Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners - by Thomas D Seeley (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Thomas Seeley has spent his career unraveling the mysteries of honey bee behavior. His goal has been to understand how the 30,000 or so bees in a colony work together as a unit to accomplish such things as finding and occupying a snug nest cavity, furnishing it with beeswax combs, filling these combs with brood and food, and keeping themselves well nourished, comfortably warm, and safe from intruders. In this book, Seeley's goal is to illuminate these and other mysteries about the workings of honey bee colonies and explore how those mysteries were solved. Seeley's aim, as he says, is to review how and what he and his colleagues have learned about honey bees and to share some things that are not in the scientific papers: the personal experiences that drew him to these studies, the little observations that led to important insights, and the feelings of delight that came with solving each mystery. The book's thirty chapters are roughly chronological, offering a meta-history of the field alongside explication of various studies. Each chapter is structured approximately the same way: first, Seeley describes how he and his colleagues discovered a specific mystery about how a colony works, then how they solved it, and finally each closes with an explanation of the implications of the mystery and the way it fits into the wider field of honey bee research. Intimate and informative, PIPING HOT BEES AND BOISTEROUS BUZZ-RUNNERS will weave together personal narrative with the results of over 50 years of research into honey bees and honey bee colonies. It will offer context for more current research and introduce readers to the deep workings of honey bee behavior"--

Book Synopsis

A biologist's up-close account of how he and fellow biologists cracked long-standing puzzles about honey bee behavior

Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners takes readers inside a world seldom seen even by beekeepers, shedding light on twenty of the most compelling mysteries of honey bee behavior.

Thomas Seeley has devoted a lifetime to the study of honey bees and their colonies, unraveling the secrets of these wondrous insects in a career spanning six decades. In this book, he weaves illuminating personal stories with the latest science, explaining such mysteries as how worker bees function as scouts to choose a home site for their colony, furnish their home with beeswax combs, and stock it with brood and food while keeping tens of thousands of colony inhabitants warm and defended from intruders. Along the way, he shares the experiences that drew him to these studies, the small observations that led to big breakthroughs, and the sense of excitement that came with probing each mystery.

Richly illustrated, Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners provides a rare look at how a singularly passionate scientist and his colleagues deciphered the pipings, shakings, and puzzling tremble dances of honey bees, and how this journey of scientific discovery continues to shape our understanding of these remarkably intelligent and vitally important insects.

Review Quotes

"A wonderful read."---Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today

"We all are in Seely's debt for this book and for his contribution to science. It truly is a portrait of excellence."---David Gascoigne, Travels with Birds

"[An] entertaining and informative memoir. . . . While readers will come to share [Seeley's] respect for the cognitive sophistication of these tiny creatures and their complex collective behavior, they will also come away with a deep admiration for the curious, energetic scientist who was motivated so long ago to find out how the honey bees do it."---Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History

"Fascinating both for its insights about nature and as a portrait of the scientist at work."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author

Thomas D. Seeley is the Horace White Professor of Biology Emeritus at Cornell University. His books include The Lives of Bees, Following the Wild Bees, and Honeybee Democracy (all Princeton). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.