The grub-like larvae get all her attention.
She checks them.
Inspects them.
Feeds them a milky-sweet
liquid made with those glands.
On Apis's eighth day of life,
she leaves the nursery.
For flying?"
I have seen few such beautiful books this year. Following up on Giant Squid (2016) this exceptional team invites readers to take a close look at the biology of the worker honeybee. The long, incredibly detailed poem begins in front matter as the bee emerges from its nest into a world that trembles with activity, and moves on to follow one small bee from birth until death.
"Tongues lick.
Antennae touch.
Bodies clamber and scramble over thin wax comb.
The new bee rests.
Soft, fuzzy and female - like all newly emerged worker bees -
her scientific name is Apis mellifera,
or Apis for short."
Ms. Fleming then shares, in precise text, the life of a worker honeybee. The roles played seem endless; there are many, many tasks that must be completed before Apis is ready to venture beyond the hive. Those jobs include preparing the cells, nursing, taking care of the queen, building the comb, receiving the nectar ... the list fills each and every day. Always Apis is wanting to fly; always there is an important job yet to be done.
"At last, on the twenty-fifth day of her life - with
the sun just rising and the dew still drying -
she leaps from the nest and ... "
A gorgeous gatefold opens to Apis in full flight over flower-filled fields, ready at last to forage for sweet nectar and fly back to the hive. Her stomach weighing as much at the bee itself, she returns to give up the nectar to another worker, and to dance. Her dance leads other bees on a trip she will make nine more times before she rests that day. At thirty-five days old, she has covered five hundred miles in her quest for the nectar 'to make one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey'. Her life's work done, she drops to the ground and dies. In the nest, another tiny worker emerges and life begins once more.
A captioned image of a worker honeybee's body follows. The book concludes with ways to help bees, further details about this remarkable tiny wonder, and places to find even more information than has already been shared.
WAIT!
There has not yet been mention made Eric Rohmann's stunning and dramatic oil paintings. Using brown, black and yellow, he creates the detailed interior reaches of their home and the tiny creatures that inhabit the honeycomb, before bursting forth into sunshine and flowering fields. Extreme close-up details within and the glorious beauty on the outside, along with ever-changing perspectives, hold attention from start to finish.
What an impressive collaboration this is! We are left to hope for more from this noteworthy team.
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