This well-researched and cleverly assembled infographic, 21 Buzzworthy Facts, is the work of Jake Lane of LawnStarter, Inc. I especially like that it doesn’t say anything about “one-third of all the food we eat” (I’m really tired of that), it does not try to glorify CCD as the next Armageddon, nor does it try to […] Read more
A shortage of pollen is a relatively new concern for beekeepers. Once upon a time, pollen was taken for granted. But today, a bountiful and diverse supply of pollen is sometimes lacking. Habitat loss, invasive plants, monoculture farming, and herbicides are just some of the reasons. A pollen grain is simply a small package containing […] Read more
It’s late. I’m tired of reading and writing. But I just came across this succinct little statement on another bee blog and it made me smile. Seriously. We all need to smile, right? “The queen cups are basically spare queen cells in case a queen needs to be laid right away.”
It’s is hard to image what you expect them to do. I’ve never seen an industrious-looking egg, even though a lot is happening on the inside. Honey bees remain in the egg stage for about 72-76 hours, assuming nest temperatures are normal. During that time, the fertilized (female) or unfertilized (male) cells begin dividing and […] Read more
Bumble bee queens hibernate. According to the Miriam-Webster site, hibernate means “to pass the winter in a torpid or resting state; especially : to pass the winter in a torpid condition in which the body temperature drops to a little above freezing and metabolic activity is reduced nearly to zero.” Estivate, on the other hand, […] Read more
If you are saying you have honey and sugar syrup mixed together in your frames, there is no way to separate them. If you can see the difference—that is, if the bees have put them in different cells and you can detect a color shift—you may be able to just uncapped those that have honey […] Read more
You could put it that way. The drone arose from an unfertilized egg and so he has one set of chromosomes from the queen (his mother) and no father. But his mother arose from a fertilized egg. That means she had two sets of chromosomes, one from her mother and one from her father. Since […] Read more