Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey--The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World [Paperback] price

Holley Bishop loves bees. No, a many more than that: she idolizes them. She marvels at their native abilities and the momentous role these misunderstood and unjustly feared creatures have played inside the development of human history. And together with her book, Robbing the Bees, she succeeds to make the reader love bees, too. Take this nifty little bit of information, considered one of countless fascinating factoids provided by Bishop in their own celebration coming from all things bee-related: "Because of bees' starring role inside the drama of pollination, we humans are indebted to them, directly and indirectly, for a third of our own food supply. Visiting bees are required to the commercial creation of more than hundreds of of our own most important crops including alfalfa, garlic, apples, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, citrus, melons, onion, almonds, turnips, parsley, sunflower, cranberries, and clover." Or why don't you consider this: "For yesteryear decade, the American military may be testing [bees'] potential as special agents inside the war on drugs and terrorism. Bees are as sensitive to odor as dogs and can train to buzz in on drugs, explosives, landmines, and chemical weapons." Beat that being a winning opening gambit with a cocktail party. And that ain't all. Bishop charts the evolution of honey and beeswax harvesting with the ages, provides an up-close look inside working beehives from ancient Egypt towards the present day, interviews beekeepers, quotes bee chroniclers past and provides (from Charles Darwin to contemporary Florida beekeeper Donald Smiley), reveals her rather clumsy foray into beekeeping in candid detail, studies bees' impact on religion and history, and provides a selection of innovative recipes calling for honey. Through it all, Bishop never loses sight from the star if the show--the humble honey bee--or the crucial but largely unrewarded role they continue to play on our planet. And she does it with snappy prose and keen humor. Dogs be warned: if Bishop has her way, bees will be the it pet in the future, or a minimum of less likely to die with the end of an folded newspaper the next time one buzzes in through a window. --Kim Hughes --This text refers to a from print or unavailable edition of the title.

When former Ny literary agent Bishop purchased a Connecticut farmstead, she began keeping bees like a means of savoring her newfound reverence for nature inside the edible kind of fresh honey, an interest that now yields this engaging study of the history, science and art of beekeeping. She details the biology in the "always gracious, economical and neat" insects; explores the complex, pheromone-besotted hive society that yokes the proverbially busy insects towards the tasks of comb building, nectar gathering and larvae nourishing; and eulogizes their stubborn, self-immolating defense of the honey against human pillagers. And she chronicles humanity's millennia-long expropriation in the bee's gifts of honey, beeswax, pollen and venom to supply food and drink (a chapter of honey-themed recipes is included), nutritional supplements, arthritis remedies and also weapons of war. Tying it all together is really a profile of salt-of-the-earth commercial beekeeper Donald Smiley, harvester of specialty honey gathered from tupelo tree blossoms inside the drowsy hum of the Florida panhandle, and emblem in the fruitful alliance of two legs with six. Bishop's impulse to see every flower of bee lore sometimes weighs the book down with quotes from bee enthusiasts with the past, but her mixture of engrossing natural background down-home reportage make mtss is a fitting homage to among nature's most admirable creatures. Photos.
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