Uncover The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man And Half A Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America Produced By Hannah Nordhaus Categorized In Printable Format

is always amazing to me that vast number of other "worlds" that are out there, We all get so engrossed in our own worlds that we often do not pay attention to the vast and intricate and interlocking other worlds that spin simultaneously around us.
As I enjoy honey on my toast, I am now aware of a whole world of bees, their keepers, and the mass production of honey in the modern world, Hannah Nordhaus's portrayal of real world people is fascinating and incredibly well written,

If you want a glimpse into another world that is so important and close to our everyday lives, I really recommend that you delve into this book, Primarily a profile of John Miller, a prominent beekeeper who produces a huge amount of Americas honey he owns literally billions of bees,

Also gives you a good glimpse into the complex social and biological lives of bees, and looks briefly into Colony Collapse Disorder CCD, Two potential causes:

Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, or IAPV, which is carried on RNA, kind of like AIDS in humans, IAPV is correlated strongly like,with CCD, though nobody can say for sure its the cause, It could be a symptom, or a coincidence,

Could also be Nosema ceranae, a new fungus from Asia, Its related to nosema apis a common fungus thats been around for a while and doesnt cause massive bee loss on the same scale as its relative and probably works by increasing toxicity of pesticides.


I also found this super interesting: “The insect kingdom enjoys little cell repair, Humans relate poorly to this truth, If a bee is sick, she doesnt get better, If she breaks a leg, it doesnt heal, If she ruptures her exoskeletal protection, she dries out and dies, If her wings are too warm to fly, she dies, ”

I listened to on audiobook, and I swear to God I fell a little in love with the voice that reads it, Its so evocative and emotionally charged when she says things like this poignant passage:

“Amid all this chaos, the queen sits like a rockstar in a moshpit, laying eggs, encircled by fawning workers attending to her every need.
Thats what a healthy hive looks like,

But when a colony collapses, when the population dwindles, when the incubating larvae get too cold, when the workers expire in a huddled, fluttering mass inside the hive, or crawl out the entrances to die away from home, and when the queen finally dies too.
. . then it is an entirely different scene,

Scattered, disheartened survivors, plundering robber bees and wax moths, filth and rot and ruin and invasion, and death creeping in, like a neighborhood abandoned to the junkies, And when that happens, the real tragedy is not simply the loss of the,or even,insignificant and perhaps soulless individuals but of the future, That sort of loss is harder to comprehend,

The death of a hive is both mindnumbingly ordinary, and mindblowingly sad, ” Facinating! If you don't know anything about bees and honey production this gives a really good insight in to the honey bee production cycle and then issues plaguing bees.
Easy to read, informative, and entertaining, “Youll never think of bees, their keepers, or the fruits and nuts of their laborsthe same way again, ” Trevor Corson, author of The Secret Life of Lobsters

Awardwinning journalist Hannah Nordhaus tells the remarkable story of John Miller, one of Americas foremost migratory beekeepers, and the myriad and mysterious epidemics threatening American honeybee populations.
In luminous, razorsharp prose, Nordhaus explores the vital role that honeybees play in American agribusiness, the maintenance of our food chain, and the very future of the nation, With an intimate focus and incisive reporting, in a book perfect for fans of Eric Schlossers Fast Food Nation, Michael Pollans The Botany of Desire,and John McPhees Oranges, Nordhauss stunning exposé illuminates one the most critical issues facing the world today,offering insight, information, and, ultimately, hope.
John Miller is crazy. Not because he's a smoking, drinking Mormon, Not because he writes email poetry, Because he is a bee guy and bee guys, by definition, are crazy, You'd have to be to tie your everloving life to the fate of a creature who's whole existence revolves around desire and duty, nothing more, nothing less, A creature who may no longer exist by the end of the century

Bees are the middleman both voyeur and courtesan of the flowering plant kingdom, They carry one plant's passion pollen to another and in so doing are the agent of procreation, fulfilling the desires of not only another species, but a whole other kingdom.
And by doing this, they dutifully bring home more pollen than they leave on the plants which is turned into nectar which is turned into honey which keeps the bee's healthy and happy and keeps this miraculous cycle going.
A byproduct of this interplay of duty and desire is the feeding of America, and the world at large,

John Miller is a bee guy, . . and this is his lament: the miraculous cycle is breaking down and no one knows why, Bees in the lastyears have been hit by wave after wave of one crippling disease after another: foulbrood, varroa jacobsonii, nosema, varroa destructor, small hive beetles, and now, colony collapse disorder CCD.
All are gruesome and chilling, and the bees have been suffering and dying off in horrifying numbers, A swarm left to fend for itself in the wild is guaranteed not to survive, there are no longer any feral bees left in North America,

But this is John Miller's lament, not his dirge, There is hope that the honeybee will indeed survive, Hannah Nordhaus does a masterful job of mixing the bad and the dreadful with the good and hopeful, She does a fine job of comparing John Miller's specifics and beekeeping in general, She even

shares some fascinating history of beekeeping in America, and mentions the role of the small beekeeper in the present crisis objectively stating that large beemigrating ventures like John Miller's may be part of the problem.


For the experienced beekeeper and the beginner, and for those at all interested in this unique being, The Beekeeper's Lament will be "the bee in your bonnet.
"
A few years ago I was reading bits and pieces about the mystery of the disappearing honeybee when it came up in the news, though as with most things the idea of yet another thing going horribly wrong just kind of overwhelmed me and I let it slide by lest my head explode

Fast forward: upon reading a random article on beekeeping the other day and finding myself fascinated with the whole affair I decided it was time to pick up a few books on the creature.
I really didn't think I'd enjoy this admittedly I've read way too many books of the variety in which a journalist tags along and reports on someone's life and their role in the focal subject and I've been shying away from that style lately.
But once Nordhaus sets the context of the primary beekeeper, John Miller, he is only drawn upon to supplement the wider story of bees and beekeeping And with great effect.
His term for the aggressive Africanized bee had me giggling "behavior challenged bees", as I imagined the bees akin to toddlers running amok, in need of shots of ritalin joke!! and social skills classes.


In fact, this is currently my favorite style of nonfiction book when I want to learn something while also hoping to really enjoy the subject, At first I was eager to read about JUST honeybee science and behavior but Nordhaus covers all angles expertly, She takes a broad scope, covering each topic just enough before transitioning into yet another fascinating aspect, Beekeeping history, science, the environmental politics surrounding pollination monocropping, pesticides, the contracting of what in nature is a completely natural event the difficult life of a beekeeper, bee health or lack thereof, the recent scourge of the varroa mite destroyed all feral bee colonies in the US, colony collapse disorder, honey types, means of quality identification and the lack of US government regulation and classification "pure" honey may be up topercent corn syrup.


In addition, the history of the bee is an example of how we meddle with and try to control nature for benefit and profit, only for it to backfire spectacularly.
From bringing them over in the first place they are not native to North America to the effort by seedless citrus companies in California to institute bee "nofly" zones as pollination results in seeded, "ruined" fruit.
Efforts over the centuries to impregnate queen bees, from clamping the vagina open for insemination to crafting a tiny silver penis I cringe, I cringe and I can't help but be slightly affronted for the bee, whether in gender solidarity or the lengths they went through to accomplish this, I do not know.
. . Inbred varroa mite resistant drones that can head off infestations but suck at everything else a bee should do Lawns, "green deserts", monocropping, and feeding bees corn syrup while robbing them of honey and the theorizing that the result is malnourished bees that are more likely to die en masse.


My semiobsession with becoming a beekeeper may pass, but I'll certainly be paying more attention rather than vaguely deciding I like the flavor of clover honey over that of "desert bloom" honey.
In addition, I'll never look at my endless tubes of Burt's Bees chapstick the same way again, The Beekeepers Lament is a magical mix of scintillating detail and thoughtful contemplation on the tangled, tense relationship between civilization and nature, between beekeepers and bees, between us and our food.


You might never eat another almond again without thinking about a lowly honey bee somewhere in California, doing its thing, You'll also think about the army of beekeepers it takes to deliver the beehives to the right fields at the right time,

Hannah Nordhaus is the unobtrusive and credible pal who will peel back the mysteries and wonder one layer at a time,

Nordhaus interests run to the beekeepers handlers, in particular one John Miller, who infuses much of The Beekeepers Lament with his unique perspective on the world from his unusual vantage point.
The Beekeepers Lament is as much about Miller as it is about the bees, Hes a compelling subject in his own right,

The reporting dives into the world of honey bees from a number of angles, including the ongoing puzzle with Colony Collapse Disorder, the history of beekeeping, the history of construction of manmade hives, regulatory oversight of the business, bee thieves, the biology of bees and the varieties of honey they produce, among dozens of other topics.


The heart of the story is the massive army and extraordinary coordination thats required to squeeze so much production out of the earth, a “very American story: creating a market where once there were just bugs and plants and unfettered visitation.
” It's all told with a detailed eye for the science and a musical ear for the poetry and beauty of the entire scene,

Its hard to imagine a better tour guide than Hannah Nordhaus, Shes keenly observant and endlessly curiousa killer combination,

Read this book and then go buy some honey,

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