A while back I received an intriguing letter from a homeowner complaining about his neighbor’s beehives. The letter said, in part, “This year the landowner at the rear of my house installed approximately fifteen hives. Consequently, for three months now my house and cars have been smothered in bee poop. The beekeeper has said he […] Read more
Sunshine made an unexpected appearance, so I got my camera and went looking for . . . well, I really didn’t know. Just something. The trees were heavy with blossoms, the bees were soaring, and it seemed like an all-around good day for photos. What I found was completely unexpected. I started photographing a honey […] Read more
Although it is late fall here in the northern hemisphere, it is late spring in New Zealand. Down there the honey bees are rocketing from nest to nectar and back again, feeding their young and leaving telltale yellow splotches everywhere. Earlier this week I received a fascinating e-mail from a man on the northern end […] Read more
Dysentery in honey bees is one of those unfortunate terms that results in nothing but confusion and misconception. It’s right up there with the word “organic” to describe food grown without manmade fertilizers and pesticides. If you apply the traditional meaning of organic—which, with a few exceptions, refers to chemical compounds containing carbon—then the large […] Read more
Yesterday I read the following statement on the blog of a well-known beekeeper. “First I looked at the hive entrances which had signs of nosema the last time I visited. The hive looked just the same – no new nosema on the side of the hive.” Whoa! There are at least two things wrong with […] Read more
Yesterday, when I saw hundreds of honey bees in the Alaska cedar hedge (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) in front of my house, I thought they must be collecting propolis. But on closer inspection, it was obvious they were collecting pollen. Their corbiculae were full of pollen the exact color of the pollen-bearing strobili that adorned the tips […] Read more
Dear Readers, An innkeeper in South Africa has a problem and maybe you can help. There, they hang the laundry outside to dry, but his inn is adjacent to a field with 100 hives. He can’t get the yellow/orange stains out of the laundry and wants to know if there is a way to do […] Read more