Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind [Hardcover]

Stephen Buchmann (Author), Banning Repplier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2005

They work hard, are devoted to family, love sex, and know the importance of a good piece of real estate. Honey bees, and the daily workings of their close-knit colonies, are one of nature's great miracles. And they produce one of nature's greatest edible bounties: honey. More than just a palate pleaser, honey was once an offering to the gods, a preservative, and a medicine whose sought-after curative powers were detailed in ancient texts . . . and are being rediscovered by modern medical science.

In Letters from the Hive, Prof. Stephen Buchmann takes us into the hive--nursery, honey factory, queen's inner sanctum--and out to the world of backyard gardens, open fields, and deserts in full bloom, where the age-old sexual dance between flowers and bees makes life on earth as we know it possible. Hailed for their hard work, harmonious society, and, mistakenly, for their celibacy, bees have a link to our species that goes beyond biology. In Letters from the Hive, Buchmann explores the fascinating role of bees in human culture and mythology, following the "honey hunters" of native cultures in Malaysia, the Himalayas, and the Australian Outback as they risk life and limb to locate a treasure as valuable as any gold.

To contemplate a world without bees is to imagine a desolate place, culturally and biologically, and Buchmann shows how with each acre of land sacrificed to plow, parking lot, or shopping mall, we inch closer to what could become a chilling reality. He also offers honey-based recipes, cooking tips, and home remedies--further evidence of the gifts these creatures have bestowed on us.

Told with wit, wisdom, and affection, and rich with anecdote and science, Letters from the Hive is nature writing at its best. This is natural history to be treasured, a sweet tribute that buzzes with life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An amateur beekeeper, entomologist and conservationist, Buchmann (The Forgotten Pollinators) surveys humankind's relationship with the oft underappreciated bee from prehistoric times to the present, emphasizing the necessity of protecting their habitats from environmental degradation. He discusses bees and honey in myth and legend; observes honey hunters in Malaysia, Nepal and Australia who use ancient methods to collect wild honey; and provides histories of beekeeping and the honey trade and an account of the activities of beekeepers. The meat of the book includes chapters on honey making, the mechanics of pollination, and bee behavior. Buchmann includes a catalogue of honey varieties, recipes, a chapter on mead, a survey of honey's medicinal uses and several appendixes, including a glossary, an inventory of bee species and a list of honey and beekeeping resources and supplies. This is a lot of material for a volume this size, and Buchmann can't cover it all in depth, but he does present a highly entertaining and informative introduction to the world of the bee, as well as an enlightening look at "the enduring bond between bees and mankind." Illus. not seen by PW. Agent, Sanford J. Greenberger. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

There has been a recent spate of books on bees and honey, perhaps reflecting a growing interest in the origins of common foodstuffs. This new addition to the genre comes with a twist, as Buchmann is not only an amateur beekeeper but one of the foremost authorities on pollination and pollinators. Bees, as the world's foremost pollinators, are Buchmann's lifework and his obsession, and that blend of science and passion makes for a lively read as he looks at the intertwined lives of bees and humans. Humans around the world learned to keep bees in various forms of hives, and Buchmann examines the evolution of beekeeping and the yearly chores of the modern apiarist. Cooking with honey, sampling types of honey from around the world, and the medicinal value of honey and other bee products round out the text. Appendixes include a glossary and a list of resources, which, with a nice bibliography, complete what may be the single best book on bees for most libraries. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553803751
• ISBN-13: 978-0553803754
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,472,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Delightful Reading, July 6, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind (Hardcover)

When the book fell open to the chapter on Mead, I was hooked. In talking about Elizabeth I's favorite drink: spices, syrup, grape wine and honey, "a sickly-sweet concoction that would not appeal to the un-Tudored palates of modern Chablis drinkers." "un-Tudored," anyone who can write like that deserves to be read.

The next chapter talks about what happens to any bacterium that happens to fall into honey. The highly concentrated sugars in the honey pull the water out of the bacterium. The bacterium then shrink up and die. The ancients, applied honey to wounds, they didn't get infected and they healed faster. Honey impregnated bandages are available in Europe, Australia and New Zeeland (but not in the U.S. - probably no way to get honey through the approval cycle) but worth a try next time you get a cut.

Finally, the book concludes with an Afterword, which is entitled 'A Letter to the Hive.' It's a copy of what might be a letter to the bees, sent 'care of the hive.' It says, thanks and we love you.

Delightful reading along with a great mass of information.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Charming little book, March 18, 2006

By 

M. Masters "MotherEightball" (Pittsburgh PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind (Hardcover)

Faint praise you say? Ok, maybe my ruffly apron is tied too tight today. The history and the cultural sections were excellent but the numerous recipes were unwelcome, mere space fillers. In fact most of the contents were fillers, neatly boxed items you could cull from a rural calendar or a few copies of Country Living. Great book for short attention spans and folks who have no trouble falling asleep. You won't fall asleep in the middle of anything in this book, nothing's that long. Which reminds me, the hardcover version is not 288 pages as stated on amazon. It's 276 pages, and that includes 54 pages of: afterword, acknowledgements, five appendices, sources, permissions, index and "about the authors."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a pretty good history, February 22, 2006

By 

Jessica L. Lawrence (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind (Hardcover)

I think this is a mostly well written book, but I am a bit disappointed with the recent history section. I would like to have read more from this book about history in the 1900's more so than ancient history and a few hundred years ago. It could be that not that much happened, but I would have like a bit more coverage of what did happen. Other than that it's a pretty good reference.