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Home » queen bees

Category - queen bees

A small round queen cup attached to burr comb.
queen bees

The magic of queen cups: here today, gone tomorrow

8 months ago
12 Comments
7 min read
Queen cells can be a sign of queenlessness.
queen bees

How to recognize a queenless hive: 9 reliable ways

8 months ago
29 Comments
7 min read
You can install queen cells instead of mated queens with excellent results.
queen bees

How to cut & install queen cells easily without harm

10 months ago
18 Comments
10 min read
queen bees

Make it easy to find your queen bee: never struggle again

1 year ago
15 Comments
7 min read
Here, you can see larvae of different ages. The very youngest are the normal candidates for queenhood; older larvae produce intercaste queens.
queen bees

An intercaste queen stars in a class act of survival

1 year ago
25 Comments
5 min read
queen bees

A virgin queen’s fertility window

1 year ago
35 Comments
3 min read
queen bees

A virgin queen bee with deformed wings

5 years ago
16 Comments
2 min read
queen bees

Requeening a hive may not be the best answer

6 years ago
74 Comments
8 min read
Queen-return-4
queen bees

A queen returning from a mating flight

7 years ago
42 Comments
2 min read
Queen-bee-on-comb
queen bees

Why clip the wings of your queen?

7 years ago
49 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
queen bees

Should I destroy extra queen cells?

7 years ago
47 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
queen bees

Queen piping: listen!

8 years ago
18 Comments
1 min read
Be careful not to roll your queens. Pixabay
queen bees

Be careful! Don’t roll your queen!

9 years ago
19 Comments
2 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
pesticides • queen rearing • stings

When the weak become strong

9 years ago
34 Comments
6 min read
If you need to kill a queen for any reason, consider making her into a swarm lure by soaking her body in alcohol.
queen bees

Tincture of queen: how to make the best swarm lure

10 years ago
26 Comments
2 min read
How to manage bees for section honey. Maja Dumat
queen bees

What’s a bored queen bee to do?

10 years ago
6 Comments
3 min read
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This website is made possible by people like you. Its purpose is to discuss contemporary issues in beekeeping and bee science. It is non-discriminatory, encompassing both honey bees and wild bees. Your support matters. Thank you.

Books for Bee Folks

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.

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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?

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A Song of the Bees

In case you missed it: A Song of the Bees

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