The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe

by Loree Griffin Burns, Ellen Harasimowicz (Illustrator)

Overview

Without honey bees the world would be a different place. There would be no honey, no beeswax for candles, and, worst of all, barely a fruit, nut, or vegetable to eat. So imagine beekeeper Dave Hackenburg’s horror when he discovered twenty million of his charges had vanished. Those missing bees became the first casualties of a mysterious scourge that continues to plague honey bee populations today. In The Hive Detectives, Loree Griffin Burns profiles bee wranglers and bee scientists who have been working to understand colony collapse disorder, or CCD. In this dramatic and enlightening story, readers explore the lives of the fuzzy, buzzy insects and learn what might happen to us if they were gone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547488127
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	05/03/2010
Series:	Scientists in the Field Series
Sold by:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
Lexile:	NC1120L (what's this?)
File size:	68 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Loree Griffin Burns, Ph.D., did her doctoral at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Ms. Burns lives in Massachusetts with her husband and children. She is the author of Beetle Busters,Tracking Trash, and The Hive Detectives. Learn more about Loree at loreegriffinburns.com and follow her on Twitter @loreegburns.
Ellen Harasimowicz is a freelance photojournalist new to nature photography. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and Scientific American. Ellen lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Paul; her work can be seen at ellenharasimowicz.com. Follow Ellen on Twitter @ellharas.

Editorial Reviews

"Throughout the presentation, readers learn about the anatomy, development, and social behavior of honey bees, and observe the process of scientific investigation and its vital, real-world application. Appended are lists of recommended books, magazines, films, Web sites as well as a glossary and a source bibliography. A fascinating book from the Scientists in the Field series."—Booklist, starred review

"Not long after beekeepers encountered a devastating new problem in their hives in 2006, a team of bee scientists began working to discover the causes of colony collapse disorder (CCD), now attributed to a combination of factors possibly including pesticides, nutrition, mites and viruses...Harasimowicz's clear, beautifully reproduced photographs support and extend the text."—Kirkus, starred review

From the Publisher

Not long after beekeepers encountered a devastating new problem in their hives in 2006, a team of bee scientists began working to discover the causes of colony collapse disorder (CCD), now attributed to a combination of factors possibly including pesticides, nutrition, mites and viruses. Unusually for a Scientists in the Field book, the focus here is as much on the scientific question as the individual scientists. The central section describing the investigations of four members of the CCD working group is framed by chapters introducing a hobbyist beekeeper's mechanics and methods and explaining the work of the commercial beekeeper who first discovered the problem. Mock notebook pages break up the narrative with biographies of the individual scientists, information about who and what can be found inside the hive and the features of bee bodies. An appendix adds varied fascinating facts about bees-again using the format of an illustrated research journal. Harasimowicz's clear, beautifully reproduced photographs support and extend the text. Readers may be left wanting more but will be well served by this example of a scientific mystery still unsolved. (glossary, materials to study, acknowledgments, selected references, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews