Tag - brood box

beekeeping equipment

The trouble with triples

10 years ago

16 Comments

beekeeping equipment

Triple deep questions

10 years ago

21 Comments

beekeeping equipment

Even painted boxes warp

11 years ago

1 Comment

beekeeping equipment

Yet another take on follower boards

11 years ago

9 Comments

beekeeping equipment • how to

How to make follower boards for a Langstroth hive

11 years ago

43 Comments

English for beekeepers

Bee box terminology: what to call all the sizes

12 years ago

14 Comments

beekeeping equipment

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.