The Idle Beekeeper: The Low-Effort, Natural Way to Keep Bees

In this charming anecdotal how-to guide, Anderson, beekeeping columnist for The Idler magazine, lays out a low-maintenance approach to his hobby. Making a distinction between being idle and lazy, he observes that “truly lazy people rarely cultivate themselves or the world around them,” whereas the idle “invest the maximum [time] doing things that interest them, that make them grow.” As a beekeeper and self-proclaimed idler, he believes the insects “know how to do it better than I do” and advises other apiarists not to intervene too much. Anderson describes his personal experiences with beekeeping in London in recent years, from where he placed his first hive, to the mishaps that followed. Though “we might think we’re providing spacious accommodation” to the bees, he notes, “all we’re really giving is an empty space in which they build their home all by themselves.” Topics covered include honey production and harvesting and typical bee behavior. Anderson also dispenses step-by-step instructions on, for example, how to detach the comb from the walls of a hive while keeping it intact. Readers keen on actually keeping bees themselves should find this information-packed book’s instructional component particularly useful, and Anderson’s fellow idlers will appreciate his laissez-faire personal ethos. (May)