The Mind of a Bee

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The grains are small at 27 microns and they have lovely patterned surfaces from furrows and pores as you can see.

The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka | Waterstones The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka | Waterstones

They became, overall, very hesitant to land on flowers, and inspected every one extensively before deciding to land on it. The Mind of a Bee is a fascinating book that I hope will be read and understood by as broad an audience as possible, so that the important conclusions within may be shared more widely.The thing I enjoyed most while reading Lars Chittka’s “Mind of a Bee”, was being guided to look at everything in the life of a colony, from a honey bee’s point of view. Little leafcutter bee has finished building a nest in the tubular trolley handle and is foraging on everlasting peas in the glorious hot sunshine we enjoyed for a few days.

The Mind of a Bee - De Gruyter

He shows that they are profoundly smart, have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers and human faces, exhibit basic emotions, count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. Having already read Honeybee Democracy, which is referenced quite often in this book, and The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild, I had a solid base before starting this one, but I think reading this book first would have been better. He looks at their innate behaviours and the ways their evolution as foragers may have contributed to their keen spatial memory. At first he could follow at a trot, but soon he was off in full gallop and managed to stay with the swarm for four miles, when it finally settled in a neighbours garden in a pear tree.

The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka offers a fascinating tour of the highly complex brains and minds of bees. You'd think it would be easier to confuse a bee so they'd get a little lost, but they haven't been getting enough credit for how good they are at navigating the world. This book takes a fascinating deep dive into bees’ lives and minds, raising critical new questions for us as a species.

The Mind of a Bee | Princeton University Press

Sensing polarized light as well as ultraviolet instead of red is also interesting and seems to help facilitate their navigation capabilities. Originally they did this to get to a reward of sugar syrup, but the scientists noticed that the bees continued to kick the football while ignoring the reward – so seemingly just for fun. So much of the hard science presented seems impossible, so much so that I imagine it will completely change our perspectives of insects. I applaud Lars Chittka for writing this popular book that is destined to become a classic and change minds. Second thing - scientists that study living creatures without at least a little appreciation and delight in the subject come across as SUCH sociopathic assholes.

This behavior isn’t seen in agricultural settings so much as in rain forests, where a tree in bloom would be like an oasis in a desert. Bees may visit upwards towards 1000 flowers and each flower has it's unique mechanics in respect to the location of nectar and the perils that may befall one who is not knowledgeable.