Queenspotting is a beautiful book for nature fans, bee enthusiasts and beekeepers alike. It has stunning photography and is lovely to just sit and scroll through. I love Bees and found this book very easy to understand.

Visually stunning photographs make Queenspotting a feast for the eyes. If you enjoy an up close and personal encounter with honeybees then this is the book for you.

Queenspotting is more then just a pretty picture book, however. The book also contains some great factoids and information. I especially enjoyed the sections of the book that examine the different roles each type of bee plays in the colony. While I have always admired the Queen and worker bees I found myself gaining a new appreciation for the Drones as well.

I also found the descriptions about the honeybees life cycles particularly interesting. I never realized the division of labor that went into making a bee colony functional. It also opened my eyes to the fact that while honeybees have something that could be described as a culture of their own, they are really only on this earth for a short amount of time.

I have only two real criticism about the book. The first being that I thought the section dedicated to forging could have been expanded a bit. While I realize this is not a gardening book, a more detailed list of what bees prefer to feed would have been helpful. Planting specific types of flowers, trees and herbs are what’s going to help bring back honeybee populations and not necessarily more people raising honeybees in their backyard.

Secondly, I wish the books had a section that talked about disease control. While this is not a glamorous subject it has unfortunately become a reality for many beekeepers in this day and age. Disease and parasites are something that honeybee keepers have to deal with and in some cases can even lead to the death of their Queen.

Overall, I thought this was an informative book that serves to enhance ones knowledge of honeybees and their Queen. It is not necessarily a How-to book but I think it would be useful for anyone interested in the hobby.

Thank-you to NetGalley and Stoney publishing for allowing me to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

I've always been fascinated with bees. This book lets the reader in on the secrets and magic of the hive and teaches how to locate a queen amongst the worker bees. Along with an abundance of information about bees, the reader is also treated to entertaining and interesting stories from the author's own experience as a beekeeper. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in bees or beekeeping.

Thank you to the author Hilary Kearney, Storey Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. All comments are my own, unbiased opinion.

I can’t wait to start selling this book. It’s going to be beautiful. It combines lovely design with a real passion from the author. What an amazing look at a world we really don’t know enough about.

This is a good book for basic information on beekeeping, as well as some extra information for re-queening and splitting hives. The queen information goes beyond the basic. What it isn't, though, is a lot of "Where's Waldo?" - type pictures to practice spotting the queen...which is unfortunate, because that's what we were hoping it would be. There are a few of those in there, but not as many as hoped.

Queen Spotting is a brilliant book for any budding nature fans. I have learnt a lot this summer about bees and all things bug, taking part in #30dayswild. But this book fascinating, so many things I didn't know about bees. I now know what characteristics to look for if I'm ever lucky enough to find queen bees. This also makes you hungry with all the beautiful images of honey and honeycomb.

Queenspotting is a new beekeeping book by Hilary Kearney. Due out in April, 2019 from Storey publishing, it's 128 pages and will be available in ebook and hardcover formats.

This is not, strictly speaking, a how-to book. It's full of anecdotes and warm personal experiences from the author's background as a beekeeper and swarm relocator. It's also absolutely bursting with amazing high quality macro photography of bees going about their bee business. Some of the photographs illustrate the text and show little-known facets of daily life ('pollen pants' made me giggle out loud). Many other full double page photos are a sort of bee 'Where's Waldo' and the point is to pick out the queen amongst the workers. Some of the pics are very easy with the queen in full view in all her splendor, front and centre. Others are are definitely not (and a few are a bit tricksy, with drone(s) drawing the eye immediately and the queen almost hidden out of view).

The natural science and behavior parts of the book are well written and scientifically accurate. Where a behavior has little scientific explanation, the author states that very clearly. Several times whilst reading the book, I found myself wistfully thinking about how much research still needs to be done and wishing I could further the research myself in some way (I'm a bioengineer working in histopathology, not an entomologist, but it was a close race). Ms. Kearney's genuine affection and respect for the natural world come through clearly in her writing. There were a very few places in the text which might have shaded a bit into anthropomorphism, but they added to the general appeal of the book, in my opinion It is folksy and absolutely not dry or technical and for me, that made it better and more accessible in a way. There are a million and one solid technical manuals aimed at the apiarist, and this is not one of them. It fills a different (and necessary) niche.

I would definitely recommend this both to bee interested folks, beekeepers, natural history/farming fans, dedicated natural gardeners, families with kids who love 'Where's Waldo' and anyone who likes natural history philosophy. This book would also make a nice support reference for a classroom unit on insects or beekeeping.

Five stars, another winner from Storey!