Bees

With informed and passionate prose, Candace Savage invites readers to get up close and personal with the familiar yet wondrously odd honeybee, whose life span barely exceeds five weeks. She considers the diversity and biology of honeybees, including their peculiar sociosexual arrangements, their quirky relationships with flowers, and their startling mental abilities. Guiding this exploration are audacious and ingenious scientists, from the bees' own Nobel Laureate Karl von Frisch, who studied the sensory perceptions of the honey bee and first described the "waggle dance," in the 1900s, to the Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium of the present. This must-read for conservationists, gardeners, beekeepers, and nature lovers also features:

• a report on colony collapse disorder
• opportunities for conservation of pollinators like the honeybee
• cultural sidebars that include historical illustrations and works of art spotlighting bees in myth, poetry, and other writings.

Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.Also available in hardcover.

Candace Savage is the author of more than two dozen books, including A Geography of Blood, which won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She divides her time between homes in Eastend and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

"Savage proceeds to intertwine a thoughtful study of bee biology with poems, fables, and ancient religious texts, weaving a unique history of the honey-makers that have enchanted humans for centuries." -Sierra Club

"Bees: Nature's Little Wonders will be a favorite reference book for years to come. The mix of science, folk-lore, quotes and images is splendid." -Bee Scene

"Bees: Nature's Little Wonders, is a timely celebration of these queenly insects and their importance to our ecosystem. Savage flits and buzzes around her fascinating subject matter with typical curiosity and flair . . . Bees is abundant with stunning photos and quaint heritage graphics, while bee-themed verse by poets like Lorna Crozier and Emily Dickenson add a nice literary touch." -Toronto Star

"Bees may be the sort of book you will find in the bathroom at a cozy bed-and-breakfast establishment, but it is nonetheless a useful and delightful little book, lushly illustrated and complemented by sidebars containing poems, bits of folklore and so on." -Globe & Mail

"Behold the honeybee, striped provider of sweetness and light to humans for thousands of years. These bugs certainly make Cheerios taste better, but could it be that we as a species have something to learn from their behaviour? In Bees: Nature's Little Wonders . . . Candace Savage maintains that we do. 'Unlike human groups, which often seem less intelligent than the individuals who make them up, a swarm of bees is always smarter than the sum of its parts.' " -National Post

"This is a honey of a little book in more ways than one. It is all about bees, insects many of us were fascinated by as children, as we watched them move from flower to flower, collecting honey . . . This is a wonderful book that makes you appreciate the bee world all the more. Great for children or adults, this book should BEE on your shopping list!" -Shelf Life

"Savage proceeds to intertwine a thoughtful study of bee biology with poems, fables, and ancient religious texts, weaving a unique history of the honey-makers that have enchanted humans for centuries." -Sierra Club

"A most handsome introduction to these amazing little creatures." -Globe & Mail

"A timely celebration of these queenly insects and their importance to our ecosystem." -Toronto Star