After months of study, you finally take the plunge and buy your very first wooden hive. You sand the sweet-smelling boards until they feel like silk beneath your fingers. You browse the paint aisle of your local home improvement store and spend far too much money, buying colors that spark your imagination, colors with names […] Read more
A bee lifespan is difficult for people to comprehend. I know this because of the endless stream of mail I receive asking how to save a bee that appears to be dying. People who care about bees, or pollinators in general, are often empathetic with distraught bugs and sincerely want to help. However, if a […] Read more
I have an open-air colony in my backyard, something I never expected to see. Ever. But why a swarm of bees on the wet coast of Washington would elect to build a home in a tree is inconceivable. It’s also kind of hare-brained, I think. One month ago, at the end of May, I wrote […] Read more
Everywhere you look these days, people are making, buying, and using beeswax food wraps. If the concept is new to you, a beeswax food wrap is a piece of beeswax-infused cotton fabric that is meant to be used in place of plastic or aluminum food wrap. Since they are reusable, beeswax wraps are thought to […] Read more
How I wish I could claim credit for the phrase Vespid-19. But, alas, I cannot. It was suggested to me by Nancy Partlow of OlyPollinators and it perfectly describes the current situation. An exotic vespid wasp, Vespa mandarinia, was first discovered in the Pacific Northwest in late 2019 and has since spread further and faster […] Read more
After a few years of beekeeping, it’s natural to assess a colony and predict what will happen next. But this year, as so often happens, I totally misread a colony that lives in my backyard. Twice. Or more, depending on how you count. The backstory Last fall, during a pre-winter inspection, I checked all my […] Read more
Extracted honey can never hold a candle to honey in the comb. Imagine harvesting the choicest Zinfandel, Chianti, Syrah, and Merlot, then swirling them all together in a cavernous vat. The result is anemic red wine. The high notes and the low, the color, and the bouquet are all confused into an insipid muddle not […] Read more