Honey Bee SuiteA Better Way to Bee

Home » Bee Blog

Bee Blog

Learning how to smoke bees is a necessary beekeeping skill.

smoke for bees

How to smoke bees: 10 tips for best results

3 months ago

23 Comments

7 min read

Trying to kill bees with vinegar is probably a waste of time.

honey bee myths

How to kill bees with vinegar (it never works)

3 months ago

15 Comments

6 min read

The scientific names of bees are fun because they tell you things about the insect you are looking at, including its relationship to other species.

English for beekeepers

Learn to love the scientific names of bees

3 months ago

8 Comments

14 min read

You can't tell a scout bee by looks but by their behavior. Pixabay image.

honey bee behavior

3 simple ways to recognize a honey bee scout

3 months ago

6 Comments

5 min read

Beekeeping mistakes are often caused by making assumptions.

how to

17 costly beekeeping mistakes and how to avoid them

3 months ago

18 Comments

9 min read

bee biology

Why is it so difficult to breed better bees?

3 months ago

38 Comments

16 min read

Beeswax candles are fun to make from filtered beeswax.

beekeeping equipment

37 tested gift ideas for your favorite beekeeper 2022

3 months ago

44 Comments

9 min read

Butterfly nets are useful for beekeepers. Some, like this collapsible model, can fit in a regular backpack or fit in a bucket with your hive inspection tools.

beekeeping equipment

The best, most practical butterfly nets for beekeepers

4 months ago

13 Comments

5 min read

An outdoor latrine often attracts insects of many kinds, even bees.

honey bee behavior

Why do bees visit latrines as they make honey?

4 months ago

15 Comments

4 min read

Beekeepers are under attack but the amount of competition between bee species varies with the bees and their environment. Here a wild bee forages on Oregon Sunshine, a plant the honey bees also enjoy.

wild bees and native bees

Once folk heroes, some beekeepers are targeted by ecoterrorists

4 months ago

18 Comments

15 min read

Here, yellowjackets are lined up on the door to a storage shed, making it difficult to enter. The nest is protected inside the shed.

predators

The ultimate yellowjacket trap is in your trash

4 months ago

31 Comments

7 min read

A honey bee collecting water. Honey bees will fly as far as necessary to find water.

honey bee behavior

The remarkable distance honey bees actually fly

4 months ago

20 Comments

6 min read

So-called baby bees mingle with mature bees on a brood frame.

bee biology

Baby bees are like baby gnats: full size

5 months ago

7 Comments

3 min read

Honey bees do many things well, but they are useless for sonication (buzz pollination).

bee biology

Sonication: why honey bees cannot buzz pollinate

5 months ago

4 Comments

12 min read

varroa mites

Oxalic acid best practices: safely treat for varroa

5 months ago

24 Comments

8 min read

honey bee management

Winter patties or pollen patties: how to choose the right one

6 months ago

1 Comment

3 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.

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!

Connecticut’s state insect is the European “praying” mantis. Although they are beneficial insects, they are not native to North America.