La vita segreta delle api

The autobiographical story of a young beekeeper about the secret life of bees. Do they sleep? Do they dance? How do they “elect” their queen bee?

A philosophical and ecological reflection on nature and the role humans should – and could – play in protecting a world that is vanishing irreversibly.

In this book, rich in information and poetry, Marco Valsesia draws a portrait of the “secret life” of bees, but also of their “social life”. He describes lovingly the queen bees that can lay up to three thousand eggs a day and live up to five years (unlike the workers, who live only forty days), as well as the guardian bees that oversee the community and raise the alarm when there is a predator by emitting pheromones that smell of banana. Also, he tells us about the explorers and their dance that shows their sisters the distance, direction and environmental map of where to find honey flowers.

Marco’s profession is an ancient one, now threatened by environmental and climatic conditions, but supported by technology like “robot apiaries” and experimental pesticides aimed at protecting bees from parasites that endanger their survival, and, consequently, ours.