The Beekeeper’s Lament follows John Miller, a multi generational bee keeper who moves his over 10,000 hives around the US to farmers who need the pollination that only the honey bee can provide. Beekeeping, as one can imagine, is a lot of work and not for the faint of heart. John will be stung frequently, deal with mites, weather, semi trucks loaded with bees turning over on highways, theft, and the CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) epidemic that came about in 2004 and still is as mysterious today.
Miller moves onward with a sense of humor, a gift at writing, and a desire to help feed America despite all the obstacles.
Why did I want to read this book? I am fascinated by bees. I have a friend who raises honey bees and occasionally I get to go and help her out and I enjoy learning about the bees and all they can do!
I really enjoyed reading The Beekeepers Lament. The fascinating things that honey bees provide (beside the obvious honey) by providing pollination to flowers, berries, fruit, and the big one… almond trees.
Author Hannah Nordhaus follows John Miller through all the steps to bee keeping. She writes of the communications between herself and John between visits. John likes email. And jokes. And Author Hannah Nordhaus writes as I would hope if I were writing about something similar, that I would write.
This book would be appealing to those who enjoy foodie books, fans of nature, and of course the fascination of bees. I learned so much by reading this and found every page to be filled with fascinating (and occasionally funny) information.
- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 24, 2011)
Book Journey 
This one does sound good. We had bee hives in our almond orchards when I was growing up. I was very cautious when I wandered through the beautiful orchards during blossom season.
I cant wait to see it! I hope to some day go with her when they take the bees to Florida.
i like the occasional non-fiction, and I do like my honey 🙂 so I might read this if I found it at the library. It’s fascinating that the bees have to travel around to pollinate different crops around the country. My favorite honeys that I have ordered online are blueberry honey (doesn’t taste like the berry, just made there) and Tupelo honey (can we all sing along with Van Morrison on that?). Have a good weekend.
I dont know enough about the different kinds of honey but I would be fascinated to find out 😉
I did a research paper on honey bees a few years back and was horrified at the decline and fascinated at all honeybees DO provide. Anyone interested in nutrition, gardening and bees should definitely read more – this sounds like the perfect book to educate ourselves. Thanks for sharing!
Sure Stacy 🙂
This does sound interesting. It is amazing how much we all depend on bees, particularly for their role as pollinators.
It is, and it is truly something that we need to be more educated on. The book was a good one.
This sounds like a book for me. A few years ago bumblebees built a hive in my yard. They never bothered us and were fascinating to watch. Pollinators are essential in my yard with all my gardens so I was hoping they would stay, but they moved the hive the following year.
As soon as I seen you had commented on this post I thought “Ooh this would be a great book for Leslie!” LOL