The_Queen_Must_Die by William Longgood
Have you ever read a book, thoroughly enjoyed it, and wondered why everyone didn’t enjoy it as much as you. Reading a book is a mostly creative process – the dry words of printed books are like mallets on the chimes of our experience. That is what makes reading such a personal experience. For too many people, all books sound tinny. For experienced beekeepers, The Queen Must Die resonates long and harmoniously.
I read so many things in The Queen Must Die that I could relate to as a maturing beekeeper yet I also learned many new things about bees as well. But Longgood is not satisfied with facts – he seeks insight by linking facts into a contextual network. Bees become a metaphor for and a reflection of humanity. That is not an easy task but he succeeds with this reader. I dislike anthropomorphism in any form – I found The Bee Movie to be thoroughly repugnant – but in The Queen Must Die, bees become a pure metaphor, a means for introspection and not simply an instrument for romantic sentimentalism.
In Chapter 49, Longgood writes about a preventing swarming in Spring:
“Beekeeping, like most human endeavors affecting nature, has a primary law: tampering begets tampering. Nature, as we now recognize, is delicately balanced. When one change is made, others must follow to accommodate the first disruption. This often sets in motion a chain of unexpected events which ultimately bring about the very result the original tampering was intended to prevent, or worse.”
There are faults in this book. It was published in 1985 – a simpler time before Varroa mites, Colony Collapse Disorder, several viruses, and Africanized Honey Bees. But none of that changes the messages in this book.
You have probably figured that I am not one to run out and buy a book simply because it is on the NY Times Best Sellers List and I doubt if this book ever made it there. The list of truly great books is long and life itself is very short. But if you enjoy beekeeping, this is a book worth reading.
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