No one knows exactly when some of the ancient hunting wasps stopped chasing their meals and opted for veggies. We simply don’t have detailed records of early transitional species. What we do know is that some descendants of the early Crabronidae family of wasps gave up meat in favor of pollen, eventually becoming bees. By […] Read more
Rotating brood boxes, also called reversing, is a time-honored rite of spring. Beekeepers parade into their apiaries on the first warmish day and switch the position of their two brood boxes. They pry the boxes apart with a sharp crack and put the upper one where the lower one used to be, then place the […] Read more
A few months have passed since I last railed about English for beekeepers. But in a recent letter to the editor of the American Bee Journal, honey bee researcher Sue Cobey took up the cause. Briefly, she discussed the difference between queen rearing (queen propagation) and queen breeding (genetic evaluation and selection). She also mentioned […] Read more
When it comes to paper straws for cavity-nesting bees, I think I’ve tried them all. But last week, I was surfing around looking for a good deal when I came across SipSticks paper straws. They claim to be BPA-free, food safe, and FDA approved. The bees like that. But the thing that attracted me was […] Read more
Silence is a powerful thing. I was on my way to the compost bin when I noticed an enormous mound of dead bees in front of my strongest hive. No buzz issued from the landing board. No industrious thrum from above. The absence of sound shattered the morning. I was dumbstruck. When I opened that […] Read more
Over many years of blogging, certain beekeepers have kept me entertained by sending photos of their latest creative masterpieces. One of those is Michael Skeels of Frenchtown, Montana. Like others with a creative streak, Michael uses the long winters to prepare for bee season. This year he writes: You know how winter can be long […] Read more
No one knows how they got there, but a colony of stingless bees was recently discovered at the Elizabeth Gamble Garden in Palo Alto, California. The scant information I’ve read came from an observation posted to iNaturalist on Sunday, March 31. The bees are in the genus Plebeia, a member of the Meliponini tribe, which […] Read more