subject: 4 Tips for Choosing a Beekeeping Guide [print this page] Beekeeping is a slightly "different" hobby.
It's not a simple hobby like building model trains, or stamp collecting or painting. There is a lot involved in the proper education and training of a beekeeper and, thanks to the internet, you can find great courses, books, videos and other resources.
But where do you begin? And how do you know for sure what you need to know?
You could spend hours online pulling a little information from this source and that source, searching for the answers to beekeeping questions in forums, and trying to put it all together yourself.
But that's the hard route and it can be really easy to get frustrated.
The best way is to start with a good beekeeping guide. Here are 3 tips for choosing a good guide for beginning beekeepers:
Make sure you are getting an in depth "complete" guide and not just a report that is really just an overview of beekeeping. This means the guide will tell you "how" to do it, not just tips "about" beekeeping. A good beekeeping guide will usually be at least 100 pages long.
Look for testimonials. If you buying your guide online, the author should have some positive feedback for his site in the form of testimonials. You just want to see that a few people who have bought the guide have found it very helpful and were able to use the information.
Does the author offer you a free course, newsletter or report? This is very important because you can judge the quality of information you will be purchasing by the quality of the free information. If the free information raises questions that you hadn't even thought about, it has good potential. When the free information answers questions or concerns you already have, you've got a winner.
This last tip isn't really mandatory, but helpful. If you decide to purchase an electronic book online, print and audio versions would be helpful. You will be able to reinforce the new information you are reading by listening to the audio version while doing other things.
There are many beekeeping guides available online. Some are really good and others are not so good. By following the four tips above, you can be sure to get the best one for you.
