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Archive - May 2010

beekeepers

Beekeepers develop their six senses

11 years ago

3 min read

beekeeping equipment • honey bee management

Too much moisture in the hive

11 years ago

2 min read

comb honey

Messing in the kitchen with honeycomb

11 years ago

3 min read

bee forage • pesticides • pollinator threats

Transgenic crops and honey bees

11 years ago

3 min read

bee forage • varietal honey

Mini cascara flowers are now in bloom

11 years ago

3 min read

honey bee management

An “undercover” queen nearly loses her life

11 years ago

2 min read

pollinator threats • wild bees and native bees

Ten ways to help the bees, starting today

11 years ago

3 min read

Varroa mites feed on honey bee hemolymph

11 years ago

1 min read

honey bee management • varroa mites

Reduce varroa mites by culling honey bee drones

11 years ago

4 min read

bee forage • varietal honey

Honeydew: waste management in the insect world

11 years ago

2 min read

beekeeping equipment

Follower boards in a Langstroth hive

11 years ago

2 min read

bee biology • swarming

Preventing a swarm is not easy

11 years ago

3 min read

bee forage

Bigleaf maples covered in moss

11 years ago

1 min read

Maple honey is a taste of spring

11 years ago

2 min read

Queen-cells-Rusty-Burlew

swarming

Is it a swarm cell or a supersedure cell?

11 years ago

4 min read

bee biology • swarming

Swarm prevention: a duel with the forces of nature

11 years ago

3 min read

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass

The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:

Arkansas
Georgia
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

Update! Minnesota now has a state bee as well as a state insect. Bombus affinis, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee, has been so honored. Good work, Minnesota!