For a few years I had watched a wild colony of honey bees coming and going from a hollow brick gate pillar near my home. I had even seen them swarm, without knowing their reason for this. I was fascinated by the bees' activity and this lead me to think it would be fun to have my own hives. Having made this decision, I started researching how I would go about doing this. Numerous books, magazines and the internet gave me all manner of advice on how to get started. However, the more I read the more daunting it all seemed, especially as some advice totally contradicted that of others. Having done my research, joined my local Association and attended their winter theory course, I took delivery of my first bees the following spring. Two years later I have 6 hives, my bees are thriving and have given me a bumper harvest of honey.

Many of the books I saw were written by experts who assumed the reader knew something, this gave me the idea to write a bee keeping guide, written in laymans language by someone who was in exactly the same position as you are, only two years ago. As a professional photographer I have been taking photographs regularly of my bees and bee keeping and was therefore fortunate to be able to illustrate the book with images which I felt a new bee keeper needs to understand their new hobby. I was also lucky to have met a couple, who with years of bee keeping experience, have kindly acted as my mentors as I learnt how to keep bees plus aiding me in the writing of this book.

I have broken down each aspect of bee keeping: from how to start, the hive and equipment needed, where to get your bees, inspections through to extracting and selling your honey. A list of chapters in the book can be viewed plus you can view a selection of pages from my book by clicking on " View Book ".

I believe that if you wish to start as a hobby bee keeper, that my book will assist you and that the images will enable you to understand all that is require and how to go about doing it.