It is humbling to reflect that though a bumblebee has a brain smaller than a grain of rice, it has powers of perception and learning that often put us mammals to shame.

Amazing book.

For one thing, you will learn a ton of information about bees. Goulson focuses on bumblebees but you will learn a few t ...more

(Nearly 4.5) A wholly engaging tour through everything we know and are still trying to learn about bumblebees. I saw Goulson, founder of the UK’s Bumblebee Conservation Trust, speak at a nature conference in November and found him to be just as enthusiastic and well-informed in person. His occasiona ...more

A marvelous little book about bumblebees! Non-fiction at its best, entertaining and thought provoking. I thought honey bees were important pollinators, but bumblebees are too. For example tomato plants are only pollinated by bumblebees. Until these were bred for commercial use in the 1990's or so, t ...more

Dieses Buch ist unglaublich toll. Bei Gelegenheit muss ich mal eine Rezi dazu schreiben, jetzt nur so viel:
Mr. Bumble und Herr Hummel sind genauso begeistert wie ich ❤️
image: ...more

If this were only a book about British bumblebees, I imagine it would have a fairly limited audience. Fortunately, it offers much more and shares some important insights about the dangers of tampering with the environment without a proper understanding of how all of the parts work together. The auth ...more

A lightly written book that makes the science of bees readable and enjoyable. The chapters on place-location and flower-sensing were intriguing. Much is still not known about bees, especially those outside the beekeeper's hive.

It seems to be a trend among science writers to confuse their CVs with th ...more

"Hommels kunnen voor het natuurbehoud overal in het VK en daarbuiten hetzelfde betekenen. Hun directe belang voor mensen, namelijk dat ze gewassen bestuiven, maakt het gemakkelijk om uit te leggen waarom het belangrijk is ze in stand te houden. Daarvandaan is het maar een kleine stap naar uitleggen ...more

Der Start in das Buch war extrem makaber und trotzdem war der Rest des Buches lesenswert. So irrwitzig über Hummeln kann nur Dave Goulsen erzählen. Während des Lesens habe ich mich bewusst auf dem Balkon platziert, um die Hummeln beim Pollen sammeln zu beobachten.
Der Autor erzählt eine Menge über Hu ...more

Between 3.5/4

An enlightening read about the nature and plight of (mostly) British bees and how important they are to us. Dave Goulson is clearly an expert on bees, and incredibly knowledgeable about a lot of other wildlife and insects, and this book is jam-packed with information he has garnered abo ...more

Would never have read this randomly, except I ran out of vacation books and Robyn had a copy out from the library.

What a wonderful little book. Goulson writes about bumblebees with passion, clarity, and great humor. Entirely readable and enjoyable. I learned so much about bees! It has inspired me to ...more