A BOOK OF BEES. . .AND HOW TO KEEP THEM

by Sue Hubbell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 1988

Hubbell, author of the acclaimed A Country Year (1986), strikes gold--or honey--once more with this melodious mix of memoir, nature journal, and beekeeping manual. ""Beekeeping is farming for intellectuals,"" writes Hubbell, who used to be a university librarian and now tends 300 hives in the Missouri Ozarks. The ""Bee Queen,"" as she's known to her neighbors--there are many quick, friendly sketches in here of local crackers--tips her well-read hand when she quotes bee-lit, from Virgil to E.B. White and passes on a fine bee bibliography. More often, though, she's telling of the nit and grit of beekeeping--what clothes to wear, how to smoke a hive, handle a Queen (""the most exacting part of beekeeping""), start a new colony, harvest honey, cook honey-apple pie, thwart foulbrood--this is beekeeping from A to Z, illustrated with stories of Hubbell's own struggles to master the craft. She has a special approach to her buzzing buddies: ""I try to create conditions that will make them happy, and then leave them alone as much as possible""--a personable, easygoing method that works, in part, because of her radiant enthusiasm. ""Everyone should have two or three hives of bees,"" she writes. A happy hive of a book, honeycombed with good feeling and advice. A bit short in literary sting--Hubbell favors a clean, tame style--but sweet and fragrant as clover honey.

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1988

ISBN: 0395883245

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION