A Beekeeper’s Life. Tales from the Bottom Board

Since 2002 author and columnist Ed Colby has amused, inspired and occasionally educated beekeepers with his monthly Bottom Board column in Bee Culture magazine. With a blend of humor and pathos, he shares not only his remarkable adventures with God's favorite insect but also reflects on friendship, love, death and the fickle winds of fate.

"A Beekeeper's Life" is a collection of 60 of these essays. This is a book sure to amuse and inform fans, beekeepers, people who love bees, and anyone else who enjoys good writing.

His longtime editor at the magazine, Kim Flottum, has this to say of the column, the book and the author:

"He's in the top three of who gets read every month. That's saying a lot. Let me give you some background on this guy. He started with bees in 1996, writing for the magazine in 2002. There are a lot of stories. Hundreds. Some of the best are here...

"Like a lot of beekeepers, his little darlings have taken him a lot of places, Mexico, Ukraine, Cuba, even Medina to visit me. And he's done most of the things a lot of the bigger guys have done. Bees to almonds, selling splits, beeyards in odd and grand places...He's learned a lot of things the hard way. His dad told him to follow his heart, and Ed thinks because he did just that it's worked out OK for him. Most of the time anyway. His stories show a Beekeeper's Life worth knowing about."