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A Book of Bees
The author chronicles a year in the lives of beekeeper and bees, describing and explaining the activities of both and the rewards of having bees of one's own
193 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
363 people are currently reading
1837 people want to read
About the author
Sue Hubbell
18 books105 followersSue Hubbell is a graduate of the Universtiy of Southern California. She received a master's degree in library science from the Drexel Institute of Technology and was a librarian at Brown University. In addition to her books she has written for Time Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The New Yorker, the New York Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She currently resides in Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
October 29, 2010
I enjoyed this book. It's about the author, Sue Hubbell, who lives out in the country in Missouri and takes care of about 300 hives of bees that are stationed all over on land rented from farmers. Even though I was not familiar with all of the bee-keeping terms, Sue Hubbell explained how the hives worked and bee idiosyncrasies. She references other books of interest in here, which are now in my reading queue at the library. The part I thought was funny was where she took off her sundress out in the middle of nowhere while she dealt with the bees so they wouldn't fly up her skirt and get caught then sting her. So, she was out in the country naked tending bees. I grew up in the country and there were a few times where I ran out from the house naked to the clothesline to get some undies. Nobody cares. There's much more freedom out in the country than in town. Still, I do walk around in my undies in the apartment when it's warm in the summer and the windows are open. For the sake of my neighbors I'm not completely naked, but just about. I figure if they're going to be nosy toms then... *shrugs*.
March 26, 2009
To date, the most endearing and encouraging book I've read on the subject of Beekeeping. Ms. Hubbell sets the scene beautifully, honoring the calendar of both bee and beekeeper. All of her factual information is presented accurately and with gentle humor. An example: "The textbooks say that bees will only fly if the weather is at least 10C. My bees haven't read the textbooks, so they are out flying today."
I loved her personal tales that wove through the book. I imagined this Ozark mountain gal switching from her beesuit to sundress to birthday suit as she lives on her hilltop and works with her bees.
I am glad of her very "try this and try this" sense, and her great respect for the bees and their society. A book that is certain to influence my own beekeeping.
I loved her personal tales that wove through the book. I imagined this Ozark mountain gal switching from her beesuit to sundress to birthday suit as she lives on her hilltop and works with her bees.
I am glad of her very "try this and try this" sense, and her great respect for the bees and their society. A book that is certain to influence my own beekeeping.
March 2, 2017
This short book following the author's life and work as a beekeeper in the Ozarks in the late 1980s is a delight, sharply capturing the place and time and details of everyday life and the rhythms of the seasons with a smooth, easy to read narrative voice and clear explanations of the author's beekeeping process. There is an extensive glossary as well that took up nearly 40% of my ebook edition.
A strength of the book was the awareness that things change too- the short afterword relates changes in the author's life after the year she recorded, and kept the book feeling very specific to a person in a place and time rather than some platonic ideal of beekeeping. I definitely want to check out some of Hubbell's other books, and am disappointed that only this and one other are currently available in ebook.
A strength of the book was the awareness that things change too- the short afterword relates changes in the author's life after the year she recorded, and kept the book feeling very specific to a person in a place and time rather than some platonic ideal of beekeeping. I definitely want to check out some of Hubbell's other books, and am disappointed that only this and one other are currently available in ebook.
July 24, 2014
My favorite animal is Apis mellifera and among many, many things in the world that make me sad, very few make me sadder than the danger to the survival of bees. World agriculture may suffer because of decreased pollination, people may have to miss out on honey, and this wonderful and fascinating species may face a risk of near extinction. I have a personal regret as well: over 12 years ago, when my wife and I bought a house with a large garden, we had thousands of bees, living in an ad-hoc hive in the walls of our pool shack, buzzing sweetly all around, working on flowers, and pollinating our avocado tree. Even two or three years ago, we still had some bees and my dream of getting a few beehives to work with when I retire was still alive. Now all bees are gone from our garden. What's worse, bee colonies are disappearing all over the world at much faster pace than in the past because of the so-called Colony Collapse Disorder, probably caused by new-generation pesticides.
I have just read a wonderful book about bees and beekeeping, Sue Hubbell's "A Book of Bees" (1988), one of the many books I had bought because of my retirement apiculture plans. In the 1980s Ms. Hubbell was a commercial beekeeper, with an annual yield of about 6,000 pounds of honey from 300 hives. She clearly knows what she is writing about, despite her protestations "The only time I ever believed that I knew all there was to know about beekeeping was the first year I was keeping them. Every year since I've known less and less and have accepted the humbling truth that bees know more about making honey than I do". (The realization that it takes a lot of learning to know how little we know is, of course, true for most professionals.) In addition to all the stuff about beekeeping, Ms. Hubbell writes about plants and various creatures of the Ozarks, where she had her honey business. Her writing is beautiful: leisurely, assured, quiet, yet engaging. She even quotes large fragments of Virgil's poem about bees that had been written over 2000 years ago.
Of all earth's creatures, bees feature some of the most fascinating social behaviors. I have read several books about bees, including research monographs, so I have some rudimentary understanding of the theory of the subject. Ms. Hubbell provides so many details of the practice. From her book I have learned about joining colonies, uniting hives, preventing swarming, dealing with "supersedure" (which happens when bees themselves "requeen" the colony), and many other topics. Let me quote one humbling tidbit: to make one pound of honey a single bee would have to fly 76 thousand miles (three times around the Earth). I have also learned that, contrary to popular perception, bees spend a lot of time doing nothing at all, which makes me love them even more. Clever creatures!
My fascination with bees probably began in 1962 or 1963, when I read the well-known 1901 book "The Life of the Bee" by Maurice Maeterlinck. I hope that fifty years from now bees will still be around, pollinating flowers, making honey, and making my grand-grand-grandchildren happy.
Four stars.
I have just read a wonderful book about bees and beekeeping, Sue Hubbell's "A Book of Bees" (1988), one of the many books I had bought because of my retirement apiculture plans. In the 1980s Ms. Hubbell was a commercial beekeeper, with an annual yield of about 6,000 pounds of honey from 300 hives. She clearly knows what she is writing about, despite her protestations "The only time I ever believed that I knew all there was to know about beekeeping was the first year I was keeping them. Every year since I've known less and less and have accepted the humbling truth that bees know more about making honey than I do". (The realization that it takes a lot of learning to know how little we know is, of course, true for most professionals.) In addition to all the stuff about beekeeping, Ms. Hubbell writes about plants and various creatures of the Ozarks, where she had her honey business. Her writing is beautiful: leisurely, assured, quiet, yet engaging. She even quotes large fragments of Virgil's poem about bees that had been written over 2000 years ago.
Of all earth's creatures, bees feature some of the most fascinating social behaviors. I have read several books about bees, including research monographs, so I have some rudimentary understanding of the theory of the subject. Ms. Hubbell provides so many details of the practice. From her book I have learned about joining colonies, uniting hives, preventing swarming, dealing with "supersedure" (which happens when bees themselves "requeen" the colony), and many other topics. Let me quote one humbling tidbit: to make one pound of honey a single bee would have to fly 76 thousand miles (three times around the Earth). I have also learned that, contrary to popular perception, bees spend a lot of time doing nothing at all, which makes me love them even more. Clever creatures!
My fascination with bees probably began in 1962 or 1963, when I read the well-known 1901 book "The Life of the Bee" by Maurice Maeterlinck. I hope that fifty years from now bees will still be around, pollinating flowers, making honey, and making my grand-grand-grandchildren happy.
Four stars.
September 2, 2025
לסקירה מפורטת בעברית ואנגלית, קישור לבלוג שלי -
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August 31, 2021
I read this back before I had Goodreads, but I remember I really enjoyed it.
November 18, 2017
3.5 stars
I think it's important to know, at the top, if you're interested in reading A Book of Bees that there is both a glossary of terms and an index in the back. The former would have been useful to me as there were places where beekeeping lingo went over my head, the latter would be useful for people who want to use A Book of Bees as a reference book.
I'm not sure what inspired me to read A Book of Bees. Whims can't always be dictated by logic, of course, but still--it's a whim that had two stages: the decision to buy, and, later, the decision to read. For me, I think, there were several key factors. One is finding pleasure in reading nonfiction about topics I know very little about, the other is that my grandfather had a couple of beehives at his house that he harvested honey from. There's plenty of things my grandparents did that I have no interest in learning about and, as a kid running around my grandpa's yard, I never looked upon the bees with much fondness, yet here we are. I was only stung once (ever, in my life), but even before that I feared pain, poison, and even now if I'm outdoors and a stinging bug gets near me, I balk.
A Book of Bees is much more of a book about beekeeping than it is the bees themselves. I imagine the audience most interested in the information author Sue Hubbell covers would be people interested in starting their own hives, new beekeepers, and established beekeepers who enjoy reading about their hobby or job.
I do not fall into any of those categories, which might explain my more suppressed rating.
"I wear bee overalls whenever I work my bees, and they are a good investment for any beginning beekeeper. Those new to bees are usually nervous about being stung, and the best way to avoid being stung is to relax and move easily and confidently among them. There is nothing that gives a person more confidence in the presence of bees than to be zipped snugly inside a bee suit."
That is typical of Hubbell's prose. It's personal, conversational, lightly humorous, but focused and informational. She provides a list of beginning equipment that the aspiring keeper should get, notes what the equipment is for, and, to whatever extent you can without hands-on experience, how to use them. Images are included to help illustrate what she's talking about. The book is laid out by season, starting with what she does during the autumn, then the process during the winter, spring, and summer.
We follow her as she checks hives, deals with maintenance, and interacts with neighbors and farmers. She has an eye for detail--especially those that many how-to guides might gloss over (not just how to light and use the smoker, but how long the embers will smolder and how to transport it from site-to-site)--and communicates those details in a way that is easy to consume.
So A Book of Bees rides an odd line between personal narrative ("Last evening, after it had cooled off a little, I walked back to the beehives by the woodlot.") and textbook ("Honey in other countries can today be produced more cheaply than it can in the United States, and most of the honey on grocery store shelves is of foreign origin."). The personal narrative exists more to inform about beekeeping than it does Hubbell's life and person, so even as first-person narration drives much of the book, we don't learn much about Hubbell herself; most of what is gleaned about our narrator is through her use of words: "I do not know who invented the handtruck, but whoever he was I hope he led a happy life and was rewarded for his ingenuity."
The other important thing to note about A Book of Bees is that this is not really a history of beekeeping, an examination of bees through the ages, society's relationship with bees, a biology of bees, or any number of other bee-related issues that you might expect from a book called A Book of Bees. It is pretty squarely centered on the how-to of beekeeping, and information relevant to beekeeping, such as hive dynamics, why a bee might sting, and what pollen attracts bees. Interested in the so-called killer bees that made headlines several years back? This is not the place for that. Curious about bee identification? Look elsewhere.
Ultimately, with the proper expectations, A Book of Bees is pretty good. Just light enough for casual page turning, informative enough for those serious about learning the beekeeping craft.
I think it's important to know, at the top, if you're interested in reading A Book of Bees that there is both a glossary of terms and an index in the back. The former would have been useful to me as there were places where beekeeping lingo went over my head, the latter would be useful for people who want to use A Book of Bees as a reference book.
I'm not sure what inspired me to read A Book of Bees. Whims can't always be dictated by logic, of course, but still--it's a whim that had two stages: the decision to buy, and, later, the decision to read. For me, I think, there were several key factors. One is finding pleasure in reading nonfiction about topics I know very little about, the other is that my grandfather had a couple of beehives at his house that he harvested honey from. There's plenty of things my grandparents did that I have no interest in learning about and, as a kid running around my grandpa's yard, I never looked upon the bees with much fondness, yet here we are. I was only stung once (ever, in my life), but even before that I feared pain, poison, and even now if I'm outdoors and a stinging bug gets near me, I balk.
A Book of Bees is much more of a book about beekeeping than it is the bees themselves. I imagine the audience most interested in the information author Sue Hubbell covers would be people interested in starting their own hives, new beekeepers, and established beekeepers who enjoy reading about their hobby or job.
I do not fall into any of those categories, which might explain my more suppressed rating.
"I wear bee overalls whenever I work my bees, and they are a good investment for any beginning beekeeper. Those new to bees are usually nervous about being stung, and the best way to avoid being stung is to relax and move easily and confidently among them. There is nothing that gives a person more confidence in the presence of bees than to be zipped snugly inside a bee suit."
That is typical of Hubbell's prose. It's personal, conversational, lightly humorous, but focused and informational. She provides a list of beginning equipment that the aspiring keeper should get, notes what the equipment is for, and, to whatever extent you can without hands-on experience, how to use them. Images are included to help illustrate what she's talking about. The book is laid out by season, starting with what she does during the autumn, then the process during the winter, spring, and summer.
We follow her as she checks hives, deals with maintenance, and interacts with neighbors and farmers. She has an eye for detail--especially those that many how-to guides might gloss over (not just how to light and use the smoker, but how long the embers will smolder and how to transport it from site-to-site)--and communicates those details in a way that is easy to consume.
So A Book of Bees rides an odd line between personal narrative ("Last evening, after it had cooled off a little, I walked back to the beehives by the woodlot.") and textbook ("Honey in other countries can today be produced more cheaply than it can in the United States, and most of the honey on grocery store shelves is of foreign origin."). The personal narrative exists more to inform about beekeeping than it does Hubbell's life and person, so even as first-person narration drives much of the book, we don't learn much about Hubbell herself; most of what is gleaned about our narrator is through her use of words: "I do not know who invented the handtruck, but whoever he was I hope he led a happy life and was rewarded for his ingenuity."
The other important thing to note about A Book of Bees is that this is not really a history of beekeeping, an examination of bees through the ages, society's relationship with bees, a biology of bees, or any number of other bee-related issues that you might expect from a book called A Book of Bees. It is pretty squarely centered on the how-to of beekeeping, and information relevant to beekeeping, such as hive dynamics, why a bee might sting, and what pollen attracts bees. Interested in the so-called killer bees that made headlines several years back? This is not the place for that. Curious about bee identification? Look elsewhere.
Ultimately, with the proper expectations, A Book of Bees is pretty good. Just light enough for casual page turning, informative enough for those serious about learning the beekeeping craft.
September 15, 2024
Very insightful..I never knew the protecting of bees from mice, moths, insecticides that are sprayed ….diseases that can destroy a hive or its honey.
Good read😊
Good read😊
May 2, 2009
This is one of the best books I've read on bees. Hubbell give a lot of information--extremely helpful to the new beekeeper--but also weaves in some of her own story as a professional apiarist. The details she shares are slight, but illuminating. The reader gets a sense not just of how to keep bees (Listen. Watch. Move quietly. Don't let your will get in the way of the natural world.) but also a sense of what makes a good life (many of the same things).
It's a simple, but not simplistic, book that should appeal to anyone with an interest in the mechanics of honeybees and in the way one woman has created a sustainable life in the Ozarks.
WHY I READ THIS BOOK: This summer I started keeping bees, and found this book and its positive reviews on Amazon.com. My friend Jeb had also mentioned the story, but he attributed it to "Bee Season" -- a book that is actually about spelling bees. I got that book on his recommendation but stopped reading it when I realized it had nothing to say about honeybees. But as Jeb _meant_ this book, he gets a nod too.
It's a simple, but not simplistic, book that should appeal to anyone with an interest in the mechanics of honeybees and in the way one woman has created a sustainable life in the Ozarks.
WHY I READ THIS BOOK: This summer I started keeping bees, and found this book and its positive reviews on Amazon.com. My friend Jeb had also mentioned the story, but he attributed it to "Bee Season" -- a book that is actually about spelling bees. I got that book on his recommendation but stopped reading it when I realized it had nothing to say about honeybees. But as Jeb _meant_ this book, he gets a nod too.
January 2, 2018
I enjoyed this book and learning about bees. Hubbell writes well about a subject dear to her heart. It almost persuades me to take up beekeeping .... almost. But it's an occupation not for the faint of heart, and I don't mean bee stings. Stings are the least of it, as Hubbell explains.
The knowledge required to be good at beekeeping is prodigious. A beekeeper knows about biology and weather; about diseases of bees; about making queens (an intricate and delicate process); what makes good, sellable honey, and how to be a carpenter. In addition, a beekeeper should be healthy and strong and have a pickup truck handy.
This is a book that I will buy as a reference for myself. It's too good to let go.
The knowledge required to be good at beekeeping is prodigious. A beekeeper knows about biology and weather; about diseases of bees; about making queens (an intricate and delicate process); what makes good, sellable honey, and how to be a carpenter. In addition, a beekeeper should be healthy and strong and have a pickup truck handy.
This is a book that I will buy as a reference for myself. It's too good to let go.
May 11, 2017
I was delighted with the copy of the book I received through the Interlibrary loan. It lacked a cover, was stained, the words on the spine were illegible. Written in 1988, the information still felt current, but what was I loved were hearing the musings of one of the first woman apiarist and her experiences in the Ozarks-both bee related and philosophical "I've come to the belief that we manufacture whatever immortal souls we have out of the bits of difference we make by living in this world". This book would be enjoyable to anyone, but to a novice beekeeper such as myself, her words were like a kind mentor, encouraging and enlightening. Four and a half sweet stars
May 14, 2011
I walked by a fellow making beehives today in Oakland and I immediately remembered how much I loved this book. There is a wafting, floaty feeling to her writing that carries a ton of information about beekeeping, nature's cycles, and our human imposition on the earth we rely upon.
April 24, 2017
OH, Ms. Hubbell, thank you for writing books. I love your writing style, and I adored this book. I spent maybe moments in my backyard with this book, watching bees and butterflies enjoying my spring flowers, soaking up your experiences and knowledge. This was a perfect spring read!
December 6, 2017
This one gets a four-star rating simply for the descriptions of her Missouri surroundings and the reverence she holds for the countryside and insects from whom she derives her living. A peaceful, pastoral read at a very turbulent point of my year.
December 22, 2018
One of my favorite books!
Sue’s prose is genuine, informative, evocative, and wondrous. It probably helps if you (as I do) love bees already, but I suspect this book could make a bee fan out of anybody.
Sue’s prose is genuine, informative, evocative, and wondrous. It probably helps if you (as I do) love bees already, but I suspect this book could make a bee fan out of anybody.
March 25, 2021
Sue Hubbell's "A Country Year" is one of my favorite books. Her love of nature is infectious. "A Book of Bees" could just as easily be titled "A Bee's Year." Although more technical than her previous book, it does not disappoint.
"There is more to life than the merely human."
"There is more to life than the merely human."
January 18, 2019
What a wonderful romantic book all about bees and nature. The author has a nice dry sense of humor and I wish I was her friend. 🐝
February 5, 2024
I don't think I've enjoyed a person/character as much as I enjoyed the author of this book. I wish you were still living Bee lady.
Read
October 7, 2024I should’ve known this book was literally just going to be about bee keeping. In my mind it was going to be a touch more insightful; about the benefits of keeping bees and the ways the author has been affected by this relationship. Plenty of good stuff in here and I must admit being a bee keeper sounds fun but this is a book for people who are trying to decide whether to keep bees or not, rather than learn something profound about these fascinating bugs. If you’re the latter, don’t rush to this.
March 21, 2025
A great book about beekeeping!
This book makes me want to take up the hobby of beekeeping even more now. Even if that’s not your thing, this is a good book.
This book makes me want to take up the hobby of beekeeping even more now. Even if that’s not your thing, this is a good book.
July 18, 2025
possibly my favorite genre of books
August 13, 2011
I just really like Sue Hubbell's writing. I would probably read anything she wrote, but my fascination with bees and beekeeping make this book of particular interest to me. This is partly a nature journal and personal memoir, keeping in the style of Hubbell's early work, A Country Year. It is almost a guide for a beginning beekeeper although I think it might be difficult to refer back to due to the conversational tone. That same conversational tone is what makes the book highly readable straight-thru, unlike most reference books. Hubbell takes the reader through a year of beekeeping in tandem with her own year. Each season has opportunities, challenges and chores. She travels through the history of beekeeping, both cultural touchstones (Aristaeus, god of beekeeping, attempted rapist, the intellectuals who kept bees, bees in art and mythology) and technical developments (moveable frames, langstroth hives, advent of chemical beekeeping).
My main issue with this book is how common the use of chemicals is in Hubbell's commercial beekeeping. Yes, this book was written in 1988. Yes, she has 300 hives that she works alone so she can't pamper them. I can make 100 excuses for her, but I was bummed that the chemical treatments are explained like they are mandatory and normal. As a chemical-free beekeeper, this just set me on edge.
I appreciated Hubbell's discussion of women and beekeeping. Any lady who has ever been to a beekeeping club meeting is familiar with this issue. She addresses some classic beekeeping literature with sections titled "Women in Beekeeping," and points out that, of course, there is no complementary "Men in Beekeeping" section.
There is a moment that is one part crazy and one part magic. Hubbell is loading hive supers into her truck naked as a jaybird to keep the bees from flying up her dress. Things like that make this book really stand out from other beekeeping reference books and memoirs. The writing is beautiful. The subject matter is fascinating. There is enough science and nerd content to pique my interest, but Hubbell's love and fascination for bees is what really warmed my heart.
My main issue with this book is how common the use of chemicals is in Hubbell's commercial beekeeping. Yes, this book was written in 1988. Yes, she has 300 hives that she works alone so she can't pamper them. I can make 100 excuses for her, but I was bummed that the chemical treatments are explained like they are mandatory and normal. As a chemical-free beekeeper, this just set me on edge.
I appreciated Hubbell's discussion of women and beekeeping. Any lady who has ever been to a beekeeping club meeting is familiar with this issue. She addresses some classic beekeeping literature with sections titled "Women in Beekeeping," and points out that, of course, there is no complementary "Men in Beekeeping" section.
There is a moment that is one part crazy and one part magic. Hubbell is loading hive supers into her truck naked as a jaybird to keep the bees from flying up her dress. Things like that make this book really stand out from other beekeeping reference books and memoirs. The writing is beautiful. The subject matter is fascinating. There is enough science and nerd content to pique my interest, but Hubbell's love and fascination for bees is what really warmed my heart.
January 31, 2019
This book, of course, makes me want to move alone to the country and make friends with all the bees.
April 28, 2024
Titre bien choisi! La dame aux abeilles est le récit d’une année dans la vie de Sue Hubbell, apicultrice. Chaque saison, son chapitre.
Publié originalement en 1988, ce livre n’a pas pris une ride… ou plutôt il est toujours aussi pertinent. La survie des abeilles n’a jamais été autant d’actualité.
Avec humilité, sobriété et parfois même humour, Sue relate son travail au fil des saisons. C’est souvent très descriptif et technique, mais on arrive à suivre puisque c’est très bien vulgarisé. L’ajout de jolies illustrations contribue tout de même à une meilleure compréhension.
Sue passe beaucoup de temps à décrire ses tâches quotidiennes ainsi que la fabrication et l’entretien des ruches. C’est pertinent pour bien comprendre son métier. J’ai tout de même ressenti certaines longueurs et répétitions au milieu du livre. En contrepartie, j’ai beaucoup aimé les moments où Sue parle des abeilles et de leur mode de vie, tout comme son contact avec elles. J’ai aussi apprécié qu’elle aborde sa relation avec ses voisins et sa communauté en lien avec son métier. Finalement, j’ai adoré ses mentions de fleurs en précisant leur nom latin. On va se le dire: la dernière partie, l’été, est définitivement la plus intéressante.
Bref, une lecture singulière écrite par une femme fascinante!
Cet ouvrage est parfait pour celles et ceux qui s’intéressent aux abeilles (clin d’œil à Camille) ou qui souhaite avoir une ruche. Ou bien qui aiment le travail lié à la terre et la nature. Ou encore qui s’intéressent aux récits de femmes hors du commun, fortes et indépendantes. Pour ma part, je compte plonger sous peu dans son livre précédent, Une année à la campagne.
Publié originalement en 1988, ce livre n’a pas pris une ride… ou plutôt il est toujours aussi pertinent. La survie des abeilles n’a jamais été autant d’actualité.
Avec humilité, sobriété et parfois même humour, Sue relate son travail au fil des saisons. C’est souvent très descriptif et technique, mais on arrive à suivre puisque c’est très bien vulgarisé. L’ajout de jolies illustrations contribue tout de même à une meilleure compréhension.
Sue passe beaucoup de temps à décrire ses tâches quotidiennes ainsi que la fabrication et l’entretien des ruches. C’est pertinent pour bien comprendre son métier. J’ai tout de même ressenti certaines longueurs et répétitions au milieu du livre. En contrepartie, j’ai beaucoup aimé les moments où Sue parle des abeilles et de leur mode de vie, tout comme son contact avec elles. J’ai aussi apprécié qu’elle aborde sa relation avec ses voisins et sa communauté en lien avec son métier. Finalement, j’ai adoré ses mentions de fleurs en précisant leur nom latin. On va se le dire: la dernière partie, l’été, est définitivement la plus intéressante.
Bref, une lecture singulière écrite par une femme fascinante!
Cet ouvrage est parfait pour celles et ceux qui s’intéressent aux abeilles (clin d’œil à Camille) ou qui souhaite avoir une ruche. Ou bien qui aiment le travail lié à la terre et la nature. Ou encore qui s’intéressent aux récits de femmes hors du commun, fortes et indépendantes. Pour ma part, je compte plonger sous peu dans son livre précédent, Une année à la campagne.
January 7, 2018
My grandfather kept bees on his property in Nevada. When we went to visit, I would spend hours lying in the grass by the hives just watching the bees. I was too young to be afraid, and no one knew what I was doing, so there were no warnings. It was a remarkable time of freedom for a young child. When my mother expressed worry if I had been gone so long, my grandfather told her not to worry. His dog Queenie, my constant companion, would keep me safe. And so she did.
I have always been fascinated by bees. I have never lived in a place that would accommodate keeping them, so it was always an unrequited love. I have read so many books about bees, fiction and non-fiction over the years that I feel I know them. I will pick up any book with bees in the title, and I have learned much about them. Ms Hubbell's book is the latest in a long series.
Keeping and maintaining more than 300 hives is far beyond anything I had imagined. It is a full-time, year-round occupation with periods of intent activity. She describes her year from the high of a honey flow to the relative down-time of winter. Each season brings its own work to fill the hours. There is no vacation for a large bee-keeping/honey producer.
If you are at all interested in keeping bees, this book is full of valuable, if dated, information.
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I have always been fascinated by bees. I have never lived in a place that would accommodate keeping them, so it was always an unrequited love. I have read so many books about bees, fiction and non-fiction over the years that I feel I know them. I will pick up any book with bees in the title, and I have learned much about them. Ms Hubbell's book is the latest in a long series.
Keeping and maintaining more than 300 hives is far beyond anything I had imagined. It is a full-time, year-round occupation with periods of intent activity. She describes her year from the high of a honey flow to the relative down-time of winter. Each season brings its own work to fill the hours. There is no vacation for a large bee-keeping/honey producer.
If you are at all interested in keeping bees, this book is full of valuable, if dated, information.
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December 15, 2017
I enjoyed this book. I picked it up in Belfast at my hotel; it caught my notice because of the post-it taped to the front which requested someone to "TAKE ME, help me travel the world". The book is a book-crossing book that you are supposed to read, find on the website to comment and then "release" somewhere else you know why giving it to someone or leaving it somewhere for someone else to pick up, just like I did :). I almost put the book back on the table at the hotel because I have no desire to go into beekeeping etc. but based on the comments by others I gave it a chance, and I'm glad I did. Yes, the book has a lot of information on bees; some of which can be a bit more detailed then the non-bee-er wants, but it also helps you to see and appreciate the wonderfulness of bees (and their importance) as well as learning to slow down to truly look at nature and appreciate it. I found the book interesting, I learned so much about bees, but also relaxing and calming. Plus, it can be very funny at times, like when the author talks about moving supers buck naked apart from her big work boots.
January 8, 2018
I've been entertaining the idea of raising bees. I probably won't, but I keep reading about it. This is my latest foray into the beekeeping reading. The author recounts what a year in the life of a small commercial beekeeper looks like. She works on her own for most of the year, handling 300 hives scattered on farms near where she lives. It's a great insight into a different way of thinking and living. I think I'm one step closer to owning that beehive. 4 stars.
Number of pages: 210
Number of my highlights: 13
My favorite quote(s):
"And I wish to state
That I'll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter."
Farmers and agricultural pesticide applicators are not evil men. They do not deliberately try to kill bees, but they forget that bees are insecticides that kill "bad" insects will also kill "good" ones like honeybees, ladybugs, and butterflies. So they need to be made aware of any colonies of bees kept in an area likely to be sprayed. Since aerial sprayers seldom think about us, it is up to beekeepers to find out what the schedule is on any farm near their bees.
Number of pages: 210
Number of my highlights: 13
My favorite quote(s):
"And I wish to state
That I'll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter."
Farmers and agricultural pesticide applicators are not evil men. They do not deliberately try to kill bees, but they forget that bees are insecticides that kill "bad" insects will also kill "good" ones like honeybees, ladybugs, and butterflies. So they need to be made aware of any colonies of bees kept in an area likely to be sprayed. Since aerial sprayers seldom think about us, it is up to beekeepers to find out what the schedule is on any farm near their bees.
June 10, 2021
Noticing Bees
A wonderful book. The book is a literary journal of years of beekeeping artfully structured as a single twelve month cycle. Sue Hubbard is an intellectual bringing knowledge of mythology, history of 17th Century apiarists, modern farming and contemporary hobbyist and commercial beekeeping. She loves the Ozark mountains where her cabin is and writes poetically about its seasons, it’s birds, insects and plants. You don’t have to love bees as much as Hubbard does to treasure this story,
A wonderful book. The book is a literary journal of years of beekeeping artfully structured as a single twelve month cycle. Sue Hubbard is an intellectual bringing knowledge of mythology, history of 17th Century apiarists, modern farming and contemporary hobbyist and commercial beekeeping. She loves the Ozark mountains where her cabin is and writes poetically about its seasons, it’s birds, insects and plants. You don’t have to love bees as much as Hubbard does to treasure this story,
November 10, 2023
A very gratifying read even for a non beekeeper.
I love the author style of writing. It is much like sitting in a beautiful setting in nature and watching a peaceful babbling Brook. It is just a relaxing experience the way her words flow. Not to mention the great education one gets into the heart of the nature of bees. As a flower and vegetable gardener, I just like to understand more about the nature of our best pollinators. I wish we could impact the world with how important bees are.
I love the author style of writing. It is much like sitting in a beautiful setting in nature and watching a peaceful babbling Brook. It is just a relaxing experience the way her words flow. Not to mention the great education one gets into the heart of the nature of bees. As a flower and vegetable gardener, I just like to understand more about the nature of our best pollinators. I wish we could impact the world with how important bees are.
November 27, 2021
Harmony
Ms Hubbell writes in a comfortable open-faced style. I think anyone who appreciates and enjoys their position as a part of nature would love this book. I learned much about the amazing honey bee that I had never heard before, despite the plethora of bee books on my shelves. I actually read slowly to delay the inevitable arrival of the book’s end. Now I must reread A Book of Bees.
Ms Hubbell writes in a comfortable open-faced style. I think anyone who appreciates and enjoys their position as a part of nature would love this book. I learned much about the amazing honey bee that I had never heard before, despite the plethora of bee books on my shelves. I actually read slowly to delay the inevitable arrival of the book’s end. Now I must reread A Book of Bees.
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