic needs so the learner understands why management practices work rather than memorising a checklist. Region-neutral: it describes colony biology, not a local calendar. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691166765?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** honey-bee-biology, wild-honey-bees, swarming, natural-mite-resistance, darwinian-beekeeping ### 3. The Beekeeper's Handbook (5th Edition) **Author:** Diana Sammataro, Alphonse Avitabile The topic's foundational practical anchor: the one book that takes a beginner from empty equipment to an overwintered colony without vendor bias or ideology. Step-by-step manual covering hive components, installing packages and nucs, colony inspection, swarm control, requeening, pest and disease treatment, and honey harvesting. Its hand-drawn diagrams and decision tables let a first-year beekeeper work a hive unsupervised through a full season. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501752618?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** beginner-beekeeping, hive-inspection, swarm-control, requeening, bee-diseases-and-pests, honey-harvesting ## Videos ### 1. University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre Beekeeping Video Library The University of Guelph's apiculture centre hosts a categorised library of free how-to films covering hive assembly, inspections, queen rearing, disease recognition and honey extraction. The single best free substitute for standing next to an experienced beekeeper. Nine organised categories take a learner from unboxing equipment through queen rearing and honey processing, showing the physical motions that no book conveys. After working through them you can perform a full colony inspection unsupervised. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://hbrc.ca/beekeeping-videos/ **Tags:** hive-inspection, queen-rearing, honey-extraction, bee-disease-recognition, beekeeping-equipment ## Podcasts ### 1. Two Bees in a Podcast **Author:** Jamie Ellis, Amy Vu Weekly interviews with researchers plus a listener question segment, from the University of Florida honey bee lab. Keeps a working beekeeper current on published research, treatment options, queen genetics and management debates once the basics are in place. Books and guides go stale on miticide efficacy and emerging pests, and this is the one podcast in the field anchored to a university research lab rather than a supplier or a personality. Intermediate because episodes assume the listener knows hive anatomy and the seasonal cycle. Florida-based, so climate references skew subtropical. Transcripts published. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey-bee/podcast/ **Tags:** honey-bee-research, varroa-mites, queen-genetics, colony-management, apiculture ## Courses ### 1. Complete Beekeeping Short Course (University of Arkansas Extension) **Author:** Jon Zawislak Seventeen recorded lecture segments from an extension apiculture specialist covering equipment, protective gear, bee biology and behaviour, seasonal management, regulations, disease and pest recognition, and honey production. A structured curriculum for deciding whether to keep bees and setting up first colonies. Region-specific: reflects US mid-South conditions and US regulations, so calendar and legal sections need local substitution. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.uaex.uada.edu/farm-ranch/special-programs/beekeeping/beekeepingshortcourse.aspx **Tags:** beginner-beekeeping, honey-bee-biology, seasonal-hive-management, bee-diseases-and-pests, honey-production ## Youtubes ### 1. University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre - Beekeeping Video Series Filmed demonstrations from a university research apiary: opening a hive, finding the queen, making splits, uniting colonies, applying oxalic acid, queen rearing and wintering. Seeing the hand movements before a first inspection makes written instructions legible. Beekeeping is a manual craft and text cannot teach the physical handling - this is the free, non-commercial video reference, filmed by a research institution rather than an equipment vendor, which is the usual failure mode of beekeeping YouTube. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre ## Websites ### 1. Tools for Varroa Management - Honey Bee Health Coalition Free guide (9th edition), twelve technique videos and an interactive decision tool covering mite sampling by alcohol wash or sugar roll, action thresholds, and every approved chemical and mechanical control with timing, temperature limits and residue considerations. Varroa is the single biggest killer of managed colonies, and this is the consensus practitioner reference for measuring and treating it - the guide, videos showing each treatment being applied, and a decision tool. Explicitly scoped to the US and Canada because approved miticides are jurisdictional; UK/EU beekeepers should check nationally approved products, though sampling method and thresholds are general. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/ **Tags:** varroa-mites, mite-sampling, miticide-treatment, integrated-pest-management, colony-health ### 2. Scientific Beekeeping **Author:** Randy Oliver Randy Oliver's open-access archive of field trials, literature reviews, calculators and colony population models covering varroa treatment thresholds, oxalic acid dosing, nutrition and pesticide exposure. Written for beekeepers who want data and methodology rather than received tradition. Advanced because articles assume familiarity with hive terminology. US (Sierra Nevada) context is explicit in the trials, but the reasoning and calculators are portable. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://scientificbeekeeping.com/ **Tags:** varroa-mites, oxalic-acid-treatment, bee-nutrition, field-trials, colony-population-modeling --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/beekeeping