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Home » how-to

Tag - how-to

A small honey harvest can be disappointing, and many things can go wrong.
honey production

13 reasons for small honey harvests (& how to...

4 months ago
13 Comments
A reason for using upright hollow stems for bees: This western blue orchard bee with mites. Photo © Briana Lindh.
mason bees

Upright hollow stems: much better than toxic mason bee...

5 months ago
21 Comments
how to

How to keep bees like a scientist

3 years ago
42 Comments
beeswax

How to make beeswax food wraps step by step

3 years ago
32 Comments
feeding bees

How to feed stacked nucs in winter

4 years ago
25 Comments
bee rescue

The Price trap-out: no bee left behind

4 years ago
19 Comments
bee biology

How to identify a honey bee using wing veins

5 years ago
26 Comments
honey

How to store honey at home

6 years ago
43 Comments
miscellaneous musings

How should we train the newbees?

6 years ago
45 Comments
carol-lew-barn-2
hive placement

Something you need to know: how to hide your beehive

7 years ago
40 Comments
Table burned with smoker.
how to • smoke for bees

How to light a smoker so it stays lit

7 years ago
41 Comments
A quick winter hive check can be as simple as just walking by and looking for anything unusual.
how to • wintering

Winter hive check: how to help your bees thrive

8 years ago
77 Comments
Nail-pattern into feeder
feeding bees • how to

How to make no-cook candy boards for wintering bees

8 years ago
150 Comments
Honey-and-comb
comb honey • how to

How to make value-subtracted honey

8 years ago
90 Comments
Aram's-steam-melter-8
beeswax • how to

How to make a steam melter for beeswax

8 years ago
15 Comments
Queen-excluder-blocked-with-beeswax
how to

How to clean wireware

8 years ago
24 Comments
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This website is made possible by people like you. Its purpose is to discuss contemporary issues in beekeeping and bee science. It is non-discriminatory, encompassing both honey bees and wild bees. Your support matters. Thank you.

Books for Bee Folks

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.

Recent Comments

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  • Rusty Burlew on Spotlight on honey bee legs: they’re not just for dancing
  • Rusty Burlew on Spotlight on honey bee legs: they’re not just for dancing
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  • Rusty Burlew on The fascinating, unexpected shimmer response in giant honey bees

My Favorite Books & Bee Supplies

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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?

Beekeepers are everywhere. Each time someone visits Honey Bee Suite, his or her location will appear on the map.

A Song of the Bees

In case you missed it: A Song of the Bees

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