Bees, Pollinators and Beneficial Insects: Helpful Resources

Here's a list of resources that will help you attract, identify and enjoy the beneficial insects in your garden.

Keeping Bees and Making Honey
This is a great book to get you started in the fun hobby of beekeeping, a perfect match for gardening. You'll learn all about housing your bees, caring for them and collecting their wax and honey. The authors are longtime home beekeepers. Read an excerpt of Keeping Bees and Making Honey.

Beekeeping
This book is one of Skyhorse Publishing's Self-Sufficiency Handbook series. The series aims to help readers live an Earth-friendly, simpler lifestyle. The Beekeeping book covers everything from beekeeping tools and equipment to recipes for your harvested honey.

Pollinator-Friendly Planting Guides
These are free downloadable pamphlets that describe how to plant a pollinator-friendly habitat in your garden. The pamphlets are organized by eco-region (you enter your ZIP code to determine your eco-region), so you can be sure the recommended plants will work in your area. These are offered by the Pollinator Partnership.

Pollinator Conservation Resource Center
This is a web page of The Xerces Society. It provides plant lists, habitat conservation guides, fact sheets about pesticides, bee identification aids and more helpful information, all for free and organized by regions of the United States and parts of Canada.

Good Bug Bad Bug
Jessica Walliser's book, now in its second edition, helps you identify insects in your garden, be they friend or foe. Read Kylee Baumle's review of Good Bug Bad Bug.