Honeybees make decisions collectively--and democratically. Every year faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding vigorous debate and consensus building. In fact as world-renowned animal behaviorist Thomas Seeley reveals these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making. A remarkable and richly illustrated account of scientific discovery Honeybee Democracy brings together for the first time decades of Seeley's pioneering research to tell the amazing story of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees.
In the late spring and early summer as a bee colony becomes overcrowded a third of the hive stays behind and rears a new queen while a swarm of thousands departs with the old queen to produce a daughter colony. Seeley describes how these bees evaluate potential nest sites advertise their discoveries to one another engage in open deliberation choose a final site