Bees Make the Best Pets. Jack Mingo

      

      First published in 2013 by Conari Press, an imprint of

      Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

      With offices at:

      665 Third Street, Suite 400

      San Francisco, CA 94107

       www.redwheelweiser.com

      Copyright © 2013 by Jack Mingo

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data

      Mingo, Jack, 1952–

      Bees make the best pets : all the buzz about being resilient, collaborative, industrious, generous, and sweet—straight from the hive / Jack Mingo.

      p. cm.

      ISBN 978-1-57324-625-5

      1. Bees. 2. Bees—Popular works. 3. Bees—Behavior. I. Title.

      QL56.M56 2013

      595.79′9–dc23

      2013021999

      Cover design by Jim Warner

      Cover photograph © Photosearch.com

      Interior by Dutton & Sherman

      Printed in the United States of America

      VG

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

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      Dedicated to Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (1810–1895), whose revolutionary hive helped make modern beekeeping possible.

      Contents

       Prologue

       The Key of Bee Natural

       Keeps the Elephants Away

       My Conversion

       Deconstructing Bee Construction

       First Beehive

       Guilt about Indigenous Bees

       Less than Infallible

       Honey Is Not Bee Vomit

       Can't Fly a Straight Bee Line

       Balancing the As, Bees, & Cs

       How Great Thou Art, Reverend Langstroth!

       Harvesting Honey

       I'll Follow the Sun

       Smell You Later

       Bad Honey

       Honey from Mars! The Mars Candy Co., That Is

       Call Me Five Eyes

       Sympathy for the Hexopods

       BFF (Bee Friends Forever)

       Bees Here Now

       The Rise & Fall of an Empire

       Even Bugs Get Bugged by Other Bugs

       Bees Are a Bad Role Model for Communities

       Bees Don't Talk Back

       Bum's Rush

       Zombie Bee Syndrome???

       Buzzin' Cousins

       Calm Before the Swarm

       The Bee Tree

       The Buzz in the Marketplace

       Uncooked Honey, Raw, Raw, Raw!

       Mead Eaters

       Feeling Down?

       Hexagon, But Not Begotten

       An Audience with the Queen

       Busy as a Bee?

       Clipped Wings and Prisoner Bees

       Stationary Flying Is Very Cool

       Interspecies Understanding

       Spring Forward, Little Bees? No, Fall Back!

       Bee Beards

       Apathy for Apitherapy

       Got