The popular host of BBC Breakfast recounts his many misadventures as a backyard beekeeper—“A truly wonderful read” (Diana Sammataro, PhD, coauthor of The Beekeeper’s Handbook). Bill Turnbull had no intention of becoming a beekeeper. But when he saw an ad for beekeeping classes—after a swarm of bees landed in his suburban backyard—it seemed to be a sign. Despite being stung on the head—twice—at his first hands-on beekeeping class, Turnbull found himself falling in love with the fascinating, infuriating honeybee. As a new beekeeper, Turnbull misplaced essential equipment, got stung more times—and in more places—than he cares to remember, and once even lost some bees up a chimney. But he kept at it, with a ready sense of humor and Zen-like acceptance of every mishap. And somehow, along the way, he learned a great deal about himself and the world around him. Confessions of a Bad Beekeeper chronicles Turnbull’s often hilarious and occasionally triumphant adventures in the curious world of backyard beekeeping. Along the way, he offers plenty of hard-won apiarian wisdom and highlights both the threat to our bee population and what we can do to help these vital little creatures do their wonderful work.

Andrew Coté has one of the most intriguing, challenging, and unique jobs in New York City--maintaining millions of honey bees atop some of the city's most iconic buildings. His apiaries have crowned the Waldorf Astoria and the Museum of Modern Art; reside on the North Lawn of the United Nations; reign above stores, hotels, restaurants, schools, churches, and synagogues; and are situated in community gardens, and even cemeteries, throughout the five boroughs. Widely recognized as New York City's premier urban beekeeper, in this debut collection, Coté takes readers with him on his daily apiary adventures over the course of a year, in the city and across the globe ...

Bill Turnbull had no intention of becoming a beekeeper. But when he saw an ad for beekeeping classes–after a swarm of bees landed in his suburban backyard–it seemed to be a sign. Despite being stung on the head–twice–at his first hands-on beekeeping class, Turnbull found himself falling in love with the fascinating, infuriating honeybee. As a new beekeeper, Turnbull misplaced equipment for months, got stung more times–and in more places–than he cares to remember, and once even lost some bees up a chimney. But he kept at it, with a ready sense of humor and Zen-like acceptance of every mishap. And somehow, along the way, he learned a great deal about himself and the world around him. Confessions of a Bad Beekeeper chronicles Turnbull’s misadventures (and brief moments of triumph) in the curious world of backyard beekeeping–and also highlights both the threat to our bee population and what we can do to help these vital little creatures do their wonderful work.

A million pounds of honey. Produced by a billion bees! This memoir reconstructs the life of a young man from Pennsylvania as he drops into the bald prairie badlands of southern Saskatchewan. He buys a honey ranch and keeps the bees that make the honey. But he also spends winters in Florida swamps, nurse-maid to ten thousand dainty queen bees. From the dusty Canadian prairie to the thick palmetto swamps of the American south, the reader meets with simple folks who shape the protagonist's character - including a Cree rancher with three sons playing NHL hockey, a Hutterite preacher who yearns to roam the globe, a reclusive bee-eating homesteader, and a grey-headed widow who grows grapefruit, plays a nasty game of scrabble, and lives with four vicious dogs. Encompassing a ten-year period, this true story evolves from the earnest inexperience of the young man as he learns an art and builds a business. Carefully researched natural biology runs counterpoint to human social activities. Bee craft serves as the setting for expositions that contrast American and Canadian lifestyles, while exemplifying the harsh reality of a man working with and against the physical environment.

A year in the life of New York City’s premier beekeeper, who chronicles his adventures and the quirky personalities he encounters while spreading his infinite knowledge of and passion for the remarkable honey bee “Coté’s charming and poignant essay collection delivers the entertainment and smarts required to make real change in how we look at our planet, and ourselves.”—Andrew Zimmern From the humble drone to the fittingly named worker to the queen herself—who is more a slave than a monarch—the hive world, Andrew Coté reveals, is full of strivers and slackers, givers and takers, and even some insect promiscuity (startlingly similar to the prickly human variety). Written with Coté’s trademark humor, acumen, and a healthy dose of charm, Honey and Venom illuminates the obscure culture of New York City “beeks” and the biology of the bees themselves for both casual readers and bee enthusiasts. Coté takes readers with him on his daily apiary adventures over the course of a year, in the city and across the globe. In Manhattan, among his many duties, he is called to capture swarms that have clustered on fire hydrants, air-conditioning units, or street-vendor umbrellas. Beyond maneuvering within a metropolitan populace as frenzied as the bees’, Coté is able to escape from the hive mind and the rigors of city dwelling with his philanthropic, international approach to apiculture. Annually, he travels to regions across the world with his organization, Bees Without Borders, where he teaches beekeepers how to increase their honey yield and income via beekeeping endeavors. For Coté, a fourth-generation beekeeper, this is a family tradition, and this personal significance pervades his celebration of the romance and mystery of bees, their honey, and the beekeepers whose lives revolve around these most magical creatures.

Hello. My name is Bill and I m a bad beekeeper. A really bad beekeeper. So begins Bill Turnbull s charming account of how he stumbled into the mysterious world of beekeeping (sometimes literally).

At an elite prep school, the devil wears Lilly Pulitzer pink. When Wade Rouse, who grew up more Hee-Haw than Dynasty, was hired as the director of publicity at the prestigious Tate Academy, he quickly discovered his real job: to make the very pretty, very rich, very mean mommies of the elite students very happy. Enter Wade’s VIP volunteer and perfectly coiffed nightmare, former beauty queen and sports star Katherine Isabelle Ludington—Kitsy to her friends. In between designing Louis Vuitton–inspired reunion invitations, dressing as Ronald Reagan for Halloween, and surviving surprise Botox parties, Wade tries to tame Kitsy and her pink Lilly Pulitzer–clad posse while retaining a shred of self-esteem. Following a year in the life of the super rich and super spoiled, Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler is hilarious, heartbreaking, and deliciously catty.