Julie Carrick Dalton’s The Last Beekeeper is a celebration of found family, an exploration of truth versus power, and the triumph of hope in the face of despair.
It’s been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind—find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated.
There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as a way to escape the horrific conditions of state housing. While she feels threatened by their presence at first, the friends soon become her newfound family, offering what she hasn’t felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it’s time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future.
But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honeybee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn’t understand, but she can’t shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father’s missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha’s fragile security and threaten the lives of her new-found family—or it could save them all.
Sasha’s journey is a meditation on forgiveness and redemption and a reminder to cherish the beauty that still exists in this fragile world.
If you’re someone who’s passionate about saving the bees, then check out these wonderful beekeeping farms around the world!
Arataki Honey Ltd – Waiotapu, New Zealand
Arataki in New Zealand takes the bees and puts them at the core of their existence. This beekeeping farm understands the importance of beekeeping equipment that promotes hive health and is especially critical in controlling border entry of insects and animals that may impact the overall beekeeping process.
Rock Hill Honey Bee Farm – Stafford, VA
Their farm sits on five acres of land, and their staff takes great pride in caring for the bees, offering advice and assistance, and providing the highest quality products.
The Inzerki Apiary – Agadir, Morocco
The Inzerki Apiary in the Souss-Massa region 82 kilometers north of Agadir is the largest traditional collective apiary, or bee yard, in the world. The population living around the apiary is only in the hundreds, and most of them are beekeepers. With at least 3,700 hives, the Inzerki Apiary welcomes tens of thousands of bees.
Big Island Bees – Captain Cook, HI
Located on the Big Island of Hawaii, Bee Island Bees invites people to take a box seat on beekeeping at one of the world’s leading honey farms. You can explore an actual hive and learn where the queen resides, how honey is made, and what makes bees so special and interesting, all from behind a safe, screened area.
Kashmir Apiaries Exports – Doraha, Ludhiana, India
Kashmir Apiaries has 50,000 bee colonies across India. It is considered the largest exporter in the country and supplies to a good number of nations around the globe. Their focus is on getting the right beekeeping equipment and technology to drive error-free processes to deliver the best products from bees and at the same time making sure the bees are thriving.
Click below to pre-order your copy of The Last Beekeeper, coming March 7th, 2023!
