The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: A Scientific Mystery

by Sandra Markle Narrated by Intuitive

Overview

Honeybees are a crucial part of our food chain. As they gather nectar from flowers to make sweet honey, these bees also play an important role in pollination, helping some plants produce fruit. But large numbers of honeybees are disappearing every year . . . and no one knows why. Is a fungus killing them? Could a poor diet be the cause? What about changes to bees' natural habitat? In this real-life science mystery, scientists and beekeepers are working to answer these questions . . . and save the world's honeybees before it's too late.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"An excellent first purchase for reports as well as for general interest." —starred, School Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

2013-09-15
Markle presents a solid, respectful overview of colony collapse disorder for an audience slightly younger than Loree Griffin Burns' The Hive Detectives (2010). The author opens her story in October 2006, with a beekeeper checking on his hive to discover that thousands of his workers have disappeared. From this compelling opening, she backtracks to discuss the importance of honeybees in pollination as well as bee basics. She then moves on to discuss possible causes of CCD: monoculture and suburban sprawl, overwork (a map provides graphic testimony to commercial bees' arduous schedules), mites, fungus and pesticides. Both natural and human defenses against CCD present some hope. Bees reproduce fast, and adjustments made to bees' schedules and feeding can help, as does breeding mite- and disease-resistant bees and the rise in hobbyist beekeeping. Markle never talks down to her audience, using specialized vocabulary--Nosema ceranae, varroa mite, neonicotinoid--and lucidly defining it in context as well as gathering it in a glossary. Big, full-color photographs are reproduced against honey-colored backgrounds. (Sharp-eyed readers will wonder why there is no mention of a mite clearly attached to a dead bee in a photograph captioned, "This bee didn't have any symptoms to show it was sick before it died.") Further facts as well as ways to help honeybees appear in the backmatter. In all, a solid addition to the insect shelves, with a valuable emphasis on science as process. (bibliography, index). (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170077304
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2017
Series:	Sandra Markle's Science Discoveries
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Videos