A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

November 25, 2019
In this evocative debut, Oxford writing tutor Jukes traces her interest in beekeeping and how it changed her life. Her involvement begins when, while living in London, she helps out an urban beekeeper friend. The hobby “felt like slipping through a hidden side door, stepping slightly outside the flow of things.” Shortly after moving to Oxford to work at a charity, Jukes scouts locations for her own hive, “checking for , wind exposure, the damp. I glance up to where the trees won’t shadow .” She wrestles with herself over making the commitment, uncertain of her skills: “What if the bees die or swarm away...? What if I can’t keep them?” But she perseveres, and finds beekeeping a fruitful diversion from her sometimes stressful job. In an affecting subplot, Jukes describes a budding relationship with a male friend in London, candidly revealing their tentative steps toward romance. She also goes into the science and methodology behind beekeeping without losing her audience, revealing salient details of how one builds a hive and acquires the honeycombs. Readers will appreciate the candor and inviting openness of Jukes’s voice throughout this winning memoir.

March 1, 2020
An intimate look at one woman's experience with beekeeping. After helping a friend of a friend with his bees, British writer Jukes decided to get a colony of her own even though she knew little about them. "I hadn't even realized...that honeybees are different from bumblebees," she writes, "that there are over twenty thousand species of bee in the world, and only a fraction of them make honey." The author had a woodworker build her a special hive so she could establish her colony in a wind-protected section of her back garden. While she waited for the appropriate time to begin her new hobby, she plunged headlong into the complex history of bees and beekeeping through the centuries, and she shares her extensive research with readers. Though informative, these elements are occasionally dry. Fortunately, Jukes juxtaposes this history with her ongoing interactions with her hive, which brings her tale back to life. Readers share in her concerns about cold weather and how the new colony is adjusting to their nontraditional hive, rejoice in the abundance of new bees, and worry as the hive moves closer and closer to the swarming phase. The author clearly conveys the necessity of dedication, focus, and calm when handling bees, and she palpably portrays the moment when she was able to fully let go of her day-to-day anxieties and concentrate solely on her charges. She also interweaves a late-blooming romance into her story, which further sweetens the narrative. Throughout the book, Jukes portrays her experiences with vivid imagination and a spirit that encourages readers to think deeper about a creature that is vital to all life on this planet. "The honeybees opened me out," she writes, "led me into a new understanding of the world and my place in it....Flowers, bees, weather, people--they're all connected, all part of a larger ecosystem." Entertaining reading for budding apiarists and armchair nature enthusiasts.

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April 1, 2020

This first book by Jukes is part memoir, part natural history of bees. We learn that of the 20,000-plus species of bees in the world, only a small fraction make honey, and this small fraction is currently threatened by a host of issues: pesticides, parasites, climate change, and shifting patterns of land use that have resulted in habitat fragmentation. The author describes other issues facing bees, including the prevalence of crop monocultures that may sustain them during the crop's growing season, but then leave them without sustenance once the crop is harvested. Jukes shares insight on her decision to become a beekeeper, a prospect that means she must pay attention to weather patterns, ensuring that she begins at an optimal time for her bees. Along the way, she researches the history of beekeeping, with special reference to Fran�ois Huber (1750-1831), who made many important discoveries about honeybees. Throughout her journey, we see the importance of nature and the potentially devastating effects our separation from nature can lead to. VERDICT Required reading for anyone contemplating becoming a beekeeper. Natural history enthusiasts will also find the subject matter compelling.--Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Science Lib., Athens

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