A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

A Year of Keeping Bees

By: Helen Jukes

Narrated by: Mandy Williams

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

An inspiring, up-close portrait of tending to a honeybee hive - a year of living dangerously - watching and capturing the wondrous, complex universe of honeybees and learning an altogether different way of being in the world.

"As strange, beautiful, and unexpected, as precise and exquisite in its movings as bees in a hive. I loved it." (Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk)

A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings begins as the author is entering her 30s and feeling disconnected in her life. Uneasy about her future and struggling to settle into her new house in Oxford with its own small garden, she is brought back to a time of accompanying a friend in London - a beekeeper - on his hive visits. And as a gesture of good fortune for her new life, she is given a colony of honeybees. According to folklore, a colony, freely given, brings good luck, and Helen Jules embarks on a rewarding, perilous journey of becoming a beekeeper.

Jukes writes about what it means to “keep” wild creatures; on how to live alongside beings whose laws and logic are so different from our own.... She delves into the history of beekeeping and writes about discovering the ancient, haunting, sometimes disturbing relationship between keeper and bee, human and wild thing.

A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings is an audiobook of observation, of the irrepressible wildness of these fascinating creatures, of the ways they seem to evade our categories each time we attempt to define them. Are they wild or domestic? Individual or collective? Is honey an animal product, or is it plant-based? As the author’s colony grows, the questions that have at first compelled her interest begin to fade away, and the inbetweenness, the unsettledness of honeybees call for a different kind of questioning, of consideration.

A subtle yet urgent mediation on uncertainty and hope, on solitude and friendship, on feelings of restlessness and on home; on how we might better know ourselves. An audiobook that shows us how to be alert to the large and small creatures that flit between and among us and that urge us to learn from this vital force so necessary to be continuation of life on planet Earth.

©2020 Helen Jukes (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Helen Jukes provides a fascinating glimpse into the secret world of these mysterious creatures upon whose relentless labor human life hinges.” (Lisa Alther, author of Swan Song)

“As strange, beautiful, and unexpected, as precise and exquisite in its moving as bees in a hive. I loved it.” (Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk)

“Evocative...affecting.... Readers will appreciate the candor and inviting openness of Jukes’s voice throughout this winning memoir.” (Publishers Weekly)

Love the story and information

Entertaining and informative…
Great book to listen while walking. I love bee story stories. fun

Fantastic story.

It was both a very good listen and I loved how information about the Honeybee was woven seamlessly into the storyline without being intrusive but actually foundational to the story. Great performance as well by the narrator.

Nice story, good narration.

A good mix of storytelling and factual information. Fine for both beekeepers and casual readers.

Beautiful creature —the bee

This was such a delight, a wonderful escape from my day to day. I loved learning about this incredible life giving creature. I want to listen again. Fascinating information beautifully presented.

Aspiring beekeepers or just curious to learn about bees.

This is an enjoyable story about a Helen’s experience as a first year beekeeper. It is well researched and includes some history and lore that was new to me as a fifth year beekeeper.

Smart and sweet.

I’m not sure who I love more, Jukes or Williams. Both writer and reader are brilliant, heartwarming and eye-opening. We’ll call it a draw.

Read Bee People and the Bugs They Love, instead

Read Bee People and the Bugs They Love by Frank Mortimer instead.

This reads as someone doing a history report on bees and giving us a bunch of historical facts instead of what I expected from a memoir. It was painfully slow and when she talked about her actual beekeeping, it really just fell flat. I mean she BRIEFLY mentions the mites and does not talk about how they decimate hives, just casually says I brush them off, or I squished 5. What a good opportunity to talk about how the hive may have been lost, and how you recover from that. Instead it's hardly mentioned at all. Also quite horrified when she does finally harvest comb, and again, no mention of the learning curve or any lessons learned.

Almost did not finish, it was quite difficult to push through