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Home » bee stories

Category - bee stories

bee stories

A Christmas Tale: the fantasy of flight

December 21, 2020
20 Comments
5 min read
bee stories

How sparkling clean are your bait hives?

July 22, 2019
20 Comments
5 min read
bee stories

Bee love: sealed with a propolis kiss

September 8, 2018
2 Comments
1 min read
bee stories

Incredibly stupid things a beekeeper can do

August 8, 2017
81 Comments
9 min read
bee stories

A swarm capture from the dark side

May 29, 2017
26 Comments
6 min read
Tray-of-dead-bees
bee stories

The night moves of a once dead bee

January 25, 2017
35 Comments
5 min read
Old-Blue-Raw-Honey-front
bee stories • varietal honey

Do bees make poison ivy and poison oak honey?

September 4, 2016
43 Comments
6 min read
The fabric of my camo bee suit.
bee stories

How I came to have a camo bee suit

January 30, 2016
14 Comments
6 min read
Edward-Traill-mining-bee-2
bee stories

When pests become pets with portraits

October 12, 2015
29 Comments
3 min read
Honey bees can seem so peaceful until you get stung from the rear. Pixabay photo.
bee stories

Facing front, stung from behind

July 1, 2015
39 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
bee stories

Stickier than honey

February 3, 2015
19 Comments
3 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
bee stories

Bees in an icebox

June 15, 2014
11 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
bee stories • stings

The suspense of the sting

June 12, 2014
23 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
bee stories

The “tear ’em off” split

May 19, 2014
15 Comments
3 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
bee stories

When your bees mess with you

April 13, 2014
17 Comments
4 min read
bee stories • how to

How to get stung 22 times in one place

January 3, 2014
33 Comments
4 min read
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My Favorite Books & Bee Supplies

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Bee Wise

Go to the bee, thou poet: consider her ways and be wise.

—George Bernard Shaw

Bee-yond Bees

Bees are more than a hobby; they are a life study, in many respects a mirror of our own society.

—William Longgood

Why Honey Bee is Two Words

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

State Insects

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.

Where Are Your Hives?

Beekeepers are everywhere. Each time someone visits Honey Bee Suite, his or her location will appear on the map.

A Song of the Bees

In case you missed it: A Song of the Bees

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