Honeybee Democracy

About this book

Honeybees make decisions collectively and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. As the author reveals, these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making.

Honeybee Democracy brings together decades of Seeley’s pioneering research to tell the amazing story of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees. In the late spring and early summer, as a bee colony becomes overcrowded, a third of the hive stays behind and rears a new queen, while a swarm of thousands departs with the old queen to produce a daughter colony. He describes how these bees evaluate potential nest sites, advertise their discoveries to one another, engage in open deliberation, choose a final site, and navigate together – as a swirling cloud of bees – to their new home.

Contents

Prologue 1
Chapter 1: Introduction 3
Chapter 2: Life in a Honeybee Colony 20
Chapter 3: Dream Home for Honeybees 43
Chapter 4: Scout Bees’ Debate 73
Chapter 5: Agreement on Best Site 99
Chapter 6: Building a Consensus 118
Chapter 7: Initiating the Move to New Home 146
Chapter 8: Steering the Flying Swarm 175
Chapter 9: Swarm as Cognitive Entity 198
Chapter 10: Swarm Smarts 218
EPILOGUE 233
Notes 237
Acknowledgments 261
Illustration Credits 265
Index 271

Biography

Thomas D. Seeley is professor of biology at Cornell University and a passionate beekeeper. He is the author of and .