Archive - January 2018

Hens behind a chain link fence. Is poultry blood in bee feed a good idea.

feeding bees

Up next: bird blood in bee feed

3 years ago

44 Comments

6 min read

miscellaneous musings

Beekeeping will change you for the worse

3 years ago

104 Comments

7 min read

varroa mites

Treat your bees, but hold the lithium

3 years ago

59 Comments

5 min read

wild bees and native bees

Halictus farinosus on drumstick allium

3 years ago

7 Comments

3 min read

apiary creatures

Eristalis tenax, the most photographed “bee” in America

3 years ago

20 Comments

4 min read

honey

Is infused honey safe to eat?

3 years ago

9 Comments

4 min read

Three hives where the varroa drawers were pulled out by rats.

predators

Rats as honey bee predators

3 years ago

16 Comments

2 min read

apiary creatures

Who visits your bee hive at night?

3 years ago

27 Comments

4 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!