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Category - rants

Beekeepers have a responsibility to each other to not let the mites be mites.

rants

“Let the mites be mites” is no longer an option

6 years ago

105 Comments

8 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

rants • writing and blogging

A letter to sticky-fingered beekeepers

9 years ago

48 Comments

3 min read

muddled thinking • rants

The fear of bees

9 years ago

17 Comments

4 min read

pollinator threats • rants

Kill it! Kill it!

9 years ago

55 Comments

4 min read

rants • wild bees and native bees

Take the pollinator challenge

10 years ago

22 Comments

5 min read

honey bee management • rants

Tracking Hive Tracks

10 years ago

20 Comments

5 min read

rants • writing and blogging

Are their ethics loose in the package too?

10 years ago

17 Comments

3 min read

rants

The big bad dirty environment for honey bees

11 years ago

5 Comments

3 min read

Some "old" beekeepers don't seem to realize times have changed. This is not your grandfather's world.

rants

A personal note to cranky old beekeepers

11 years ago

23 Comments

3 min read

bees in the news • rants

Shame on the photo thieves

11 years ago

47 Comments

4 min read

rants • varroa mites

Hopping mad at HopGuard

12 years ago

73 Comments

5 min read

There is nothing wrong with wearing beekeeping gloves. Use them as long as you like.

beekeeping equipment • rants

Shed beekeeping gloves when it feels right: don’t hurry

12 years ago

21 Comments

3 min read

Two signs pointing in opposite directions.Like everyone else, we beekeepers need to make choices based on facts, not emotion.

rants

Trying to communicate with beekeepers is tough

12 years ago

12 Comments

2 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.

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.

Category - rants

“Let the mites be mites” is no longer an option

A letter to sticky-fingered beekeepers

The fear of bees

Kill it! Kill it!

Take the pollinator challenge

Tracking Hive Tracks

Return of the photo thieves

Learning to fly

Are their ethics loose in the package too?

The big bad dirty environment for honey bees

A personal note to cranky old beekeepers

Brooklyn bees take a bath

Shame on the photo thieves

Hopping mad at HopGuard

Shed beekeeping gloves when it feels right: don’t hurry

Trying to communicate with beekeepers is tough