Homegrown Honey Bees: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping Your First Year, from Hiving to Honey Harvest

Discover the joys of harvesting honey from your own backyard.  Alethea Morrison outlines what you’ll need to know to make it through the first year, while stunning macrophotography by Mars Vilaubi brings the inner workings of the hive to life. With in-depth discussions of allergies, colony hierarchy, bee behavior, and more, this approachably informative guide bursts with enthusiastic encouragement. Keep your own bees, and enjoy the sweet buzz.

Alethea Morrison is the author of An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping. She and her husband, photographer Mars Vilaubi, regularly slow down to smell the flowers of a handmade life―sewing, growing, brewing, foraging, and tending to animals large and small. She previously served as president of the Northern Berkshire Beekeepers Association and is now the founder Common Thread Studios, a multidisciplinary art and design practice. She lives and works in Western Massachusetts and can be found online at commonthreadstudios.com.

Photographer Mars Vilaubi chronicled the adventures of his three backyard hens from their first days out of the egg through their first days laying eggs in Chick Days. He lives in western Massachusetts.