It was the night before Christmas. Although the chill wind brought shivers, the two sisters peered through the shallow doorway and into the dark. The frigid scene snatched their breath away, causing them to huddle close, stealing each other’s warmth. The glistening snow, glazed with a crunchy top, twinkled reflections from a decorated pine, and […] Read more
Beekeepers have dozens of rules about what honey bees like or don’t like, and what honey bees need or don’t need. Many of these rules seem logical in human terms, at least superficially. But problems arise because honey bees don’t know about these rules and, in truth, they don’t give a rip. Humans talk to […] Read more
The message seems clear: “Thank you for taking such good care of us!” Debbie Fyda, a beekeeper in Ohio, received this adorable message of bee love from one of her colonies. She writes, “I opened the one hive and the bees were propolizing the double screen and this is what they did! Pretty neat! I […] Read more
The worst beekeeping mistakes come from putting off what you should have done yesterday. Somehow, problems inside a bee hive don’t get better by themselves. I keep thinking they will, but they don’t. I normally remove my honey supers by June 30 because that is the start of our nectar dearth. Once the supers come […] Read more
Editor’s note: Sometimes having a website seems like having hundreds of pen friends. The pen friends are the ones who keep writing, year after year, even though many months may pass between communications. Email addresses tend to stick in my mind, so when one of these lands in my inbox, I’m always pleased. Renaldo Raymond […] Read more
Last evening Dizzykin wanted to go out at 10 pm. His little sister, Minikin, followed fifteen minutes later. I was elated at the prospect of spending an entire night without cats lounging all over me, grooming incessantly, and leaving pieces of themselves all over the blankets. I looked forward to a stretch of tranquility. But […] Read more
Yes, I really do have a camouflage bee suit. It wasn’t an idea that came to me fully formed, but one that evolved piecemeal. Over the past several years I’ve had frequent encounters with camouflage. The most embarrassing one occurred in 2009 when I was in graduate school at The Evergreen State College. The school is […] Read more