Tag - bee boxes

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

beekeeping equipment • how to

How to use an eke in a bee hive

May 7, 2011

21 Comments

beekeeping equipment

Why buy eight-frame hive equipment?

March 17, 2011

16 Comments

Unpainted beehives often do not last as long as painted ones.

beekeeping equipment

An unpainted hive makes for poor and expensive bee...

February 20, 2011

25 Comments

beekeeping equipment • how to

How to assemble a bee box

January 29, 2011

30 Comments

English for beekeepers

How to safely store empty supers & frames in...

January 4, 2011

45 Comments

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.