Questions About The Bees

by Laline Paull (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (9)

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Rose

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[I was so fascinated by this mystery that I wrote to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, to the "ask an expert" department.

Robert A. Androw, Biodiversity Services Facility, Section of Invertebrate Zoology was kind enough to reply in detail. I'm truly impressed that Laline Paull researched so well and accurately.

Mr. Androw said:
"Your inquiry about honeybee reproduction strategies came to me through our Marketing department. I will attempt to provide an answer, although my expertise is in wood-boring beetles and not bees. The bulk of my bee experience lies in having maintained domestic beehives as part of a living insect ‘zoo’ that the museum once had some years ago.

Within the order Hymenoptera - the bees, wasps and ants – there are numerous examples of species that reproduce parthenogenetically, whereby females reproduce more females without fertilization by a male. The normal reproductive pathway for honeybees is for the female queen to mate with and be fertilized by a male drone. Once mated, a queen’s fertilized eggs become either female workers or future queens and her unfertilized eggs become the male drones. Female worker bees can also lay infertile eggs that develop into drones.

In the honeybee subspecies Apis mellifera capensis, which occurs in the very southern tip of Africa, thelytoky has been documented whereby unmated female workers can lay unfertilized eggs which develop into fertile female queens. The queens resulting from asexually reproducing females always reproduce sexually by mating with males. Whether this holds true for the honeybee populations in the United States, I cannot say, but I would not be surprised if the same strategy could occur in our domestic bees.

So… to get to your question! It does appear that the bee in your story was reproducing in a factual way, not a fictional contrivance by the author. In my many years of studying insects, I have come to believe that no matter how bizarre an idea we humans can conceive, it has likely already occurred in the insect world."

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Is this a YA novel? How old are the characters on average?

Visolela There are some references to sex, but nothing graphic or lewd, and depending on the age you are thinking (YA is pretty varied) might even be an opport…moreThere are some references to sex, but nothing graphic or lewd, and depending on the age you are thinking (YA is pretty varied) might even be an opportunity for discussion about bragging and posturing. But even for your youngest readers the content is not objectionable.

This book isn't as easy a read due to abstract concepts, however if this were to be read while also studying the actual biology of bees, or as a counter point (like reading historical fiction about a particular time period you are studying in history) it could be interesting. There are some interesting themes of "fitting in" and "being different" along with the idea of caste systems and defined purpose from birth that should also allow for some interesting discussions.

Depending on your readers, they may find this book boring as the thoughts and ideas are very "foreign". The book is written from the perspective of a bee, and while they are somewhat humanized, are not human.

This book is also great to use as inspiration for creative writing classes or areas, even if only excerpts are used. The book as a study for creating a society around what we know scientifically of bees, works as a great prompt to have students imagine and come up with their own social orders, ideas or structures around other "non-human" groups, and use this as a parallel for analysis of the ones we do have.(less)

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Jason Williams

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Have other beekeepers read this book? As someone who knows about bees I'm worried that this book is going to be inaccurate. Fine if it is but I won't bother with it if that is the case.

Lee Laline Paull cites a number of academic sources at the end of the book. Aspects of bee behavior are well known such as dancing to inform their hive of…moreLaline Paull cites a number of academic sources at the end of the book. Aspects of bee behavior are well known such as dancing to inform their hive of the location of flowers. I can attest to mass exodus from hives when conditions go south. As to how all the world appears to bees, that's from Paull's imagination.(less)

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Bugs life 2.0???