Cameron’s Reviews > Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey > Status Update

"Periodic shortages of bees emphasized the radical notion that perhaps it would be good to emulate the Egyptians and the Greeks and nurture the bees rather than murder them."

"'They indulge not in conjugal embraces, nor idly unnerve their bodies in love, or bring forth young with travail, but of themselves gather their children in their mouths from leaves and sweet herbs.'" It'd be sweet if he doesn't go on to say bees come from rotting bull carcasses.

"With a fertile monarch in residence, the female worker bees persecute the drones by withholding food and sometimes gnawing off their wings and legs in an effort to evict them. Most go willingly and she outside in a few days' time." BEES ARE NOT GREAT.

"Males, or drones, can't fly well, and they don't gather food, clean, sting, secrete wax, or care for the young... A few succeed in mating with [the queen], but those lucky few she soon afterward, their barbed generals having broken off during copulation." Why do they keep guys around?? All they do is take up honey and get laid. And are those "lucky few" /really/ lucky?

"The most popular [theory on what smoke does to bees] is that it alarms the inhabitants, which suspect a forest fire and then hide in the combs of the hive, bingeing on honey until they become passive with sugar and fear." Something bad happening? Just eat and accept it. Man, bees are great.