The Maine State Beekeepers Association (MSBA) has announced that Dr. Thomas D. Seeley will be its keynote speaker at the upcoming MSBA Bee Fest taking place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 8 at Viles Arboretum, 153 Hospital St., Augusta.  This special event includes over 30 beekeeping demonstrations presented by Master Beekeepers and experts in managing honey bee colonies in Maine. There will be nine unique demonstration areas including an open hive demonstration area in the Kennebec Beekeepers Association’s apiary on the Viles Arboretum property.  Bee Fest is a free event to all and we look forward to welcoming over 200 experienced beekeepers as well as want-to-be beekeepers looking for more information on the art and science of keeping honey bees in Maine.  

Seeley is a retired professor in biology at Cornell University.  For 40 years, from 1980 to 2020, he taught courses on animal behavior and conducted research on the behavior, social life, and ecology of honey bees.   

Besides being a honey bee biologist, he is also an avid beekeeper.  His fascination with how worker honey bees behave began in 1962, when he was 10 years old and watched a swarm move into a black walnut tree near his boyhood home outside Ithaca, New York. He enjoyed watching the bees close-up while sitting beside the knothole entrance to their home. Then in 1969, the summer before his senior year in high school, he found a swarm hanging from a tree branch, shook it into a shipping crate in which he had cut an entrance hole, and brought the bees home. The bees attached their combs to the side of the box, so he was able to gently open it and watch the bees closely for many hours each day when he got home from work. He then had the good fortune to get a job as summer helper at the Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Studies, at Cornell University.   

When he went away to college at Dartmouth College, he figured that he would became a doctor and keep bees as a hobby. But, bit by bit, he realized that his interests in honey bees had eclipsed those in medicine, so he changed his career plans and went to graduate school at Harvard University, earning a PhD there in 1978. His thesis work focused on how the nest-site scouts in a swarm choose their colony's new home. His investigations on this topic are described in his book “Honeybee Democracy,” published in 2010.    

His scientific work is summarized in six books, which include “Honeybee Democracy” (2010), “Following the Wild Bees” (2016), “The Lives of Bees” (2019), and “Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners” (2024).  In recognition of his work, he has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences. He writes: "These memberships are gratifying, but for me the most important 'prizes' by far are the discoveries that I have made about the lives of honey bees.” 

We look forward to seeing you at Bee Fest to find the answer to the question whether honey bees ever sleep. Dr. Seeley will reveal from one of his studies, that honey bees working as foragers go to sleep at night and that next morning, when one of a colony's early-bird foragers finds a bonanza food source outside the hive, she has a way to issue wake up calls to fellow foragers that are still snoozing. 

Come experience a special day outside marveling at these wondrous creatures who make our gardens more beautiful and pollinate many of our fruits, vegetables and nuts we enjoy.

Go to https://mainebeekeepers.org/ to let us know you are coming or scan the QR code on our poster at your local beekeepers’ shop.