This book aims to present to biologists and general readers what was learned
by Lindauer in the 1950s, and by myself and others since the 1970s, about how
the workers in a honeybee swarm conduct a democratic decision-making process
to make the life-or-death choice of where to build their new home.This work has
evealed how the process of evolution by natural selection, operating over millions
of
years,
has
shaped
the
behavior
of
bees
so
that
they
coalesce
into
a
single
collective
intelligence.This
story
about
the
bees
also
provides
useful
guidelines
to
human
groups
whose
members
share
common
interests
and
want
to
make
good
roup
decisions.
mainly,
though,
this
book
tries
to
be
a
window
into
the
private
world
of
a
honeybee colony. If it bolsters, in any way, an appreciation of these
little creatures for the beauty of their social behavior, along with their service in
keeping the world flowering and fruitful, then it will have achieved its purpose.