Books - Economy and Ecology of Bees

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Der Alte Fritz

House Bee
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Rye, East Sussex
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I am interested in the economy/ecology of bees and wondered if anyone had any good book suggestions?
 
Can you define economy? PH

Well really I mean the ecology of a hive. You have 40,000 bees, eating 500g of food a day and 7,500 foragers collecting 1,500g of food a day during the summer. The bees have to expend so much food building the hive, raising the young, etc and build up stores for the winter. How do they balance all of this, control their population numbers over the course of the year. Are they weather or temperature or day length controlled or some other method? Those kind of basic questions about how a micro-ecosystem like a hive of bees might work.
 
Effectively it's called the population curve. :) A colony in good health are masters of it. LOL

PH
 
The Biology of the Honeybee by ML Winston and, if you really want technical, The wisdom of the hive: the social physiology of honey bee colonies
by Thomas D. Seeley; or indeed any of Seeley's work on bees.
_________________
Gareth
 
The Biology of the Honeybee by ML Winston and, if you really want technical, The wisdom of the hive: the social physiology of honey bee colonies
by Thomas D. Seeley; or indeed any of Seeley's work on bees.
_________________
Gareth

well, you've gone from asking for recommendations, to giving some, well done!!:hurray:
 
well, you've gone from asking for recommendations, to giving some, well done!!:hurray:

No I posted the same question on another forum and this is the reply that I got there, so I posted it just in case someone else wanted the info.

Had a look at the Seeley book on amazon/abebooks but it is £75. The other one is better prices so I might get that for Christmas.:D
 
Tautz's book - the Buzz about the Bees is a very interesting read - more about the social life of the bee than its biology and no use at all if you want to learn about practical beekeeping but it covers what goes on in the hive very well. Some of his theories have generated a bit controversy but he puts his arguments well. The translation is a bit clunky but you get used to it.
 

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