good things - Liz Posmyk
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • My book
  • Writing & Media
  • FAQs

Backyard Bees - A guide for the beginner beekeeper by Doug Purdie (book review)

3/10/2014

8 Comments

 
Doug Purdie, beekeeper and author of Backyard Bees
'Beevangelist' and author, Doug Purdie (image courtesy Murdoch Books)
'I am captivated by bees. I love bees. Bees are fascinating and working with a beehive is an amazing opportunity. You can see the girls coming and going [from the hive] with all this different coloured pollen on their legs, and [you] wonder where they've been. And what started the journey for me really is that bees are in big trouble. All around the world everybody knows about it and [people] are doing things about it. Obama just gave a whole lot of money to looking after bees in America, 20 million I think, to doing something about and [yet] in Australia people aren't really aware of it, or are only just beginning to be aware of it now...'
     — Beekeeper and author, Doug Purdie,  in an interview with Natasha Mitchell, RN Life Matters, July 2014

In the introduction to his book, Backyard Bees - A guide for the beginner beekeeper, Doug Purdie explains that he 'never set out to be a beekeeper'...  He says 'the bees found me and my life has been different ever since'. With Italian origins on one side of his family, and a grandmother and aunts who were largely self sufficient, Purdie says he has always had a love of food. He mentions that he had been selling honey on behalf of his local community association at a farmer's market, but had no real interest in keeping bees himself.

Then in 2009, he was reading a book about food trends and it was then that he learned about clandestine rooftop beekeeping in New York and the issues that much of the world's bees are facing due to widespread diseases. The next several books he read were on beekeeping and his first hive followed. It was a gift from his father-in-law and 'a baptism of fire' he says, as it was a 'mostly badly behaved hive with very grumpy bees'!

Joining his local Amateur Beekeepers' Association ignited Purdie's interest further, as he discovered a collective of 'mostly older, mainly male members, presided over by a man with a gavel who was hard of hearing'. It was apparent to him that his beekeeping colleagues had a vast amount of knowledge and experience that needed to be saved and passed on to younger generations. 

Five years later, Purdie is a self-described 'beevangelist', managing more than 70 beehives on city rooftops, balconies, backyards and community gardens. He and his partner, Vicky, formed The Urban Beehive, a business dedicated to bringing beehives to urban areas. For this bee fanatic, one of the 'most unbelievable things' he has discovered along his journey is that 'we' (people) are so disconnected from food. 'Many people don't realise that bees pollinate our food and that without them we have a major problem...  and a very boring diet of grain.'

Beevangelist and author, Doug Purdie
Extracting the honey (image courtesy Murdoch Books)

Regular readers of this little blog will be aware that I, too, am fascinated by bees. I love the sound of them buzzing around my pots and my garden. I love to spend time watching them and photographing them. I'm very well aware of the difference their presence makes to the harvest reaped from my kitchen garden and, if possible, would very much like to keep a hive or two in my little yard. So, when Doug Purdie's book arrived on my doorstep I was curious and keen to study it from cover to cover. 

Across the 100 pages of this book, the beevangelist author answers questions such as 'Why keep bees?' as well as 'Which bees are for you?'. He covers stings and allergies and then launches into 'How to start', with the advice that almost anybody can keep bees. Further chapters cover 'The Life of Bees' including information about workers, drones and the queen. A key piece of advice is 'Where to put your hives' and this is important, as there are guidelines that must be considered before a site is chosen for the hive/s. I read this with particular interest, as I'm certain that I won't be able to keep hives anywhere on my current block, unfortunately. A beekeeper friend has confirmed this for me. 

Of course you'll also need beekeeping equipment and will need to know about beekeeping across the four seasons. There's a chapter dedicated to beehive management, and another on bee health and diseases. Purdie also introduces readers to several beekeepers, before taking us to the sweet part. That is, the honey, honey recipes and ideas for using beeswax. 

Among the recipes are toasted honey granola; poached rhubarb, ricotta and honeycomb; pancakes with honey butter (pictured below); cornflake crackles; honey Anzac biscuits; French honey loaf; bees knees cocktail; honey lemon iced tea; cappings and cheese; honey mustard and honey salad dressing; and more. 

If you love honey, and are curious about the little creatures pollinating the flowers and vegetables in your neighbourhood, buy yourself a copy of this bee-licious little book!
Pancakes with Honey Butter
Pancakes with Honey Butter from Backyard Bees (courtesy Murdoch Books)

Backyard Bees by Doug Purdie
Backyard Bees - A guide for the beginner beekeeper by Doug Purdie (image courtesy Murdoch Books)
Backyard bees - A guide for the beginner beekeeper by Doug Purdie $35.00. Thank you kindly to Doug Purdie and the publicity team at Murdoch Books for giving the opportunity to review and showcase this informative title.

Tell me dear readers, do you love bees and honey? Have you ever thought of keeping bees in your back yard? Or perhaps you already do? Please share your experiences. 
8 Comments
Maureen link
3/10/2014 06:29:30 pm

Lucky you to get your hands on that brilliant bee book! I loved your writeup!

Reply
Lizzy
8/10/2014 12:30:57 pm

Absolutely Maureen! And wouldn't it be wonderful to have hives? Thank you for your kind words!

Reply
KRISTA R BJORN link
5/10/2014 12:22:27 pm

Bear and I have secured the bee boxes and are waiting to get our first swarm. So excited. :-)

Reply
Lizzy
8/10/2014 12:31:10 pm

Oh Krista, that IS exciting!

Reply
Beck link
5/10/2014 03:02:57 pm

I do love honey, in fact I’m sitting here with a new 2kg jar of honey from my parents’ beekeeping neighbour right now. I haven’t thought of keeping them myself though I have read a little bit about keeping native bees which have the plus of fewer stings :)

Reply
Lizzy
8/10/2014 12:31:31 pm

How wonderful that your neighbour keeps bees, Beck!

Reply
The Food Sage link
8/10/2014 09:48:24 pm

I'm a closet, wannabe, bee keeper … there, the secret is out.
I can't imagine i'll ever get to do it, but it sure is a nice dream.
I'd love to read about Doug blazing the trail - will put his book on my wish list!
Thanks Lizzie - lovely post.

Reply
Lizzy
11/10/2014 02:21:44 pm

Thanks Rachel... it's a great read and very inspiring for those wishing to keep bees! I wish my current location was suitable.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Welcome...

    Üdvözölöm
    Photo of Liz Posmyk, Food Writer, Cook and Traveller

    ​Cooking and writing have been a lifelong passion.
    ​
    Join me as I share with you my favourite recipes; postcards and morsels from my travels; conversations with cookery writers
    and chefs; and news on food, cookbooks
    ​and cooking.
    ​
    - Liz Posmyk

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    All
    Anzac
    Apple Growers
    Australia
    Australian Producers
    Autumn
    Baking
    Beverages
    Biscuits
    Book Reviews
    Bread
    Breakfast
    Butter
    Cakes & Slices
    Canberra
    Charmaine Solomon
    Cheese
    Chestnuts
    Christmas
    Cocktails
    Coffee
    Conversations
    Cookies
    Cookware
    Cuisine Companion
    Curries
    Dairy Products
    Desserts
    Diet
    Dough
    Drink Blog
    Easter
    Edible Gifts
    Eggs
    Egg Safety
    Essays
    Events
    Favourite Flavours
    Fish
    Food News
    Food TV
    Food Verse
    Fruit
    Giveaways
    Good Things Favourites
    Growers & Producers
    Guest Post
    Health
    Hummus
    Hungarian Recipe
    Ice Cream
    In My Kitchen
    Kids In The Kitchen
    Kitchen Garden
    Markets
    Meat
    Muffins
    Musings
    My Book
    My Family
    New Year
    Noodles
    Nuts
    Observations
    Olives
    Pancakes
    Pasta
    Pastry
    Pepe Saya
    Pink Martini
    Pizza
    Polenta
    Postcards And Morsels
    Poultry
    Preserves
    Prize Giveaways
    Prunes
    Reminiscences
    Retro
    Reviews
    Rice
    Ricotta
    Salad
    Salads
    Sandwiches
    Sauce
    Seafood
    Slow Cooking
    Snacks
    Soups
    Stop Hunger Start Cooking
    Sydney
    Tefal
    Thanksgiving
    Thank You
    The Barber From Budapest
    Tofu
    Travel
    Truffles
    Tweatup510064f8ec
    Tzatziki
    Valentines Day
    Vegetables
    Vinnies Christmas Appeal


    NB: I use Australian standard measuring cups and spoons in my recipes. 

    Picture
    Winner ABC's 2015 Australia Cooks competition, ACT (mains category)
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Meet the Chefs - recipes featured on Australian Asparagus Council website

Good Things is written and published by Liz Posmyk © 2011-2020.   All rights reserved.
Excerpts may be used provided that full and clear credit is given. Thank you.


Photos from alantankenghoe, riptheskull, David Jackmanson, Amani Hasan, SuntanMidori, oropeza, Annie Mole, Vegan Feast Catering, avlxyz, jeffreyw, mockstar, jenly, Syeefa Jay, pizzodisevo (therapy - terapia - Therapie), ginnerobot, cliff1066™, Jim, the Photographer
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • My book
  • Writing & Media
  • FAQs