The Secrets of Bees

If you want to know about the life-cycle and development of the bee, this is the book for you, written by an expert biodynamic beekeeper and combining scientific detail with poetic insight into this extraordinary and important insect. It follows the path of the bee from summer foraging and swarming through the seasons to the following spring. It explains how bees build hives and make honey, how they develop, the life of the Queen, bee dances, the danger of pests and the relationship between bees and beekeeper. There are excellent diagrams and photos throughout. It is interesting to learn that the winter population of a colony is around 12,000, expanding to between 35 and 45,000 in the summer. The book ends with a notional reflection on how much honey might cost. A foraging flight lasting 30 to 45 minutes involves the bee visiting 200 to 300 flowers while accumulating 0.05g of nectar, so 10 flights a day translates into 0.5g. 10,000 foraging bees making 100,000 flights work out between 50,000 and 75,000 hours to bring in 5 kg of nectar, which can be processed into 1.5 kg of honey or four standard jars - on this basis you can calculate the hourly rate of a bee if honey costs £7 a jar. I thought the author's rate of £8 an hour per bee rather on the high side! At any rate, honey is cheap at the price.