There’s a wonderful book on beekeeping that you might like:
It’s not a how to “how to” manual, and as I remember it, being originally written in 1974 does not discuss many of the health problems that bees have developed since then (Varroa). It’s more the author’s experiences on beekeeping and his reflections on life. The author, Richard Taylor, was a philosophy professor who wrote what is apparently a fairly well known introductory philosophy text book, Metaphysics.
Reading Taylor’s book, The Joys of Beekeeping, is what got me started beekeeping. I’m be a little reluctant to reread it now, for fear I’d run out and buy a bunch of beekeeping equipment and start again.
Plus hive beetles and wax moths, both of which I had more serious problems with than with mites. For a couple of years I only had one or two beetles and I discounted the problem, then one year they exploded. Beetles everywhere, ruining the honey. Not to mention bears and skunks, and ants and yellowjackets, oh my.
I’ve stopped keeping bees as well. Too much work and expense for too little reward and the requests for free honey were going up, up, up.
Most of my honey I gave away to friends and family. I also have a few locals that we swap stuff with (I give them honey, they give me surplus fruit or veg from their gardens). And then I sell enough honey from my front gate (to passersby), to cover the costs of jars and labels for all the honey I gave away. I had the opposite problem - I had trouble asking for money, felt awkward
