These books would make excellent additions to your small farm, homesteading, or hobby farming library. I think the two beekeeping books are a good start to your first season as a beekeeper (plus connecting with your local beekeeping society!).
The Joy of Hobby Farming
The Joy of Hobby Farming by Michael and Audrey Levatino is a great read for anyone considering taking the plunge and beginning to hobby farm. The authors are very specific in their definition of hobby farming as not intending to run your farm as a business for income, but they do cover selling at the farmers market and other aspects of running a small business. This book does a good job of getting into the authors' philosophy behind hobby farming without sounding preachy or know-it-all. This book is well-suited for someone dreaming about starting a hobby farm or even planning to start one within a year or two.
Mini-Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre by Brett L. Markham looks at many aspects of farming but has a particular focus on raised bed, intensive gardening to meet the food needs (or most of them) for a family. It's a book that provides information on a variety of farming topics, including preserving the harvest by canning, freezing and dehydrating, growing fruit, raising chickens for eggs and for meat. Self-sufficiency is the focus but Markham includes some information on taking extras to the farmers market, filing taxes and other basic farm business information.
Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills
Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, edited by Abigail R. Gehring, is a true compendium of traditional skills. An encyclopedia full of all kinds of information about doing anything and everything the old-fashioned way. It covers topics as wide-ranging as making your own applejack to building your own barn and house and securing your water supply. You'll learn how to choose a piece of land, what types of alternative energy you might set up, how to raise food, how to preserve food, how to do a variety of traditional, useful crafts, and how to fish and hunt for your food. This is a great book to have on hand to look up any kind of information that you might need while working and living on your farm or homestead.
The Backyard Beekeeper
The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum is a terrific beginner guide to keeping bees. It's both readable straight through and a good reference to have around for the day to day types of questions that arise when keeping bees. Flottum writes in an engaging, narrative tone that is very enjoyable to read. Although he has some bullet lists with tips for different aspects of beekeeping, I think the book excels for giving an overview of each process from start to finish rather than small chunks of information to absorb out of context. Gorgeous color photographs really help know what you're looking at with your own beehive. Flottum focuses on managing honey bees with as few chemicals as possible.
Beekeeping for Dummies
An excellent beginner book on beekeeping, Beekeeping for Dummies by Howland Blackiston has a section on just about every aspect of keeping honey bees. The information is organized into short chunks with lots of bullet lists and boxes. It really hews to the "for Dummies" style of easily understandable information. It's a great reference book for this reason, easy to flip through and find information as you wade through your first season of beekeeping. Although it doesn't have as many color photos or as nice a layout as The Backyard Beekeeper, it's a worthwhile reference. In fact, I think the two books together complement each other well and would make a good set of starter information for any beginning beekeeper.
