Honeyed Worlds: Bees, Trade, and the Sweet Crafts of Home

Honeyed Worlds: Bees, Trade, and the Sweet Crafts of Home

Make your first honey. Brew your first mead. Keep your first hive. Honeyed Worlds gives you the story, the skills, and the sweet crafts to begin today. Follow the winds that carried pepper, pilgrims, and ideas. Honeyed Worlds is a vivid journey from ancient clay hives and sacred mead to backyard apiaries and kitchen crafts you can make today. Oliver Greyson blends global history with a hands-on guide to beginner beekeeping and honey-based recipes, giving you a beautiful, practical book you will actually use. Part one traces apiculture from Egypt and Greece to the present pollinator crisis, showing how bees shaped trade, medicine, and daily life. Part two turns your home into a small honey house. Learn how to start and maintain a healthy backyard hive, harvest with care, and transform the hive’s gifts into delicious food and useful remedies. What you will learn How to set up beginner-friendly hives, choose equipment, place colonies, and work safely - Seasonal checklists for inspections, feeding, swarm prevention, and winter prep - Clear troubleshooting for Varroa mites, small hive beetles, queen issues, and common diseases - How to harvest and store honey, beeswax, and propolis with confidence - Kitchen projects that showcase your harvest Recipes and projects included Infused honeys: lavender, chili, vanilla, citrus, and more - Mead basics plus a Session Mead you can brew with grocery-store gear - Honey caramels and other candy ideas - Propolis tincture and simple home apothecary uses Perfect for New beekeepers who want a step-by-step path from empty yard to first honey - Home cooks, crafters, and homesteaders who love practical, beautiful projects - Readers of narrative food history who enjoy a good story along with a good recipe