Any good honey books out there?

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I have several bee books, but would really like a book that does the honey side of beekeeping in a little more detail. All my books have something on honey, but it is all mainly basic extracting & bottling info, and other than 'don't let OSR set in the frames' advice, very little on how to deal with it if it does / dealing with different types of honey...and top tips etc. I am sure there will be something out there but I have not seen anything, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
 
Hi Warts - I can heartily recommend several works by AA Milne.... (Sorry - couldn't resist it).
 
Good - you didn't give me both barrels! So I'll follow up with 'The Honey Handbook' by Kim Flottum, published by Apple. It's written very much for our US of A fellow beeks but has some useful guidance under chapter headings - 'Where and Why Bees Forage, Guide to Honey Plants, the Honey Harvest, Fragile - Handle With Care, Using What You and the Bees Have Made'.

Recommend a library copy as it is not exactly representative of our bees' forage but a good read nonetheless.

Good luck!
 
Not sure there is one as such, what is it you want to know?

PH
 
Plants and beekeeping by F. N. Howes. is an older book that looks from the perspective of varieties of honey in Britain. It's very good for what it is, but it doesn't attempt to cover extracting, bottling etc.
I've heard of a book by Harry Riches called Honey Marketing. It's been on my to-buy list for a while but don't know if it's good or not.
 
Moggs / Chris B

I will certainly look into these...thank you!

Poly
To be honest, I am pretty new to all this, and not only found myself in an OSR area (glancing an eye across the local landscape is like staring into the sun somedays), but also found that honey collected later on in the year (after the OSR supers had been removed) also did their own thing...and now I have it in a tub gradually 'setting' with the aim of reheating later and bottling because I thought this was the right thing to do...and then when I come on this forum I read so much stuff that I didn't know that I realise that I really need to up my knowledge considerably in this area. For e.g. assumed you had to let OSR set then warm and sort of 'cream'...but them saw somebody's pics of really (really!) nice looking OSR that just hadn't set because they had warmed it BEFOREHAND. Beekeeping books have really helped with my knowledge of the actual beekeeping, and then I access this site to clarify / or read posts that I have a sort of an understanding of...but I am often completely taken by surprise by some of the posts re honey and how to deal with it. Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble...but feel more out of my depth with the honey side of things than actually the 'bee' side, which I never really anticipated (or am I making a mountain out of a very small mole hill here?)
 
I wouldn't worry unduly. Generally speaking, honey will be honey, no matter what you do to it (apart from direct additives or excess heat, of course). There is no 'requirement' to cream, warm, or anything else. These processes as you are probably aware, generally only enhance the product, according to type or facilitate bottling and better presentation. I'd concentrate on the bees, attention to the finer points of optimising your honey harvest won't make you a better 'keeper of bees' (but you're right, it's fascinating stuff)!
 
Just a reminder that American books have a disability as far as we are concerned.

The topics they cover are American. Last I looked I am in the UK.

Things are rather different here. Honeys included, I am not aware that North America has Heather for instance?

PH
 
Hi PH. Accordingly, I added a caveat to that effect in my post. However, this particular book is beautifully illustrated and covers processes that are common to the UK and USA. Extraction and bottling are excellent examples. It's genearlly well written and presented and I would suspect that most beekeepers in the UK would be able to spot the key differences.
 
The main problem Moggs is that the yanks love and aim for "Water White Honey"

We prize darker honeys, ie Hawthorn, Bell and Ling.

Now from where I am sitting that is directly opposite to Water White.

It took me a fair bit of reading before I got my head round that. Namely Gleanings and ABJ over a time span of some thirty years or so. As in 30 odd years of back copies. LOL

I remember having bought Richard Taylor's the Comb Honey Book and thinking sheesh I canna do that or this.. or most of it. (He wrote extensively in Gleanings) Talking of condensing three or four Langstroth Brood boxes to two and putting on one super... Hmm.........

I could quote examples galore but the climate is so different.... did I tell you about the skep on the scales in Ontario?

PH
 
Thanks PH - interesting stuff.... 'water white' - devoid of all goodies? <lowers head below parapet>. Personally, I find the many and various characteristics of our honey to be a source of pleasure in itself. I find myself being drawn to the honey shelves of every garden-centre type outlet that I visit, examining each variety with a critical eye. I must get some 'readers' that I can peer over for added effect!

Now, what about that skep?
 
Honey by Eva Crane out of print but get a library copy
Ruary
 
Thanks PH - every day a school day! Pfundamental really (see what I did there...)?



bee-smillie
 
Harry Riches called Honey Marketing book if you get the revised one is ok to poor


i own the pre 2003 reprint copy and the book was writen like most bee books in the 1970s so its fourty years out of date,

most of the basic ideas are sound but the way to action them is completly differant to ways we would use now,

just to prove my point in the old issue book there is no sensible mention of mail order let alone distance sales or computers, he was still buying labels rather than home printing, we are still supposed to that them to market by horse and cart !!!,

but after all that i would still get everyone to get a library copy and to read it as if you want some ideas it does help, so a reasonable book but get it from the library not amazon.4/10

the other book mentioned is also in the home library as well is, Plants and beekeeping by F. N. Howes, this is a great book even if it is so old and deffinatly wants a reprint and he has on purposed skipped lightly over OSR, but if you want to know where your pollen and necture comes from it is brilliant, a book i would suggest if and when you can buy a copy 9/10

the honey handbook by kim flottum, is one that i have got from the library several times is very well writen BUT very americian,so for me its a poor 4/10

there are only several items we do with honey and each one is easily researched heres a few ideas for you

Extraction,
Filtering,
Storage,
Heating,
Creaming,
Bottling,
Labels,
Sales,

ok not the longest list but thats the main stay of the basics unless of course you want to deal with cut comb and or bulk handling.
 
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