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Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee behavior • spring management • swarming

Backfilling the brood nest

February 21, 2012

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee behavior • swarming

Bee sweet and don’t ask me such things!

July 15, 2011

2 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

A perfect swarm

July 9, 2011

3 min read

honey bee behavior • swarming

One trap catches two swarms . . . at the same time

June 25, 2011

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

One tree, three swarms

June 24, 2011

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee behavior • swarming

“A swarm in June . . .” No, make that two

June 23, 2011

2 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee behavior • swarming

A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon

June 22, 2011

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

Romancing the swarm: the dream of wild bees

June 13, 2011

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

bee biology • swarming

Drones signal the onset of swarm season

April 22, 2011

1 min read

beekeeping equipment • how to • swarming

My design for a bait hive

March 31, 2011

4 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee management • how to • making increase • queen bees • swarming

How to make a walkaway split to build more colonies

January 23, 2011

2 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

beekeeping equipment • how to • making increase • queen rearing • swarming

How to start multiple hives from a swarm-control split

January 22, 2011

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

diseases • honey bee management • how to • making increase • queen bees • swarming

How to make a swarm-control split

January 20, 2011

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee behavior • swarming

Usurpation: when one colony takes over another

November 28, 2010

2 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee behavior • swarming

Shaking the queen into shape

November 12, 2010

2 min read

Sometimes things can go wrong with swarm traps. This one contains a wasp nest.

beekeeping equipment • swarming

Swarm traps can be powerful or no good at all

September 12, 2010

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.