Category - how to

comb honey • how to

Update on how to eat comb honey

April 10, 2010

20 Comments

1 min read

A queen bee on a frame of bees. Find your queen bee by quickly scanning the frames.

how to • queen bees

How to find your queen bee

April 8, 2010

29 Comments

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

beekeeping equipment • feeding bees • honey bee management • how to

How to use a baggie feeder

April 7, 2010

25 Comments

3 min read

Comb honey is especially good with savory crackers and your favorite cheese.

comb honey • how to

How to eat comb honey: a unique taste treat

April 4, 2010

173 Comments

4 min read

beekeeping equipment • how to

How to use a slatted rack

March 21, 2010

79 Comments

3 min read

attracting wild pollinators • how to • mason bees • wild bees and native bees

Tips for planting a pollinator garden

March 14, 2010

3 Comments

2 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.