Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive

Mark Winston is a wise man. His wisdom seems to come from his decades working with bees, his willingness to bring in perspectives from beyond science, his ability to inspire other people, and his openness to dialogue. It is fitting that he was chosen to lead Simon Fraser University's Centre for Dialogue here in Vancouver.Bee time is time as bee keepers experience it in the apiary. It is time slowed down, where being calm, moving slowly, keeping all your senses and intelligence open is the key to not getting stung and to understanding how your bees are doing.The book covers many important topics from colony collapse disorder to urban bee keeping and the role of feral bees in agriculture. It ends by showing how he applies the lessons from a life spent with and studying bees and with bee people has prepared him for leading dialogues on the most serious problems facing cities and civilizations today.I am buying more copies of this book and giving them to people on my own teams, to people I work with, and to drop off for sharing through our local book exchange in Kitsilano.I will also spend a lot more time observing the bees in our garden and changing what we plant. I will not be buying anymore honey from packagers, instead I will be looking for honey from a beek keeper whose name I can find out and whose hives I can visit.Vancouver is lucky to have such a person.

I purchased this book after it was recommended to me by a well-known expert in the field. I'm currently researching bees for my next novel, and the information presented by Winston was invaluable. This book opened up my eyes to a whole new world. I am amazed at the capacity of the honeybee, and fascinated by the lessons we can learn from them. I am so excited about learning even more about these beautiful beings.

This book was largely well-written and clear. I very much liked Winston's depiction of the history and ecology of bees. I also think he makes a good point about bees being the canaries in the mine. Where the author goes astray, in my opinion, is in his trying to ride that last point too long. It felt as if he was repeating because he needed to make a longer book.

Although there a many bee books out there, and, as a beekeeper, I've read many of them, "Bee Time" stands out among them. Mark Winston has a deep understanding of the essence of our relationship with the bees. He writes with a reverence and perspective that could only come from many years of exposure to the issues now facing the bees and the human race. I could go on, but suffice to say that this book was a page-turner for me. Many thanks to Mark for his sincere book!

Much good information on bee habits and the natural resources to support those habits-leaves much new material to be flushed out in future writingsotherother experts, especially in the area of yields of honey per hive

The book was very well written and I was able to get a much better idea of how important honey bees are to our food chain.

Very enjoyable read, touching on quite a few topics about honey bee history,folklore, philosophy and more. The tone of the book is lovely, it's clear theauthor is immensely fond of bees.

Excellent. Very inciteful. We could learn a lot from our bees.

Another good book from Mark Winston

A well researched book on an urgent ecological question

Winston combines deep, deep expertise (he's studied bees as an entomologist since the lat 1970s) with an easy, accessible style (he's left entomology to be the director and senior fellow of the Wosk Centre for Dialogue (in Vancouver). The book is a wonderful introduction to the biology and culture (yes, culture) of bees as well as their invaluable role in human development.If I have one cavil, it's that - for just a little bit - he discuss some of the more...um...goofy/spacey aspects of beekeeping or our relationship with bees. I didn't really enjoy the small part of the book that relates the mysticism that some have attached to bees.He won the Canadian Governor General's Award for non-fiction for the book and in my view rightly so.

Same information for beekeeping could have been in a book half this length. This is more of a novel than a technical book. Went off subject more than I was expecting but some people may actually enjoy the story telling and opinion aspects of this. Also strongly American focused.

This book is so interesting and fun to read that it is impossible to put down. Extremely informative and well-written with loads of interesting information pertaining to our health and to environmental issues. Who would have known that he life and history of bees was so exciting. I am loving this read. Book was in excellent condition.