
Title:
The lives of bees : the untold story of the honey bee in the wild
Author:
Publication Date:
2019
Publication Information:
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2019]
©2019
Physical Description:
xiii, 353 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 25 cm
ISBN:
9780691166766
Abstract:
Seeley, a world authority on honey bees, sheds light on why wild honey bees are still thriving while those living in managed colonies are in crisis. Drawing on the latest science as well as insights from his own pioneering fieldwork, he describes in extraordinary detail how honey bees live in nature and shows how this differs significantly from their lives under the management of beekeepers. Seeley presents an entirely new approach to beekeeping--Darwinian Beekeeping--which enables honey bees to use the toolkit of survival skills their species has acquired over the past thirty million years, and to evolve solutions to the new challenges they face today. He shows beekeepers how to use the principles of natural selection to guide their practices, and he offers a new vision of how beekeeping can better align with the natural habits of honey bees.
Contents:
Bees in the forest, still -- Leaving the wild -- Are honey bees domesticated? -- The nest -- Annual cycle -- Colony reproduction -- Food collection -- Temperature control -- Colony defense -- Darwinian beekeeping.
Language:
English