I first learned about this plant several years ago when I was visiting the dentist. In front of his office was a gorgeous bush covered in blue flowers. I stopped to look and noticed it was infested with honey bees . . . hundreds of them. I simply had to have one of these, so […] Read more
Yesterday I began reading The Quest for the Perfect Hive: A History of Innovation in Bee Culture by entomologist Gene Kritsky (2010). The book is a history of hive design from ancient times to the present, including drawings, photos and descriptions of what worked, what didn’t, and why some hives were more popular than others […] Read more
The temperature dropped to 46 degrees F last night. Alder leaves are falling by the bushel. It rained all last week. I wore a sweater all day yesterday. Instead of brown and crispy, my lawn is still green. What is going on? Summer never really started here in the Puget Sound area and I’ve kind […] Read more
If you’ve got a lot of bee boxes to paint, you can make it easier by stringing them on a board suspended between two saw horses, chairs, or whatever is handy. The job goes fast because you can stand in one place and just roll the supers around the board as you paint. You can […] Read more
Nothing has stirred up taxonomic relationships faster than genetic analysis. Relationships between species—both plant and animal—have been turned upside down. Some relationships that were “set in stone” are now known to be non-existent, and living things thought to have no relationship whatsoever are now considered “kissing cousins.” New family trees are being drawn, names are […] Read more
This one surprised me. I’ve grown lovage for many years, but I usually cut it back before it flowers. This year I let it go. Yesterday I was amazed to count over forty honey bees on one plant. I had no idea they liked it so well. Lovage, Levisticum officinale, is in the same family […] Read more
Since I wrote my post on over-inspecting hives and Karen Peteros wrote her rebuttal, I’ve been mulling over the concept of urban beekeeping. I still think my philosophy is best for the bees, that is, leave them alone as much as possible. On the other hand, I think Karen’s philosophy is best for urban beekeepers […] Read more