Call no.: SF 525 .H9

Despite a singular breadth of literary output, Robert Huish (1777-1850) is best remembered as one of the key figures in British apiculture during the first half of the nineteenth century. His first book, A Treatise on the Nature, Economy, and Practical Management of Bees went through four editions between 1815 and 1844, and he gained a wide popular readership through a succession of other books and articles, developing (as many apiarists did) his own unique hive design.

By the time that Huish published his popular work Bees: their natural history and general management, he was deeply engaged in a scientific spat with the Swiss apiculturist François Huber. His book can be seen as an attempt not only to write a revised and accurate account of the physiology, behavior, and management of bees, but counter the errors of other naturalists, most notably Huber. Ironically, while Huish published a catalogue of 34 errors committed by Huber, he famously insisted that worker bees are neither male nor female, but rather a third neuter sex.

[ Natural history ][ Huber ][ Bevan ][ Bagster ][ Nutt ][ Huish ]