The Beekeeper's Lament

My husband continues to insist that my Thanksgiving reading, The Beekeeper's Lament, sounds like one of the most boring books ever written. I assure you, it’s anything but. Yes, the topic is bees and beekeeping – the types, anatomy, habits, and afflictions of honey bees and why keeping them has never been harder work. More broadly, however, this is a book about global trade, global warming, and the evolution of agricultural practices, eating habits, and urban sprawl in the U.S.  It is informative without being dull, no small task given the subject matter. The author also avoids preaching; given some of the broader, overarching topics like urban sprawl and commercial farms, the tone easily could have turned preachy, but never did.

To recap some of the more interesting facts (Trivia Pursuit, anyone?): I know now that the top agricultural exports of California and North Dakota are almonds and honey, respectively, and that honey bees are really, really important if we want to have a variety of choices in what we eat. I learned that every flower has a different taste to bees, which prefer apricot blossoms to those of the almond tree and detest the bitter flower of the onion and that bee theft is an actual problem during pollination season. I also know that if you want your honey to be honey, it’s probably best to buy it from a farmer’s market.

The act of beekeeping, too, is described in to the smallest detail, from the protective gear that must be donned to work with bees, to the processes required to maintain a healthy hive and harvest honey for sale. From developing new types of bees and bee medicines, to breeding and mailing queens (by law the U.S. Post Office must deliver bees), this book offers insight into a profession that exists, generally, on the margins. By the end of the book, I was rooting for both the bees and beekeepers, as well as for the scientists working to unravel the mystery of – and find a cure for – Colony Collapse Disorder and the many other ails that are currently afflicting the bees.