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Archive - 2019

writing and blogging

Much to celebrate: Honey Bee Suite is 10 and counting

1 year ago

24 Comments

7 min read

wild bees and native bees

Cultivating an obsession with bees

1 year ago

17 Comments

12 min read

wintering

The winter hive: to tap or not to tap

1 year ago

40 Comments

4 min read

bee rescue

A humongous hive in a house

1 year ago

12 Comments

2 min read

publications

Wintertime reading for bee people

1 year ago

6 Comments

10 min read

varroa mites

Opposing views of mite management: data vs date

1 year ago

33 Comments

5 min read

writing and blogging

Thank you for reading Honey Bee Suite

1 year ago

47 Comments

5 min read

publications

Get a free subscription to 2 Million Blossoms!

1 year ago

3 Comments

1 min read

When the zinc coating begins to corrode, it sheds as a grayish-white powder which may be toxic to bees.

feeding bees

Is zinc toxic to honey bees?

1 year ago

27 Comments

5 min read

Varroa drawers: The varroa drawers and screens are interchangeable and easy to clean.

beekeeping equipment

A short history of the Valkyrie long hive

1 year ago

39 Comments

15 min read

honeycomb

What the heck is a honey cone?

1 year ago

22 Comments

3 min read

bees in art

A close-knit family of bees

1 year ago

6 Comments

2 min read

beekeeping equipment

Slatted racks: everything you need to know

1 year ago

61 Comments

7 min read

attracting wild pollinators

Distinctive domiciles for solitary bees

1 year ago

2 Comments

5 min read

publications

Want 2 Million Blossoms delivered to your door?

1 year ago

3 Comments

2 min read

wild bees and native bees

Immigrant bees that colonized North America

1 year ago

2 Comments

14 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!