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Hive tapping is an easy way to estimate colony health. It doesn't harm the bees because noise is normal.

wintering

The winter hive: to tap or not to tap

4 years ago

46 Comments

5 min read

wintering

For the best overwintering success, do one thing differently

5 years ago

54 Comments

6 min read

wintering

Did your bees die of cold or starvation?

6 years ago

40 Comments

4 min read

A quick winter hive check can be as simple as just walking by and looking for anything unusual.

wintering

Overwintering honey bees: a guide to the fundamentals

6 years ago

95 Comments

11 min read

beekeeping equipment • wintering

Thermal imaging for beekeepers

7 years ago

26 Comments

7 min read

wintering

Fall hive management: dealing with dinks

7 years ago

45 Comments

4 min read

wintering

My hives have no brood! What should I do?

7 years ago

43 Comments

5 min read

wintering

Don’t mind the cold: how to open a hive in winter

7 years ago

31 Comments

6 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

wintering

IR and hive maintenance: what glows?

8 years ago

20 Comments

4 min read

wintering

Thermal images of winter bees

8 years ago

16 Comments

4 min read

how to • wintering

Winter hive check: how to help your bees thrive

8 years ago

77 Comments

6 min read

A top-bar-hive-in-winter. A to-do list for wintertime hive prep.

wintering

Wintertime hive prep: a list of things to do

8 years ago

18 Comments

4 min read

wintering

Dead bees in the snow

9 years ago

64 Comments

3 min read

wintering

Spring in February

9 years ago

20 Comments

2 min read

wintering

Worried about my bees

9 years ago

31 Comments

3 min read

wintering

Moisture quilts should be dry

9 years ago

24 Comments

4 min read

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This book started zillions of people on their path to beekeeping. If you haven't read it, you should.

QueenSpotting: Meet the Remarkable Queen Bee and Discover the Drama at the Heart of the Hive by Hilary Kearney. You have to be a scrooge not to love this book. It even includes 48 queenspotting challenges.

The Bees in Your Backyard by Wilson & Carril. If you have any interest at all in the "other bees," you need this book. These are the bees we need to save.

Manuka: The biography of an extraordinary honey by Cliff van Eaton. The discovery of manuka honey and its medicinal properties.

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.