Ozark County, Missouri · Fifty-two seasons

A colony almost never dies of the thing its keeper thinks killed it.

Two field guides from a man who has kept bees in southern Missouri since 1974. One stands beside you in front of the catalog with its hand on your wallet. The other tells you what is killing your hive while there is still time to stop it.

See the three options or read what’s in each book

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The Complete Beekeeping Collection — both books in one volume

The part nobody tells you

It is over eight weeks before you notice.

A hundred beekeepers will tell you their bees absconded over winter. The box was empty in February, the honey was still in it, there were hardly any dead bees on the floor. The obvious conclusion is that they packed up and left.

Bees very rarely do that in December. What actually happened is that the colony shrank, week by week, from October onward, until there were too few of them left to hold a cluster — and the last of them died a handful at a time and were carried out or fell through the screen.

The keeper watched an eight-week death and saw only the empty box at the end of it.

Almost everything that kills a colony announces itself first, and usually announces itself several times, in ways that are perfectly visible to a person who knows what he is looking at. The signal is not subtle. It is just unfamiliar.

— Barney Combs, 40 Ways a Colony Dies

The Honest Beekeeping Manual

Book One · A Field Guide, First Edition

The Honest Beekeeping Manual

What they sell you, and what you actually need.

This is a book about money, and about bees, in that order. Thirty-six pieces of equipment, each one given a plain verdict and a price — so that the beginner standing at a computer with a full cart can tell the difference between this will help you and this exists.

Every verdict is one of five

  • Buy itWorth the money the first year. There are fewer of these than you expect.
  • Buy the cheap oneYou need the function, not the finish.
  • Build itLumber and hardware-store parts, one afternoon, works as well or better.
  • Buy it laterA real tool for a real problem you do not have yet.
  • Skip itI would not have it in my truck.

Six sections

  1. The First Five Hundred Dollars
  2. What Goes Inside the Box
  3. What You Wear
  4. Buying Bees
  5. Mites, Pests, and Snake Oil
  6. Harvest, Jar, and Sale

153 pages · 36 verdicts · 2026 US retail prices, verified · Illustrated

Get The Honest Beekeeping Manual — $27
40 Ways a Colony Dies, and 40 Ways to Stop It

Book Two · The Hive Doctor, Volume II

40 Ways a Colony Dies

…and 40 ways to stop it. A field diagnosis manual for the backyard beekeeper.

Forty deaths, and not one of them written from a textbook. Each is written from the specific memory of standing in front of a hive that was going wrong. Barney has lost colonies to every one of the forty things in this book. Some of them twice.

You do not read it front to back. You look at what your hive is doing, you find that symptom in the Triage Index, and it takes you to the cause, the window you have left to act, and the fix.

You will learn to read

  • No flight on a warm day
  • Bees crawling in the grass, unable to fly
  • A pile of dead bees at the door
  • Fighting on the landing board
  • Deformed wings on young bees
  • Sunken, greasy cappings and a smell you will not forget
  • The brood nest shrinking through August
  • Chewed cappings and white flecks on the tray
  • Nothing on the tray at all in February

Six sections

  1. At the Entrance
  2. Under the Lid
  3. The Brood Nest
  4. The Floor and the Tray
  5. The Calendar Killers
  6. The Dead-Out

155 pages · 40 deaths · Triage Index · The Three-Minute Entrance Check · Illustrated

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Barney Combs in his beeyard, Ozark County, Missouri

Who wrote these

Barney Combs

Fifty-two seasons of bees in southern Missouri, starting in 1974. In that time he watched the price of a beginner’s outfit climb from a figure a working man could hide from his wife to a figure that requires a family meeting — and almost none of that climb bought the bees anything.

He is not out to tell you the supply business is crooked. Most of the people running those companies keep bees themselves and answer the phone when you call. But a catalog has to be full, and when a catalog has to be full, the beginner sees a page of items, assumes the page is a list of requirements, and buys the page.

I have been keeping bees for fifty-two seasons and I have been wrong in at least ten of them. A man who tells you he has never bought a bad piece of equipment is telling you he has never bought much equipment.

Both books carry a Where I’m Wrong section in every chapter — who should buy the thing anyway, and what would have to be true about your climate, your back, your budget or your patience to flip the verdict.

Choose what you need

Instant download, both books illustrated

The Honest Beekeeping Manual

What they sell you, and what you actually need.

$27

  • 153 pages, illustrated
  • 36 equipment verdicts
  • Prices and alternatives for each
  • The Honest Starter List
Buy The Honest Beekeeping Manual

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The Complete Collection

Both books. What to buy, and what is killing them.

$47 $54

  • Both books, 76 entries
  • 308 pages, illustrated
  • Buy right, then keep them alive
  • Triage Index + Starter List
  • Lifetime updates
Get both books

40 Ways a Colony Dies

A field diagnosis manual.

$27

  • 155 pages, illustrated
  • 40 deaths, 40 fixes
  • Triage Index by symptom
  • The Three-Minute Entrance Check
Buy 40 Ways a Colony Dies and 40 Ways to Stop It

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Before you buy

Reasonable questions

What format are the books?

Illustrated PDF, delivered instantly by Gumroad after checkout. They read well on a phone in the beeyard, and they print cleanly if you would rather have paper in the truck.

I have not bought any equipment yet. Which one first?

The Manual. It exists specifically for the person with a full shopping cart who has not clicked buy. Chapter 1 and the Honest Starter List will change what is in that cart.

I already have bees and something looks wrong right now.

40 Ways, and go straight to the Triage Index. Find what your hive is doing, and it will tell you the likely cause and how much time you have left.

Is this a book about how bees live?

No, and it says so plainly. It does not teach the brood cycle or the dance or the making of wax — there are good books that do. These two are about money and about diagnosis.

Are the prices in the Manual current?

They are 2026 United States retail, rounded, and verified at the time of writing. Prices move. The verdicts move slower.

Does it apply outside Missouri?

The equipment verdicts and the diagnoses apply anywhere Langstroth hives are kept. The calendar chapters are written from a southern Missouri season, so shift the dates to your own climate.

Can I get a refund?

Refunds are handled through Gumroad under the store’s stated policy. Reach out through the Gumroad receipt and it will be sorted.

Buy the right gear once.
Then keep the bees alive.

Seventy-six entries. Fifty-two seasons. Both books, instant download, $47.

Get the Complete Collection — $47

Or take just the one you need — $27 each, see all three