Iowa City Library buzzing with books, DVDs about bees

IOWA CITY - 'Morning is the best of all times in the garden. The sun is not yet hot. Sweet vapors rise from the earth. Night dew clings to the soil and makes plants glisten. Birds call to one another. Bees are already at work.”

So wrote William Longgood in 'Voices from the Earth: A Year in the Life of the Garden.”

Let's talk bees. Yes, bees, those wee powerhouses of the garden, the field, the grove and the meadow.

Bees are in the news because they are disappearing from the earth at a rapid rate and the jury is still out as to why their numbers are so greatly diminished.

Many people think of bees simply as a summertime nuisance, but these small and hard-working insects actually make it possible for many of our favorite foods to reach our table.

From apples to almonds to the pumpkin in our pumpkin pies, we have bees to thank.

Now, a condition known as Colony Collapse Disorder is causing bee populations to plummet, which means these foods are also at risk. In the United States alone, more than 25 percent of the managed honey bee population has disappeared since 1990.

The Iowa City Public Library has many resources about bees.

Books range from how to keep bees such as Cindy Belknap's 'The Complete Guide to Beekeeping for Fun & Profit: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply” or Adrian Waring's 'Get Started in Beekeeping.” There also are a good number of books on the natural history of bees including Candace Sherk Savage's 'Bees: Nature's Little Wonders” and 'Bees: A Natural History” by Christopher O'Toole, and 'The Wisdom of the Hive: the Social Physiology of Honey Bee Colonies” by Thomas Seeley.

'More Than Honey” is a beautiful German and English documentary on bees. It is an examination of honeybee colonies in California, Switzerland, China, and Australia, and addresses the vexing issue of why bees, worldwide, are facing extinction.

'Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis” by Rowan Jacobsen is a sobering assessment of the state of the honey bee in the world and our dependence upon the bee to pollinate many of our crops.

' Maeve Clark, Adult Services Coordinator, Iowa City Public Library