I remember the first time I made sugar syrup. It was just after I purchased a new hive and was told to feed them 1:1 syrup. This seemed horribly confusing at the time. Books and beekeepers were brimming with sage advice such as “use weight, not volume” or “use volume, not weight.” Then there was […] Read more
I came across this on Wikimedia while I was researching something else. The photographer describes it as: “Slowed down footage of a bee squirting a clear liquid from its anus, taken at the Auckland Botanical Gardens. Originally the event happened fast enough, 4 frames at 30 fps, that it was only viewable upon being slowed […] Read more
The short answer is yes, bees are both insects and animals. In fact, all insects are animals, and pretty much anything that’s not a plant, fungus, bacterium, virus, or protist is an animal too. I’m dating myself here, but when I attended grade school, everything was either a plant or an animal—those were the only […] Read more
Whoa! I was overwhelmed by the response to It’s pink with star-shaped petals. It seems that everyone wants to know what plants their bees are foraging on. I received many photos already and many suggestions. Here are some of the requests: Other people provided links to their favorite plant information sites, including: So, here’s my […] Read more
A reader in Maryland was told by a master beekeeper that 1) there are fewer chemicals in purchased foundation than previously thought and 2) foundationless hives have just as many chemicals as hives containing purchased foundation. She doubted these gems of wisdom and wanted to know if I’d seen any research supporting these claims. First […] Read more
I am announcing a new project here at Honey Bee Suite, a collaboration with Bill Reynolds of Minnesota. Credit the idea to Bill. He mentioned that many beekeepers don’t know what their bees are foraging on simply because they can’t identify the plants. So he thought it would be useful to link the list of […] Read more
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 it was of course. I’d felt it a hundred times before. It was cold outside—mid 20s with a light dusting of snow. I had decided to slip some hard candy […] Read more