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Home » rants

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

8 years ago
48 Comments
3 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
muddled thinking • rants

The fear of bees

9 years ago
17 Comments
4 min read
Osmia-aglaia-5
pollinator threats • rants

Kill it! Kill it!

9 years ago
54 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
rants • wild bees and native bees

Take the pollinator challenge

9 years ago
22 Comments
5 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
honey bee management • rants

Tracking Hive Tracks

9 years ago
20 Comments
5 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
rants • writing and blogging

Return of the photo thieves

9 years ago
12 Comments
1 min read
rants

Learning to fly

10 years ago
16 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
rants

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

10 years ago
5 Comments
3 min read
rants

A personal note to cranky old beekeepers

10 years ago
21 Comments
3 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
bees in the news • rants

Brooklyn bees take a bath

10 years ago
3 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
rants

Shame on the photo thieves

11 years ago
47 Comments
4 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
rants • varroa mites

Hopping mad at HopGuard

11 years ago
69 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

11 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

11 years ago
12 Comments
2 min read
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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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