Building Beehives For Dummies 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

This was a good book for providing easy to understand information that beginning beekeepers need to know.

The author re-hashed much of the material from ‘Beekeeping for Dummies’ which was kind of a waste of time for me, having just read said book. However, if someone were to read only this book and not the other, the material would be fresh. I found a couple of mistakes in the measurements so one needs to check everything before cutting the parts. Otherwise I found the book quite helpful as I had no idea where to begin building bee hives.

I've made several hive bodies and inner/outer covers so far from this book. To help someone else from wasting some flashing, make sure the 8 frame outer cover flashing is cut to 17-3/4″ x 24" (not 17-3/4″ x 22″) as written in the book. The cover frame is 22" and cutting the flashing to 22" won't leave enough for the 1" lip to fold down.Other than that, no issues and really solid hives as a result!

Looked online for instructions on building hives and it seemed every site had a different method of construction although all ended up with the same basic dimensions which are necessary if you are purchasing frames or other pieces of a hive. Since my woodworking shop is fairly well equipped, I wanted to use box joint construction which is one of the strongest possible joints and therefore the hive should last and take some abuse. Building Beehives for Dummies was one of the few books or instruction sets that I found that used the box joint construction method. Also, method shown for building frames was straight forward and again was within my abilities. This book was purchased as an ebook which made reading some of the diagrams difficult and skipping between pages was tough. Would probably purchase the printed edition if I were to buy this book again.

Good book but has shortfalls. For the Kindle version reading, the dimensions are almost impossible. Especially the fractions. The illustrations do not scale at all. So increasing the font size does not help.I've completed three of the double-screened inner covers.Now that I'm finished I don't think they will work unless I add a modification to the Outer Hive Cover. As described in the drawings the double screened cover will rest flush under the Outer Hive Cover. If so, then this negates the use of the screen 100%.Also, the design calls for a 1/8" x 1" rabbit along the entire inner surface to allow the #8 cloth to rest flush with the surface. It then describes cutting a 3/8" opening on one side for an upper bee entrance. This doesn't work because it will have the cloth covering the entrance. To make this work the rabbit on one side needs to be 1/2" to allow for the 3/8" opening. I did not catch this until I had cut wood for three inner covers.Finally, he describes almost all of these projects as very simple to build. He is correct if you have a very good woodworking background and a workshop full of tools. For instance, for the inner cover, I used a table saw, drill press, bandsaw, a square clamp, router table, and two 3 foot clamps to ensure all legs were square and aligned.

There are several styles of hives to build. The plans, materials lists and cutting lists are straight forward. The accessories section is a definite plus. I am particularly interested in the Langstroth hive and the accessories. Since my area has plenty of winter and spring rain an angled entrance would help keep moisture out of the hive. Maybe the author can add that to the accessories section as a screened bottom board with an angled entrance.

I bought this book as a Kindle book, so I paid less than paper cover book price for it. It has clear plans and instructions on how to build Bee Hives. The book was easily worth what I paid for it. A good buy.

I haven't a suitable location to start up with bees again. I never know there were so many types. some are not useful for honey but for pollination bees only, yes. Very good guide.

This is a book for the American market - so all measurements are imperial. I know that it is possible to convert to metric, but it’s just as helpful as having every critical instruction written in French - I could Google translate it- but it’s unhelpful and cumbersome. In addition some of the words are different to typical English woodworking terms...rabbet cuts? It’s also printed on flimsy, thin paper with a very floppy binding and covers - I don’t think it’ll survive very much use in the workshop - I’ll probably end up cutting off the cover and spine, hole-punch it and put it in a ring-binder. The instructions are less than specific. Haynes manual it ain’t. Less than impressed, and I wouldn’t have bought it if I’d seen it first

After the first 30 pages and i choose to return it.All the mesuares are in inches (nowhere is specified about that otherwise i will not buy it)And the return is only from UPS....And they require 3 copies of return lebel inside. Whitch are gona cost me 4 € one third of the price of the book.

this was a present for our son.in.law who was very impressed with the content, waiting now to see which style he will choose.

This book is more for the American market and was not much use to me.

Very useful and clear. Just all my questions answered in one book