The Lives of Bees

The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild

By: Thomas D. Seeley

Narrated by: William Hope

How the lives of wild honey bees offer vital lessons for saving the world’s managed bee colonies

Humans have kept honey bees in hives for millennia, yet only in recent decades have biologists begun to investigate how these industrious insects live in the wild. The Lives of Bees is Thomas Seeley’s captivating story of what scientists are learning about the behavior, social life, and survival strategies of honey bees living outside the beekeeper’s hive - and how wild honey bees may hold the key to reversing the alarming die-off of the planet’s managed honey bee populations.

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 reveals 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 30 million years, and to evolve solutions to the new challenges they face today. He tells 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.

Engaging and deeply personal, The Lives of Bees reveals how we can become better custodians of honey bees and make use of their resources in ways that enrich their lives, as well as our own.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Thomas D. Seeley (P)2019 Princeton University Press

Critic reviews

"A wealth of information about honeybees based on decades of scientific research." (Kirkus)

Mind Boggling knowledge of Honey Bees

Kept my attention the entire book. Written for people like me who had no knowledge about bees

Insightful Read

the detail in this book is amazing. it provides insights that can be applied to both backyard and Commercial beekeepers to make the lives of bees a bit more natural and possibly healthier. I highly recommend this all beekeepers.

best bee book I have found so far

does not teach you how to set up your first bee box but definitely goes into detail on how to care for them after that.

Excellent and engaging

Greater appreciation of this natural process and their role in the modern world. A life’s work and a great contribution

Wish I had access to the graphs

This is not a criticism of the actual book. That was great. I would really enjoy access to the graphs, charts, and other data visualizations in the book. It's really hard to understand that information without any sort of visual aid.