Acclaimed beekeeper Andrew Coté chronicles a year of hard work, adventure and just plain fun in Honey and Venom: Confessions of an Urban Beekeeper. Beekeeping is almost as old as civilization, and the Coté family has been doing it for four generations. "I bleed honey. It runs deep in my veins," Coté explains. His easygoing narrative, recounting his apian experience from his childhood in Connecticut to his current position as president of the New York City Beekeepers Association, will educate and entertain even the most bee-phobic reader.
Coté is NYC's go-to-beekeeper, and the subject of media stories around the world. Although there are more than 250 types of bees in New York City, he works with Apis mellifera, or the common honey bee. Coté has hives on skyscrapers, at the Museum of Modern Art and the United Nations. "I love the fact that my office is no office at all, but rather rooftops with billion-dollar views." Coté is a former college professor and although "the allure of the bees wrenched me out of it," he still demonstrates the ability to make a complex subject clear while adding enough humor to make it engaging. Discussing bee reproduction, for example, he notes that after a male drone mates with the queen, its penis is torn out of its abdomen and it falls dead to earth, "presumably with mixed emotions."
Coté structures the memoir around the 12 months of both the bees' and the beekeeper's tasks. Winter months in the northeast are quiet, so Coté uses the time to visit beekeepers around the world. His visits to Africa and Asia reveal common interests--"most obviously a shared affection for the little four-winged creatures that transcended language barriers." His nonprofit organization, Bees Without Borders, works to "alleviate poverty via beekeeping endeavors." In summer, bees are active and the possibility for unfortunate interactions between humans and bees means that Coté is on call to, among other things, remove swarms from high above Times Square, pose with bees for advertising and capture bees from neglected hives in Queens. "Beekeeping in New York City is never boring," Coté points out, and thanks to this delightful memoir, readers will have a new appreciation for these complex insects and the humans who care for them. --Cindy Pauldine, bookseller, the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.
Shelf Talker: Andrew Coté knowledgably and humorously chronicles a year in the life of a New York City beekeeper.