Hello All,
New book on bees .
Sounds interesting.
bob



> http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/LifeSciences/Invertebratezoology/Entomology/?view=usa&ci=9780195385441
>
> The Quest for the Perfect Hive: A History of Innovation in Bee Culture 
> Gene Kritsky
>
> Honey bee pollination makes possible-directly and indirectly-a third of 
> all the food we eat. According to the USDA's Agricultural Research 
> Service, this managed natural process subsidizes $15 billion of crop 
> production. Given how vital bees are to our economy and livelihood, recent 
> widespread and unresolved thinning of hives-Colony Collapse Disorder 
> (CCD)-threatens both. In THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT HIVE: A History of 
> Innovation in Bee Culture Gene Kritsky calls beekeepers to action:
>
> "If beekeeping is to survive ... we need to consider the advantages and 
> creative solutions presented by strange old beehives."
>
> Kritsky observes beekeeping's regular evolution since the first documented 
> human theft of a honeycomb 8,000 years ago. While we've moved from honey 
> hunting to honey cultivating-in hollow logs, horizontal hives, skeps, and 
> countless other forms-we stopped innovating beekeeping over a century and 
> a half ago. Why? Economics, Kritsky says. Today's common movable-frame 
> hive greatly increased honey yields from previous hives, but the 
> apparatuses cost enough to make changing equipment unappealing.
>
> Given the impending economic crisis that CCD could harbor, Kritsky 
> implores his audience to reignite the innovation that once characterized 
> beekeeping. He writes:
>
> "We are keeping our bees in 'old' hives. Are we really using the 'perfect' 
> hives? Because we have stopped inventing hives, we really do not know."
>
> GENE KRITSKY is Professor of Biology at the College of Mount St. Joseph in 
> Cincinnati, and Adjunct Curator of Entomology at the Cincinnati Museum 
> Center. He is Editor-in-Chief of American Entomologist, the magazine of 
> the Entomological Society of America.
>
> THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT HIVE: A History of Innovation in Bee Culture, by 
> Gene Kritsky,
> will be published, in hardcover, by Oxford University Press on February 
> 24, 2010
> ($24.95 | 5½ x 8¼ | 216 pages | 147 b/w images| ISBN13: 9780195385441).
>
> For more information, or to order:
> http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/LifeSciences/Invertebratezoology/Entomology/?view=usa&ci=9780195385441 

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