Ron Miksha

An entertaining look at the problems of being a beekeeper: the daily attention during the season, heavy lifting, low income. Loaded with bee history and facts, with references tucked away in the closing notes, such as the many famous people who were beekeepers: Peter Fonda, Aristotle, Virgil, Sherlock Holmes (see "The Lions Mane" by Doyle), Mendel--who worked with both peas and bees but couldn't figure out the genetic inheritance traits of bees.
The book also gives a look at local culture, as he makes friends with a local Hutterite community, and participates in mutual assistance with his small town neighbors; local history, such as Sitting Bull's tiyospaye moving to the area in 1876; and ecology, with prairie dogs and windswept dry prairie.
I would highly recommend this as a more realistic view of beekeeping than you get from most current bee sites. To be fair, most websites are just trying to get people to raise a few hives, not make a business of it with hundreads.
Miksha's website of bee miscellany is still active, though it redirects you to badbeekeepingblog.com
Ron started on his family's farm in Pennsylvania then set up hives in Saskatchewan, which had a better summer climate for honey production, and in Florida, which had low honey production but allowed him to raise replacement queens for those hives which didn't overwinter in Canada. After 10 years, a 3-year drought which halted honey storage, and government imposed prohibitions on bringing in bees from Florida, he got a degree and changed occupations...but still keeps bees for pleasure.
I found this book on the shelves of a friend who makes a cameo appearance--back when he was a teenage friend of Ron's younger brother.… (altro)

Great book. We really enjoyed this story. Really appreciated the details about Pennsylvania apple pollination, Florida queen breeding, and making honey in Saskatchewan. All this is described so clearly and entertainingly. But the best of this book are tales about the sort of people this beekeeper had for friends - Canadian Hutterites, Cree Indians, Florida orange grove farmers. Learned a lot, but had a great time the whole way through. Miksha is entertaining and witty, and explains things better than almost anyone I've ever read. Nice book. Five Stars!… (altro)