Letters from the Hive

"Stephen Buchmann's Letters from the Hive is a fascinating and lovingly informative account of one of humanity's greatest accomplishments, our symbiosis with the honey bees."
--Edward O. Wilson, Pulizer Prizewinning author of On Human Nature, and Professor Emeritus at Harvard University:

"Letters from the Hive is the engrossing story of our long and richly layered relationship with bees. It reminds us of the fragile interconnections between all the creatures on this earth."
--Alice Waters, Owner, Chez Panisse Restaurant

"Letters from the Hive is really an extended love-letter--a charming, enthralling, and deeply authoritative window into the sweet, age-old affair between humans and the honey-makers. From the seasons of the hive to the history, properties, and diversity of honey, Buchmann brings us into the confidence of the bees as only he could possibly do."
--Robert Michael Pyle, author of Chasing Monarchs: Migrating With the Butterflies of Passage.

"Stephen Buchmann has done more to advance the conservation of all bees -- and the flowers that depend upon them -- than any other human in history. This intimate history is one very creative soul's lifework. Savor it."
--Gary Nabhan, author of Cross-Pollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry

"From the emperor Napoleon to a traditional honey hunter in Malaysia, from suburban Tucson to the dark recesses of a beehive, Letters from the Hive explores the world-wide, ages-long intimacy between Apis mellifera and Homo sapiens. The religion of the bee, the art and the biology of beekeeping, one man's love and his race's long fascination with the honeybee, it's all here--up to and including the treatment of cataracts, how to avoid getting stung, and a recipe for lasagne with honey. I have to say, Letters from the Hive provides everything a beekeeper's apprentice could ask for."
--Laurie R. King, author of The Beekeeper's Apprentice