Honey Bee Suite

A Better Way to Bee

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  • Home
  • About
    • About Me
    • About Honey Bee Suite
    • About the First Six Months
    • About Maggie
  • Search Tips
  • Blog
  • Archive
  • How-To
  • Sugar, Sugar
  • Splits
  • Swarming
  • Mites
  • ZomBees
  • Bee Nutrition
    • Forage
      • Plants for Bees
    • Pollen
    • Feeding Bees
      • Hard Candy
      • Candy with Protein
      • Wintergreen Grease Patties
      • Dry Pollen Substitute
  • Bee Briefs
  • A Taste of Honey
    • Variety List
    • My Life List
  • Native Bees
    • Bee Nests
  • Glossary
  • Galleries
    • Reader Hives
    • Non-Arthropods
  • Bookshelf
  • Papers
  • Oly Sr Ctr
  • Links
  • Kudos
  • Contact Me
You are here: Home » About

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About me

About this blog

About the first six months

  • July 26, 2010
  • Permalink
  • Bee Stories

    • A beekeeper's trip to Corvallis

      During the abyss of grade school, through mind-numbing months of long division, spelling, and the names of planets, I scrooched at my desk and stared ...

    • A bull in the beeyard

      I wanted to get some serious work done this morning, so I put my dog in the spare chicken yard—Hennery Eight, we call it—so he ...

    • A tale of honey bees and barbecue sauce

      Yesterday was perfect for mixing up a big batch of barbecue sauce. A friend had just given me a jar of her newest creation and ...

    • Gone, gone away

      When I analyze my beekeeping time—the hours I actually spend in the apiary—I estimate fully 40% is spent looking for my hive tool. You probably ...

    • The iterative method of swarm capture

      Part way up the ladder I stopped. The cardboard box I carried kept catching in the branches. The box was too big—I knew that—but I ...

    • The Zen of bees

      I sit perched on the hive stand, leaning back against number one. It vibrates like a refrigerator, low and steady. Scent oozes thickly from the ...

    • My worst beekeeping day ever

      The worst beekeeping day of my life had little to do with bees and everything to do with a spider. Cross spiders are everywhere in ...

    • Thy neighbors' bees

      I'm sure you've heard all kinds of horror stories about beekeepers and their neighbors--usually threats, warnings, or fears of some type. Well, here's one I ...

    • I love bees, but beekeeping? Not so much.

      Anyone who knows me knows I love bees. It's obvious. But I have moments when I wonder if I like beekeeping. Today, for example. I have ...

    • Messing about with beehives

      In “The Wind in the Willows” author Kenneth Grahame writes, “Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply ...

    • Mentoring the mentor

      Part 1: Bees behind bars My first opportunity to teach beekeeping occurred at a state prison. I had volunteered at the prison for several years as ...

    • Did the bees find their keeper?

      Early Thursday morning I received an e-mail from Katheryn, a resident of Covina, California. She wrote to ask if I would be willing to look ...

    • A day in the life: why do I do this?

      Why, oh, why do I keep bees? Yesterday was one of those days when I couldn’t remember. First of all it was totally wet outside. ...

    • Bad-ant advice and the ascension of bees

      You have no idea how terrible I feel about the following turn of events. I feel remorse. I feel guilt. I feel like I should ...

    • A sting in winter

      The pain began slowly but rose to a searing crescendo. The heat was furious, like someone holding a flame to my thumb. I knew what ...

    • Are they worker bees, girls, or units?

      Writing a blog is fun, especially when readers write comments and e-mails. This morning I opened a message with an e-mail address I had seen ...

    • That busy beehive smell

      What is the odor that so defines an industrious hive? It has to be a blend of beeswax, nectar, larvae, and pheromones--a mix overlaid with ...

    • Cemetery honey

      One of the things I loved about growing up in small-town America was that the post office put out the mail twice a day—once in ...

    • Mischievous proliferous: the scoop on bee poop

      Okay, Mischievous proliferous is not an official name for anything, but it’s the name given to honey bees by my husband. It is loosely translated ...

    • My bees have lost their sweet little minds

      This morning, after a week of advising everyone else to check on their bees, I decided I’d better do the same. I figured there would ...

    • Why I hate ants

      I grew up in rural Pennsylvania in a tiny town nestled below the Allegheny Mountains. I loved the place—the woods, the farmland, the mountains. And ...

    • A bee in the bra is worth a dozen anywhere else

      Seriously. I work with bees a lot. I get stung a lot. But from time to time a honey bee really freaks me out. Yesterday was ...

    • The dead hive that isn’t

      Saturday was a perfect day on the northwest coast. Rumor claims that all the elements come together only six days a year: warm enough to ...

    • My husband made me do it

      It was a Sunday morning, exactly nine days after I split my top-bar hive with a Taranov board. I finished answering e-mails before I walked ...

  • Plants that Attract Pollinators

    Popular Garden Plants:

    Basil (Ocimum)
    Bee balm (Monardia)
    Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
    Bluebeard (Caryopteris)
    Borage (Borago)
    Caltrop (Kallstroemia)
    Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)
    English Lavendar (Lavandula)
    Escallonia (Escallonia)
    Evening primrose (Oenothera)
    Globe thistle (Echinops)
    Hyssop (Hyssopus)
    Licorice Mint (Agastache)
    Marjoram (Origanum)
    Mexican sunflower (Tithonia)
    Milkweed (Asclepias)
    Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (Cleome)
    Rosemary (Rosmarinus)
    Russian Sage (Perovskia)
    Sage (Salvia)
    Siberian squill (Scilla)
    Wallflower (Erysimum)
    Wild lilac (Ceanothus)
    Zinnia (Zinnia)

    Northwest Native Plants:

    Aster (Aster)
    California poppy (Eschscholzia)
    Currant (Ribes)
    Elder (Sambucus)
    Fireweed (Epilobium)
    Goldenrod (Solidago)
    Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium)
    Larkspur (Delphinium)
    Lupine (Lupinus)
    Madrone (Arbutus)
    Mint (Mentha)
    Oregon grape (Berberis)
    Penstemon (Penstemon)
    Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus)
    Rhododendron (Rhododendron)
    Saskatoon (Amalanchier)
    Scorpion-weed (Phacelia)
    Snowberry (Symphoricarpos)
    Stonecrop (Sedum)
    Sunflower (Helianthus)
    Wild buckwheat (Eriogonum)
    Willow (Salix)
    Yarrow (Achillea)

  • Mission Statement

    Honey Bee Suite is dedicated to honey bees, beekeeping, wild bees, other pollinators, and pollination ecology. It is designed to be informative and fun, but also to remind readers that pollinators throughout the world are endangered. Although they may seem small and insignificant, pollinators are vital to anyone who eats.
  • Stings ‘n Things

    Nature Blog Network

  • Copyright Notice

    Unless otherwise noted, all text and images appearing on HoneyBeeSuite.com are © Rusty Burlew 2010-2013 and may not be used without prior permission.
  • Bumble Bee with Pollen

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Honey Bee Suite by Rusty Burlew

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