Fills in a lot of the technical details not covered in all of the film documentaries about Colony Collapse Disorder. I wonder if there is a counterpart publication which picked up and carried the ball forward to the present.
Even handed towards all data. ( )

Book written in 2008 by 2 British amateur beekeepers about Colony Collapse Disorder, why bees have been disappearing, pesticide poisoning, GM foods, EU pesticide regulations ( )

An interesting look at Colony Collapse Disorder and many of the possible causes. I was amused to learn that honeybees are actually not indigenous to North America. Honeybees suffer some terrible conditions and I would argue that they are essentially factory farmed. If anything, this book made me even firmer in my organic, anti-monoculture leanings. Treating insects like machines to do our bidding in factory like, unnatural settings is obviously not sustainable. ( )

A World Without Bees is a fascinating and timely book exploring the possible reasons behind the massive decline of the western honeybee over recent years. Every spring beekeepers are opening their overwintered hives and finding that a huge percentage of them have only the queen and a handful of dead bees left inside. Where have the rest of the bees gone – and what is causing this mass destruction, now known as ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ or CCD?

Benjamin and McCallum, amateur beekeepers with a keen interest in their charges, take the reader on a whistle-stop tour of the potential offenders and key theories in the CCD mystery, offering up a devastating menu of the ways in which humanity is slowly destroying one of the most important creatures on the planet. They also offer a comprehensive look at bee viruses, pests and pathogens that could be contributing to their downfall, and the ways in which beekeepers and scientists are attempting to fight back. Without honeybees, agriculture would collapse, and many of the foods and other natural products that we take for granted, including fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy products and cotton, would become far harder to produce and thus much more rare and expensive. And yet we continue to bombard our master pollinators with pesticides and fungicides, truck them long distances throughout the year, and work them harder than ever before, thus denying them the proper nutrition, time to rest and strength to fight off disease that they need to survive.

This is definitely an important book, and well worth reading. It’s very accessible, though occasionally repetitive, and gives a good overview of the current bee populations, issues and research from various countries across the globe. There is a note of hope by the end - that all is not lost and that the honeybee can be saved - but I would have liked to have seen a more extensive account of what the world would be like without honeybee products and pollination services (it is the title of the book, after all) and a longer section on the most up-to-date research, potential solutions and ways to help. Most of these are covered very quickly at the end, in a kind of updated add-on to the first edition, which felt a bit rushed and not particularly satisfying. But hey, read it anyway; it’s a big issue and not one that most people probably think about all that much. Our bees deserve better! ( )

A frightening book, but we have good reason to be frightened if we lose our six-legged friends. ( )