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physics for beekeepers

Physics for beekeepers: mold in a beehive

7 years ago

35 Comments

6 min read

bee feces • honey bee behavior • physics for beekeepers

How the inverse square law governs the distribution of bee poop

7 years ago

60 Comments

5 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

physics for beekeepers

Hive temperature vs humidity

9 years ago

17 Comments

3 min read

To study how bees keep warm in winter, Bill Reynolds installed temperature monitors in three hives. Two hives contained bees and one was empty.

physics for beekeepers

The surprising way honey bees stay warm in winter

9 years ago

34 Comments

4 min read

how to • physics for beekeepers

Shaking larvae from their beds

9 years ago

14 Comments

3 min read

physics for beekeepers

Physics for beekeepers: temperature in the hive

10 years ago

24 Comments

6 min read

physics for beekeepers

Physics for beekeepers: heat loss from spheres

12 years ago

6 Comments

3 min read

feeding bees • physics for beekeepers

Physics for beekeepers: Why bees can eat solid sugar in winter

12 years ago

5 Comments

3 min read

feeding bees • physics for beekeepers

Physics for beekeepers: heat transfer in sugar syrup

12 years ago

19 Comments

4 min read

physics for beekeepers • ventilation

Physics for beekeepers: How does ventilation increase honey production?

12 years ago

25 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.