Every gardener should read The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild by Thomas D. Seeley. Gardeners are aware of the mix of pollinators required to service our plants and make food growing possible. We tend to forget this key insect, Apis mellifera, has been present on Earth for from six to eight million years. Before there was agriculture, there were common honey bees. Understanding wild bees and how they interact in the wild is useful and relevant knowledge.
The book is comprehensive, and based on the author’s research as well as that of others. There is a lot about bees I hadn’t considered before.
Wild honey bees position their hives a good distance from each other, a half mile apart on average. This serves multiple aspects of bee life—defensive purposes and limiting the spread of parasites such as the Varroa destructor and contagious viruses between colonies.
Likewise, bees have evolved to prefer a hive entry in a hollowed out tree around 15 feet above the ground. The small entry usually leads to the lower third of the cavity. If we want to find a wild honey bee nest in a tree, we must look up. This positioning is likely an evolutionary aspect of hive location. Curiously, black bears—a main bee hive predator—have eyesight that can’t see bees flying in and out of an opening that far up a tree, according to Seeley.
As humans domesticated bees in apiaries, they did what makes sense for beeswax and honey production—built larger hives for their swarms of bees. According to Seeley, wild honey bees strongly prefer tree cavities with a volume of about 10 to 12 gallons. In addition to size, the tree cavity provides insulation from cold weather. Contrast that with commercial apiaries whose average size is 20 gallons, nearly twice the ideal size. Seeley found less tendency for apiary bees to swarm in larger hives. The result has been allowing mites like the Varroa destructor to propagate better. In a section called Darwinian Beekeeping, he detailed his process. Commercial bee keeping removed a natural defense built up among bee colonies over thousands of years of evolution.
The physical book was made using a heavier paper than most mass market books. In fact, it was a bit much to read in bed because my hands got tired of holding its weight. The photography and illustrations make the premium paper worth the workout of holding and reading it. There is more than just the physical object. If you have ever wondered about bees, this is a comprehensive and readable reference. Highly recommend.
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