First Lessons in Beekeeping

by C.P. Dadant

An introduction to beekeeping explains how bees gather pollen and make honey, how to start a colony, how to extract honey and handle beeswax, and how to package and market honey

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

127 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

aka Camille Pierre Dadant 1851-1938

Reviews

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on googlebooks because it's part of the public domain. I do own an old physical copy of this book, but I never read it until I got my fancy new cell phone where you can read googlebooks. ANYWAY! It's nearly 100 years old. Dadant is considered one of the founding fathers of modern beekeeping, and reading this book, you can see his fingerprints all over everything we do in modern beekeeping. One of the reasons I love bee-ing a beekeeper is how much things don't change. My smoker looks like it stepped out of a steampunk novel. My hive was designed in 1851 and hasn't changed very much since then. This book really captures that sense of timelessness and wonder. At the same time, this is a practical manual for practical men in the business of keeping bees for the purposes of pollination, honey and money. It's not a philosophical meandering work. This is a great source of weird olde timey illustrations and photos of beekeeping, which may inspire future beekeeping tattoos. Like this:
[image error]

My favorite chapter was that on forage plants for the honeybee. It was thorough and interesting. The life cycles, cultural conditions, landscaping relevance and agricultural usefulness of each of the species was clearly explained. I remembered, yet again, that "permaculture" (which includes many of the common sense planting strategies outlined in this beekeeping manual) is a 1960s way of describing the older way of doing things.

Overall, it is a useful and interesting work for the modern bee-keeper if you keep in mind how things have changed - climate, forage, disease and genetics are all vastly different today. The varroa mite was nowhere on the continent. Colony collapse disorder was a hundred years away. Feral/wild swarms still existed. The suburbs weren't invented yet. We hadn't paved all the nectar plants.

I'm just thinking about the rise and fall of the popularity of cut-comb honey and basswood section boxes, and what beekeeping will look like in the future as we shift toward expecting less chemicals in hives (hopefully). It was fascinating to read:

So should the bee-keeper closely watch the continual and varied changes that occur in the demands of the public concerning the preparation of honey for the market. Instead of settling down to the conclusion that, in reference to marketing honey he knows it all, he should be careful to observe what dealers and consumers demand, and then at once, freely and fully meet the requirements of the trade. In this way only, can he become a successful apiarist. The progressive producer of this God-given sweet is never surprised to find that the methods of preparing honey for the market, which were acceptable during one season, are behind the times for the next, and require modifications or improvements in order to keep pace with the public requirements.

It's tough to keep up. It was then. It is now. It always will be.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

First Lessons in Beekeeping by Camille Dadant (link is to the Dadant family wiki) is a classic book which keeps resurfacing in new editions every decade or so. The information and illustrations in this edition are cleaned up somewhat, but largely unchanged as far as I can tell. The introduction and preface for example are reprinted from the 1916/17 version of the book.

The book is meticulously written and while not up-to-the-minute (some things have changed), contains a world of good info for the beekeeper for historical and depth purposes.

There isn't anything which can really replace the help of a mentor or bee club for the aspiring apiarist, but this book provides a window into a valuable portion of the last couple hundred years of apiary history. It isn't intended to serve as a primary instruction manual for the uninitiated potential beekeeper.

I have a very early copy of this book in my beekeeping library and it's so well used and marked up that I fully intend to buy another copy in this release in order to have one which isn't in danger of falling apart in my hands.

194 pages, hardback, paperback, trade and ebook formats. Published by Dover, champions and archivists of the obscure, the esoteric and the delightful.

Highly recommend this as supplementary reading, but not to replace a mentor or bee-buddy.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, quick read full of tips and advice that appears to span the spectrum of the beekeeper's duties. It's not a modern book, so be prepared for some old-school advice, but I wouldn't consider that detriment to the reader's point to learn through reading.

I'm in year 2 of my beekeeping hobby, and I use "hobby" loosely---I'm just doing my best to not be a hindrance to my wife, who is the mastermind of this endeavor, and our kind bee mentor who is patiently guiding us to the point to where we can manage freely. This book, from beginning to end, has a ton of information one needs to know, some information you'll likely never, ever use, and a bit that, while maybe not so integral to the health of the bee, the beekeeper, or the beekeeper's wallet, it would prove well to take heed and consider, especially since said suggestions are coming from those who have found the easiest methods to do basically everything that's worth doing regarding this field of work.

As someone who didn't know a great deal about bees (or beekeeping) prior to reading, I can attest that I'm a more knowledgeable person about bees, their predilections, and how to help them thrive. It'll be a good reference point to come back to from time to time.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the advance read.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book a little hard before having a bit of hands-on experience. But after a few months of beekeeping, it was perfect for filling in some gaps in my knowledge. It had details on bee behavior and management that I hadn’t gotten from a number of other sources (Beekeeping for Dummies- a surprisingly good resource, podcasts, and in-person classes).

[Daniel Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for a beekeeper. This book is old, extremely old when one considers how fast most science how-to books get obsolete. And yet, this is still the guidebook for every apiary. Everyone uses it because it is just the best of the best.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are good tips and tricks, this book should be treated as a historical text first and foremost. It is not altogether helpful for the modern aspiring beekeeper, and should be taken as supplementary material at best

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice introduction to beekeeping, old school.

[Quintin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is, typically, the recommended first book for beginning beekeepers. I could not disagree more!

I finally picked this book up to read after my second year of beekeeping. After reading half of it, I put it down and away. It is the best starting point if one wants to learn to keep bees with the current conventional methods. Unfortunately, many of these current methods are some of the factors leading to our current predicament around colony collapse disorder. A few I caught were ...

* Use of wax foundation
* Keeping drone populations unnaturally low.
* Clipping of queen bees wings.

It is time to set aside these methodologies allowing bees to maintain their hives in the way nature intended.

I would recommend looking towards The Practical Beekeeper by Micheal Bush for a good introductory text on the art of beekeeping instead of First Lessons in Beekeeping.

[Elizabeth Bevins · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, dear neighbors, I don't plan to keep bees. However, this title caught my eye while I waited on someone in Dogwood Books. I'm sure the sweet little bee hive on the cover that reminded me of Winnie the Pooh had something to do with it. I'm always intrigued by practical hobbies and the passionate people behind them. I love books that tell me so eloquently how to do or make or produce something. So many of these useful skills are becoming lost arts. That being said if you want to know the basics of beekeeping this is the authority and its a great read too.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit outdated - but good information, diagrams, resources. I likely wouldn't go back to it, but it is good to look through to get background information.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thin, brief, dated. Nothing wrong, but old black and white pictures stink. Much better to read Idiots Guide to Beekeeping, or Beekeeping for Dummies.

[Jill Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a pretty good book but all it said to me was 'No, that's a lot of work'. It didn't put me off taking some classes and making a decision in the future though.

[Fred Conrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

a hundred years and not much has changed.