Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners: 20 Mysteries of Honey Bee Behavior Solved

by Thomas D. Seeley

A biologist’s up-close account of how he and fellow biologists cracked long-standing puzzles about honey bee behavior

Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners takes readers inside a world seldom seen even by beekeepers, shedding light on twenty of the most compelling mysteries of honey bee behavior.

Thomas Seeley has devoted a lifetime to the study of honey bees and their colonies, unraveling the secrets of these wondrous insects in a career spanning six decades. In this book, he weaves illuminating personal stories with the latest science, explaining such mysteries as how worker bees function as scouts to choose a home site for their colony, furnish their home with beeswax combs, and stock it with brood and food while keeping tens of thousands of colony inhabitants warm and defended from intruders. Along the way, he shares the experiences that drew him to these studies, the small observations that led to big breakthroughs, and the sense of excitement that came with probing each mystery.

Richly illustrated, Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners provides a rare look at how a singularly passionate scientist and his colleagues deciphered the pipings, shakings, and puzzling tremble dances of honey bees, and how this journey of scientific discovery continues to shape our understanding of these remarkably intelligent and vitally important insects.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Audiobook

312 pages, Hardcover

Published April 9, 2024

About the author

Thomas D. Seeley is professor of biology at Cornell University and a passionate beekeeper. He is the author of The Wisdom of the Hive and Honeybee Ecology (Princeton).

Reviews

[Rea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so interesting! I grew up with my dad having a hive of honey bees, so this may be where my interest stems from. I found this a good balance between the facts/observations and the personal tales from the author, who is a very experienced researcher. I love informational books on a specific subject by someone who is very informed/researched, and that is exactly what this is. I would recommend it to anyone interested in honey bees.

Audiobook was easy for me to follow, and I listen at 2x speed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Ink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners by Thomas D Seeley is my jam (or rather, honey in this instance) If you have seen any of my reviews, you will see that the natural world is right up there and as such, this was a real delight of an audiobook to liosten to

Are you a person that prefers to follow dogs and cats on social media over people? I certainly am and another account I adore that is focussed on our fuzzy wuzzy lil buzzies is Texas Beeworks and if you love her, you will ADORE this audiobook

I had a pretty extensive knowledge about honeybees but what really brings this audiobook to the fore is that it is personable and relatable, with enjoyable anecdotes and stories that really humanise the author a highlights the information they are imparting. You can immediately tell this book is written from a place of extensive knowledge, experience and a deep respect for these fascinating creatures

Daniel Henning is a very engaging and interesting narrator whose cadence and enthusiasm for this subject is infectious, making it a really enjoyable listen

I would highly recommend this audiobook about these essential creatures

Thank you to Netgalley, Tantor Audio ,the author Thomas D. Seeley and fantastic narrator Daniel Henning for this delightful ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

[Tiffany Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book that I am so glad that I got to listen to. It gave many facts about bees as the title indicates but the personal stories kept me reading. I could not imaging bringing home a swarm of bees home to study but Seeley made me think hmmm this would be a great way to watch behaviors. I really like how he shares his process throughout his career. Honeybees are very canny and I really enjoyed learning about the behaviors of scouts, worker bees, mother queens & daughter queens. The dances of the bees are not just for fun but how they make decisions for the swarms as scouts. I am super impressed by the way that he studied swarms - tedious work but giving him so much information that was not known. I love the word waggle and think we should do a tik tok or two in honor of the scout bees. cue the music...

If you like honeybees and who doesn't like honey you need to listen to this super fun book about honey bees with history of how the science has grown over the years. I hope you will scout this book out and find your queen a home soon with your waggle dance.

Thank you Tantor Audio and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in return for my honest review.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most people know that bees are wonderful, but it’s hard to imagine just how much. Thomas Seeley has been studying them all his life, and it shows. He discovered many of their habits, and some of his interpretations of this behavior are now common knowledge. You’d think that the content would work better as a printed copy, because it includes a lot of material to illustrate many of its points, but Daniel Henning’s narration really makes up for it. He makes the experiments sound dynamic and suspenseful. And the content? It is fascinating. I knew about the waggle dance, but I didn’t know how they keep their hives cool, how they drink water or how they groom themselves. Seeley’s style is easily understandable and, even if there is some hard science and some experiments get a little complicated, I was fascinated by this book.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Tantor Audio.

[Thomas Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers the research the author and his team performed concerning the various actions of honeybees and the hive in general. The author who has written other books on the subject of honeybees is a biologist who has dedicated over 50 years to the study of honeybees. This was a subject that he was attracted to at the early age of eleven at which time he started to develop some the questions about bees. Through this book he shares the discoveries that his team and himself have made and what it was like to make those discoveries. It is amazing the lengths they went to for the setup of experiments to get the answers. One in particular that stood out was studying the effect of sleep or the lack of sleep on the certain class of workers, did you even know that bees sleep? It was interesting to read how they go about finding a new home and the steps they go to, to make it nice and tidy. The author has literally gone around the world to learn about the different honeybees which led to an interesting find on how a certain hive of bees defends its hive against giant hornets, they literally cook them. If there is a downside to this book is that it is at times quite technical for novice wanting to read about honeybees.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really fascinated by bees and their behaviors so I initially was really interested in this book and found it very surprising in a lot of ways. However, as the book went on, I started to find myself getting bored because there was way too many statistics and numbers in this and less stories and conclusions for the reader. It seemed like a lot of this was the scientific process taken to come to these conclusions, which I think I could have skipped over as a reader because I really only cared about what the conclusion was and not how I came to get there specifically step by step. I think much of this book could have been cut down if that were the case. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Paul Lindstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book by Tom Seeley. It's written in a way that it's accessable for anyone interested in honeybees, not just fellow scientists. I have read several of his other books but here he summarises the 20 most exciting research projects he has been part of during his 50 years of research into the capacities and behaviour of honeybees. I learned for example that worker bees can do piping sounds as well, not only the queens. It's clear that he loves his bees.

[rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty fun and informative

[Uwe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book about the working of a bee hive. Highly recommended for everyone interested in these important insects, not just beekeepers.
The writing is entertaining and light! Fascinating.